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2 hours ago
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As has been the case for all of 2025 with Salford Red Devils, the story had little to do with the 80 minutes of rugby league on the pitch. It was everything that happened around it; from powerful pre-match protests, both sets of supporters uniting against this club’s scandalous ownership saga and the questions about what happens next.
On a night when Super League’s playoff games were finalised, it was hard not to take a step back and wonder about something far more serious. Friday’s night’s results mean that Leigh will host Wakefield, the winners here on a surreal evening, and Leeds take on St Helens in the opening round of the playoffs, with Hull KR and Wigan awaiting the winners.
Last year, Paul Rowley’s Salford were in the top six and vying for Old Trafford themselves but now they are facing an uncertain future. Having had to request an advance of £500,000 on their central distribution money just to start the season, a disastrous takeover has only seen matters get even worse.
Almost all their first-team squad have been sold to keep the club afloat, youngsters have been lambs to the slaughter in their place and finishing bottom with just three wins all year is the least of their concerns. The new owners promised a crucial £5m bridging loan months ago. It has still not arrived.
Without that, and with a winding-up petition from HMRC due to be heard again next month, it is possible this heavy defeat by Wakefield could be Salford’s last stand as a club in their current guise. They will almost certainly be removed from Super League after opting not to apply for a spot in 2026, but whether we see them again at all is the biggest fear. Their fans made their voices heard , protesting against the owners before, during and after the game. Salford led 12-0 thanks to tries from Esan Marsters and Nathan Connell but an impressive Trinity side were always going to pull away and exert their superiority. They did that with 52 unanswered points to warm up in style for their first playoff campaign since 2012.
But it was only fitting that Salford scored the final points of the game, and that brought with it another hugely significant moment. The Red Devils’ fans stormed the field as Jack Walker touched down for what could be their last try as a Super League club, and indeed the last try of the club as we know it.
That moment was not so much about celebration, but about frustration. How they have been kept in the dark for months, and how promises of crucial loans being imminent have gone on and on to the point where there were borderline unsavoury scenes here, as the box where the ownership group was sitting was the focus for fans.
The owners ultimately made a swift exit, but they now have questions to answer. They cannot hide any longer behind the fact there is a game to be played next weekend, and they cannot leave Rowley to answer questions from the media that he does not have the answers to. These owners must act, or this club will die.
This situation has attracted high-profile interest, with the Mayor of Salford admitting this week that he and other senior figures had taken the owners at their word about the bridging loan, and that it appears it will not be forthcoming. Now the rugby has finished, you suspect things will reach a head sooner, rather than later.
Super League will ultimately move on next year, and we can say with some certainty that it will not have a Salford side in it. The big question is whether they will return in any format. Now 152 years of history rest in the balance.
