Good and Bad News on a Significant September 11 for Super League

September 11, 2008, could be remembered as a significant date in the history of Wakefield Trinity, Celtic Crusaders and even the Super League competition as a whole.

In the space of six hours on Thursday, the fragile credibility of Trinity's plans for a new stadium by 2012 was shattered, while the Crusaders' stunning demolition of Salford to take the express route to the National League grand final ensured that they will be taken much more seriously from now on.

Let's dwell on the good news first. Celtic were sensational, and a Salford team who had previously been warm favorites to return to the Super League as National League champions next season just couldn't live with them. It took a blatant forward pass by Robbie Paul to Steve Bannister to crack the Crusaders line in the first half, while the speed and invention of the Celtic players threatened tries every time they had possession.

It was confirmation of the potential they had shown in a creditable defeat at Leeds in the early rounds of the Challenge Cup. John Dixon has already built the nucleus of a Super League team in three seasons of intelligent development in Bridgend, with Jace Van Dijk and Damien Quinn at half-back, solid back-row grafters like Darren Mapp and Neale Wyatt, and the brilliant Tony Duggan at full-back.

No doubt those who resent the Crusaders' rapid progress to a Super League licence at the expense of longer-established clubs in the heartlands will seize on the fact that all five of the aforementioned players are Australian. But it must be obvious to all but the most blinkered that some serious development work is going on down in south Wales, with the union convert Ben Flower the first example of the local rugby talent that they expect to come through in future years. The Crusaders Colts, the supplementary team of almost entirely local lads that the club formed last winter to play in the Co-operative Conference, are also on course for an appearance at National League grand finals day in Warrington later this month, even if they lose a tough qualifying semi-final at Bramley this weekend. The Crusaders have also entered the new national youth league while the Wales under-18s already had enough rugby league savvy to beat some pretty decent English and French opposition in Prague the other week.

Even with the full Super League play-off series and a World Cup to come over the next couple of months, I'm already looking forward to Celtic's first game next season – presumably against a well-supported but distinctly beatable team (Warrington?), ensuring a full house in Bridgend and some real momentum for a Crusaders side that will be considerably stronger for the introduction of solid NRL players like Marshall Chalk, Lincoln Withers and Mark Bryant, a few more northern recruits such as Matty Smith and Stephen Tyrer from St Helens, and maybe even Wendell Sailor.

There is already a case for hailing Dixon as one of the best things to happen to British rugby league for decades, and if his close links with Sailor from the pair's days together with the Broncos in Brisbane can help the Crusaders pull off such a coup ahead of their debut season, then the former schoolteacher's arrival in Wales three years ago will seem even more significant.

But what of Wakefield, and their admission that there is no chance of the new stadium that figured in their successful license application for next season being ready before they have to apply again in 2011? The Rugby Football League made it pretty clear that there will be no license for Trinity next time around if they are still at Belle Vue, so the most likely scenario now seems to be a ground-share with Castleford at the Tigers' new stadium next to the big ski slope off the M62.

But that raises a few questions that everyone connected with Trinity, Cas and for that matter Featherstone would be best-off considering now, before it's too late. While it's possible for two of the three local rivals to survive in the Super League, as Wakefield and Cas have proved over most of the last decade, there is surely no chance of all three ever making the cut. And impressive as Castleford's recruitment for next season has been, are they ever going to be in a realistic position to challenge Leeds on a consistent basis?

Isn't there at least an argument for the three clubs coming together to apply for a licence in 2012, presumably based at the new Castleford stadium? They could have the best of all worlds, with a stake in a club that would be far better-equipped to threaten the Rhinos' dominance of west Yorkshire, while the die hard supporters of each of the individual clubs would be able to maintain their old rivalry at National League level, in the process giving another massive boost to the game below Super League. Such merger talk is controversial and provocative, and bitter previous experience has shown that it must come from the clubs themselves rather than be imposed from above. But after the events of September 11, it seems certain to be back on the agenda.Tipping competition

For those who missed my first attempt at an explanation, we're following the Super League play-off system, so this week Rod Studd and Barrie McDermott get a week off while the other four of us tip the elimination games. Closest to the outcome goes through, the other one goes out, humiliated.

Wigan (4th) v Bradford (5th) – Friday 8pmDave Woods (BBC 5 Live & Super League Show): Bradford by 8Andy Wilson (Guardian): Wigan by 8

Catalans Dragons (3rd) v Warrington (6th) – Saturday 6pmDavid Lawrenson (Observer): Catalans by 12Gareth Walker (Guardian & Sunday People): Catalans by 10