ANYBODY else underwhelmed by last Sunday’s Challenge Cup draw?

It was simply a procession of Super League v Championship clashes with the exception of Leeds and Crusaders.

Prepare for another string of lop-sided scorelines just like the preceding round of pro-am clashes. There is no magic in this.

Any draw that produces more gripes than glee need altering.

There are two big problems in my book with this long-winded build up or half-cock start to this most prestigious of competitions.

In the third round there are far too many amateur teams involved in mismatches against semi-professional teams. Sure, Thatto Heath gave a good account of themselves at Doncaster, but the majority of results were lop-sided walkovers. The worst, of course, being York’s 132-0 hammering of Northumbria University. Embarrassing.

But it is worse than that – there is no longer the same buzz of expectation of the amateur minnows tackling the pros. People in St Helens still talk vividly about February 1978 when Pilkington Recs were only just pipped by Mal Reilly’s Castleford. It was a cup highlight, a memorable ‘I was there’ fixture, watched by thousands. I can’t think of any pro-am clashes that have come anywhere near to matching that in the last 20 years.

So I think we need to be more selective and let the amateurs play each other down to a lucky four or five to qualify for ties against the Championship sides. That would restore the sense of achievement of making that stage of the cup.

The next big problem is the entry of the Super League sides. Sunday’s draw felt like a real damp squib. No disrespect to the Championship clubs – but I would be very surprised if there are not 13 Super League sides in the hat for the next round.

It is the sporting equivalent of the £100 question on ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire.’ Is it not possible to whittle down the Championship clubs to two to join the 14 Super League teams without causing a fixture backlog in the lower leagues?

But if we are to carry on with the status quo then why not select ties from two separate bags – Super League and Championship/amateur. If supporters know in advance they are going to be facing lower (or higher) league opposition then there will be no sense of anti-climax.

But tied into that we have to look at the situation whereby the lower league clubs are going to find themselves out of pocket by hosting their biggest game of the year due to the admission of season ticket holders.

Halifax will have a few problems accommodating 11,000 Bradford season ticket holders at the 6,500 capacity ground. There was a time when giving an underdog a plum tie against big city neighbours would have been greeted with anticipation and excitement. Instead, understandably in some cases, we have only moans and groans.

If teams are going to get a whipping on the field and lose money off it, then there is no point in them making it through this process.

The least we can do is let smaller clubs generate some much needed income from this opening round.