Super 8s spending sprees, a retiring legend and a first NRL try for Zak Hardaker all feature in this week's Set of Six.
End of the road for the Knights?
York City Knights have announced the Kingstone Press League 1 club are to close down after a two-year struggle to find a home.
York have been without a ground since being forced out of Huntington Stadium in 2014 and the news comes as clubs prepare to play the end-of-season play-offs.
York finished third at the end of the regular season and were expected to challenge for promotion to the Championship before their situation reached crisis point and they were forced to postpone their opening Super 8s fixture with Doncaster.
Issued in a statement at the time of the announcement the club said said: "We hope that rugby league can stay alive in York and someone will come along and succeed where we could not."
Richards retires
Catalans Dragons winger Pat Richards has announced he will be calling time on his career at the end of this campaign.
The 34-year-old former Man of Steel started his career at Parramatta Eels and West Tigers before moving to Wigan in 2008 where he won the Challenge Cup as well as the Super League title on two occasions.
Best known for his prolific goal-kicking, he was awarded the Man of Steel Award in 2010, finishing the season as the top-points scorer with a total of 464, a feat he managed on four occasions.
In 2014, Richards moved back to the Wests Tigers in Australia where he made a further 43 NRL appearances, scoring 26 tries and 342 points, before making his Super League return with the Dragons two years later.
His dominance at club level brought further honours with Richards winning seven caps for Ireland, including at the World Cup, scoring three tries and 34 points.
Super 8s spending spree
As the season enters the Super 8s it seems the spending has begun with clubs eager to bolster their squads to fight for Super League status.
Salford beat Friday's 5pm transfer deadline by minutes to secure the services of Luke Burgess, the oldest of the four Burgess brothers, along with his Sea Eagles team-mate Feleti Mateo.
Red Devils director of rugby Tim Sheens said: "We are bringing in a couple of great players as insurance. You can't risk going into the Super 8s and picking up a couple of injuries and finding yourself relegated."
However, it is not just the Red Devils strengthening their resources, with Championship table-toppers Leigh pulling out all the stops to try and secure promotion to the top-flight.
In a busy week for recruitment the Centurions secured the signatures of St Helens centre Matty Dawson, Castleford second-row Danny Tickle, Catalans Dragons prop Antoni Maria and Australian outside back Mitch Brown from NRL leaders Cronulla Sharks.
"This is yet another statement of our intent as a club to build a Super League side and our ability to convince proven top quality players that we are a club going places," said Leigh owner Derek Beaumont.
Familiar foes
Meanwhile, Leeds Rhinos have agreed the loan of three of their squad to Super 8s qualifiers rival Featherstone Rovers.
Featherstone were 20-0 winners over Bradford in their winner-takes-all clash at the Bigfellas Stadium on Sunday and will now join Batley, London, Leigh alongside current Super League clubs Leeds, Huddersfield, Salford and Hull KR to determine who will make up Super League in 2017.
Josh Walters, who scored the match-winning try in the Rhino's Grand Final win over Wigan back in October, is one of a host of Leeds players who have spent time with the Rovers this season as part of the dual-registration agreement between the two clubs. Walters will be joined by Jordan Baldwinson and Luke Briscoe at the Championship club.
Speaking of the arrangement that strengthened their part-time rivals ahead of the fixture announcement on Wednesday, Leeds' chief executive Gary Hetherington said: "We will make a decision on the dual-registered players in due course but, if they are not required by Brian McDermott for the first team for the Qualifiers, they will be released to join Featherstone.
"Team selection for Featherstone will be a matter entirely for them and we will not place any restrictions on when players can play."
Nearly-men tag for Giants
It has been a season to forget so far for Huddersfield. Last season's semi-finalists find themselves rock-bottom of the Super League table at the conclusion of the regular season.
After a disruptive pre-season and a campaign marred with a crippling injury list, the Giants now face some of the most important games in their history as they fight for Super League survival.
While the table shows them languishing in twelfth place losing a total of 17 games, the Giants boast a points difference of only -58, a figure only bettered by points-deducted Salford's -9 in the bottom four.
Their season has been hampered by near misses, the latest coming against the Warrington Wolves on Saturday, where despite a hat-trick from winger Gene Ormsby, they suffered defeat by four points thanks to a heartbreaking 77th minute try by Daryl Clark.
It is a scenario that is all to familiar for Rick Stone's side with seven of Huddersfield's 17 defeats being lost by just four points or less with a another, against Wigan at home back in February, being lost by five points.
It's a statistic that the Giants will be hoping doesn't follow them into the qualifiers as they look to qualify in the top three and avoid the dreaded £1m winner-takes all-match or, even worse, automatic relegation.
Try-time for Hardaker
After scoring 67 tries in the Super League during his time with Leeds Rhinos, Zak Hardaker finally got his NRL total up and running this weekend.
The 2015 Man of Steel joined the Penrith Panthers last month and debuted for the Panthers in Round 17 for the NRL against the West Tigers although couldn't help his side to victory.
However, after a three-week wait and 80 minutes on the replacements bench the previous week against the Parramatta Eels, Hardaker crossed the whitewash for the first time on Australian shores.
After being named as a replacement once again, Hardaker was into the action after 27 minutes against the Brisbane Broncos on Friday as an injury-enforced interchange for concussed centre Waqa Blak.
Just moments before the break the try came for the 24-year-old when he sliced through the Broncos defence, pushing past Anthony Milford and over the line, rounding off the move with exuberant celebrations to mark the occasion.