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By Dave Woods
BBC soccer league correspondent
From a spot in Super League, Toronto Wolfpack are just 80 minutes By pipe-dream to the edge of reality.
Following three years of playing their way through the leagues, the Wolfpack find themselves.
And on the back of their bid for a spot in rugby leagues elite, there has been that a game created in Englands northern cities is beginning to find its location in one of the hottest cities of North America.
I believe theres a huge opportunity out here, said Jon Wilkin, a multiple Challenge Cup and Grand Final winner with St Helens, that this year has been serving spearhead the Wolfpacks on-field bid for advertising.
I suppose the idea is wild and whacky, but its a very professional set-up weve got out here. Its simply not a traditional heartland, Wilkin told BBC Radio 5 Lives Rugby League Podcast this week ahead of Saturdays match.
Wed 9,500 individuals at our match a week (against Toulouse), and so for me personally that is astonishing.
The Toronto Argonauts, from the Canadian CFL – the equal of the NFL – they had 12,000 people go to their game and they play in a tremendous 40,000 stadium and its on TV around here.
So for the Wolfpack to receive 9,500, that is huge. An attendance like that isnt something to be sniffed at.
Promotion is on the Canadian side far from a formality.
Toronto, headed by Grand Leeds coach Brian McDermott, were leaders of the Championship, completing 12 points clear from 29, this season.
However, that moves around Super League is decided by a set of matches, culminating at a one time decider.
The Wolfpack were at exactly the exact identical position this past year, just to be shot down from London Broncos.
This year it and the comparison between the two clubs couldnt be sharper.
Featherstone – who is fans rejoice under the self-styled nicknamethat the flat-cappers – is a village that rests in the center of the rugby league heartland.
A stones throw from Wakefield Trinity and Super League clubs Castleford, together with Leeds not much past, they are generally cast in the shadow of their neighbours.
However, their history shows some glorious moments up. Their latest afternoon in the sun was a Challenge Cup Wembley triumph in 1983 and theyve a desire to compete with the elite.
This year, despite finishing fifth in the regular season, theyve defied the odds away from home – by York, beating Leigh and Toulouse – to maintain a place within this so-calledMillion Pound Game.
And Wilkin isnt surprised that they have been the opponents with this winner-takes-all competition of Toronto.
No, not at all, he explained. Everybody from the outside looking in could state Toulouse and York are up there, the next best two teams in the contest.
But the roughest two matches weve played all year have been against Featherstone. They have been the very games that weve played in, there is not many fractures in the game and where its very much a tussle, and they appear to enjoy as much as any team weve played at this level.
Were eager to be there and to be playing them.
Earlier this week the Wolfpack noted that 8,000 tickets had already been sold for Saturday.
That is sold, they saynot given away.
And they expect to turn fans off on the afternoon when thehouse full signs go up.
But win or lose, the Wolfpack will proceed, and Wilkin says his season with Toronto has revealed signs the French league seeds in town are beginning to take hold.
I think its growing, he explained. The area of the town where the scene is – a region named Liberty Village – is really a sort of a hipster place, Google have their own offices there. Theres residential places around there too, although its a trendy job place.
Id say pretty much everybody in that region knows about the Wolfpack. Folks talk for you and stop you in the street. They know more about the game, they say things such asgood luck in the last.
But the battle is downtown, the most important region of the town. Of course the Blue Jays and the Maple Leafs are enormous brands and I do not think that is growing, although there is as much vulnerability there.
I jumped on a street car another day, the tram, and also the tram driverhigh fived me. It was a Wolfpack. Just as a tiny bench mark, I thought that was intriguing.
The odds are stacked in the favour with this final game of this season of the Wolfpack. Featherstone, a mostly group, had only a turnaround from flying back before stripping off to Canada.
The Wolfpack have had a week away and you dont have to travel from their Toronto foundation.
And he is said by Wilkin and his own team-mates are focused.
You can build things up too much. Its a Grand Final and the consequences people winning, we would go into Super League, he said.
However, the consequences of the matchs outcome dont impact the processes on the area, or they shouldnt do. You are able to get overawed by the scale of the undertaking, by the emotion of it, but like anything else in life, if you break it down into little chunks that were bite-size it achievable.
Big games and pressurised environments change peoples behavior. The challenge to us is we do not need to alter anything to win the match.
We are extremely respectful of Featherstone, theyve a terrific young coach also, but when we perform at our finest I believe we win the match and thats what we have to do.
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