But they certainly had one last Friday.
Their World Club Challenge warm up against Melbourne Storm was a resounding success on a whole range of levels.
The clubs both made a few quid, the Storm got the "solid workout" coach Craig Bellamy had been looking for and Fax's rookie coach Matt Calland and his players got to pit their wits against the best in the business.
It was also refreshingly uplifting to see a crowd of more than 4,000 inside the Shay.
In a historical context, it wasn't a huge attendance when you consider the gates of nearer 10,000 the club used to be able to lure to the big games against Leeds and Bradford six or seven years ago.
But after playing to a couple of thousand or thereabouts for most of the recent past, it was a giant leap.
It also proved, reasonably conclusively, that a decent Halifax team playing in Super League would still be able to lure people through the gates.
And that is something that even the most optimistic people must have been beginning to doubt.

MUCH as I love the Northern Rail Cup, and I do, honestly, the time has surely arrived for a rethink.
The 'Arriva Trains', as many coaches still nostalgically refer to it, much to the chagrin of the Rugby Football League's PR men, has many fine principles.
It was meant to give clubs the chance to enjoy dates with their nearest and dearest rivals, even though they might be separated by a division.
And, to be fair, some of the game's great rivalries, the Cumbrian derbies and Halifax versus Keighley, have been resurrected as a result.
Or have they?
A glance at NRC attendances over the last couple of years suggests one thing and one thing only: until the knockout stages, it is viewed, like it or not, as a phoney war, a trifling warm up before the real business of National League rugby gets underway at Easter.
Basically, if the NRC was designed as a cash-cow, it isn't working.
And if the NRC was aimed to provide great contests on the field, it isn't working.
Take Keighley and Fax, for example.
The gulf between the two clubs, on a whole range of fronts, is massive.
And how much benefit either club has derived from the two matches between them this year is questionable at best.
Everyone in rugby league - players, sponsors, coaches, supporters - wants to see competitive matches between evenly matched teams.
At the moment, and with the odd exception - Halifax against Whitehaven and Leigh against Widnes, for example - that doesn't happen until the daffodils are in full bloom.
And that, I'm afraid, is too late.