Butcher wrote:To be honest I've never understood the practical difference between dual reg and loan agreements. Can anyone enlighten me? If he got sent to Batley would it purely be on game day? Is it about wages? Happy for Booth either way - he'll develop better playing regularly against Bradford and Toulouse et al than in our reserves. It does shed some light on Powell's preference next year though. If we hadn't signed Rourke I'm sure Booth would get more game time.
Without an injury crisis I don't see why we'd sign another player, apart from possibly a winger. In our squad we have 2 proven full backs, 4 centres, 3 wingers, 4 halves, 3 hookers 9 props, 9 backrowers (some of those are the same player, obviously).
I don't really buy into the idea that individual players are injury prone, but I do think positions are injury prone. Wingers take on a lot of physical load these days, so I do worry a bit about Walmsley and Johnstone. And is Tom Delaney ready should the time come?
Duel Reg basically means a player is registered with 2 clubs so it’s simply much easier and quicker for them to play for (in our case Batley) their duel registered team. Players can play for duel reg team at very short notice without jumping through various admin procedures.
I agree re signings, at least I don’t think this will have any baring on anyone coming in potentially. He will be on a very low contract with us and Hunslet will only be picking up his match day payments I expect. Also there is no way we are currently spending at cap level so there would be no need to make room for another player.
This move in my opinion is all about developing a player and getting him regular game time in a competitive league against a higher standard of player than he will come up against week in week out playing in the reserves.
Reality is it way well be his last chance to stake a claim for a squad number in our SL side in 2026 if he doesn’t impress at Hunslet in 2025.