Although Fash and maybe Abdull will probably get more game time than others we have Griffin,Turgut,Masi,Logan,Rawsthorne,Downs,and Miloudi all needing game time to keep match fit.
Can you see any of these going out on loan?
For me Turgut would benefit going out on loan and Logan needs to play regularly to get him back to match fitness.

It's a real shame that the reserve league didn't get the backing from certain clubs it deserved, including our club & Warrington who have ditched it this year.

I read an article that says it costs £30k a year to run a reserves side. Salaries are already paid, so only Kit & Travel are the main costs. So really it's not that much, but clubs would rather save that £30k and the hassle of running a reserves, and farm that task out to lower league sides in dual-reg deals.

More to that, Keighley and Halifax are both running a reserves side this year, and via sponsorship and a small admittance charge for the games, they manage to make it pay for itself. Basically, the financial argument doesn't wash.

We'll end up with a number of the fringe players going off on dual-reg and maybe a couple of loans. Not the end of the word, but we should be leading the way and setting an example with a fully fledged reserve side.

Luckily we have a very good relationship with Doncaster, particularly with Radford & Horne, but I can't help feeling we're missing a trick without a reserve side.

My impression was we ditched the reserves because there weren't enough games to justify it and too many of those got cancelled at the last minute.
Basically it seems the club's involved lacked commitment to it.
I think if it was better run and parties were more committed to it I think we'd happily run a reserves side.

To be fair you can't say our club or Warrington didn't give the reserve league backing or blame either club for ditching it. Last season was just a total joke and a waste of time and effort let alone the financial aspect. It left the players in the reserves without regular fixtures etc which is what the whole point of the idea was.
Pearson & Radford were/are very much pro the reserves league but were left frustrated and disappointed by the experience and not willing to have the same issue this season.

The RFL should have made it a mandatory requirement that any club enetring into SL had to have a full reserve squad.

So does the club go back down the reserve team route and suffer again due to lack of fixtures as some teams weren't bothering to put teams out to fulfil fixtures or make an informed decision to ditch it to allow the club to focus on development elsewhere?

In principle the reserve idea is great but the sad fact was many of the clubs didn't take it seriously enough.

I fully agree with you on theose points.

I suppose there are two ways of looking at it; do you persevere with a reserve side, encourage other clubs to set one up and hopefully continue to build it year on year; or do you think because other clubs can't be bothered, why should we.

But, you're right in that the RFL should've made it mandatory.

Shaun Wane has made some interesting comments on running a reserve side, particularly the comments comparing the development of our players vs the NRL, and the use of reserve structures for both.

Well we have to do something to keep our fringe players match fit.
One or two would benefit going out on loan to Championship clubs.Turgut and Masi in particular need regular game time and Downs needs experience but cant see any S/L clubs giving them the chance to go out on loan and play regularly.
Not sure about the rules for D/R when we have four players already at Doncaster on loan.
Doncaster need a couple of props so maybe a place for Masi

if the twelve club owners want to have more say and control of all things superleague, the first thing i would do if i was in Pearsons' shoes would insist on a reserve/u23 league if we the league wants to grow! where are the players for a 14 team league superleague going to come from? then we have the north american teams knocking on the door of our leagues who no doubt will throw good money at our players in SL leaving us with less to pick from

hetherington at leeds is a staunch rebel when it comes to a reserve league and thinks dual reg is the way forward

Tighter than a ducks booty is Hetherington. He's got a stadium to pay for with reduced ticket revenue, he knows it suits him right now not to spend either the time or money on a reserve side, rather than what's good for the game.

A shallow player pool is one of the biggest issues we face in RL over here. The dual-reg/loan systems work to a degree to help develop youngsters to SL standard, but it's nowhere near enough. There's a reason the NRL brings through it's youngsters who seamlessly slot straight in to 1st grade, versus our youngsters who stick out like sore thumbs and have to learn the hard way.

Etherington is apparently stopping a lot of things happening at present, perhaps he believes he should be running the game and doesn't like it when someone else is in danger of doing that. Thankfully his beliefs are not by any means a universal view as far as the rest of the owners are concerned.

I think that Duel Registration might work in the short term for Super League teams trying to bride the gap between the academies and the first team but in the long term it will stop lower Division Clubs developing their own players, they don't need to anymore, they just borrow them from their partner.

The move to amalgamate Academies so two Clubs share one, again saves money but also halves the players each club is developing as well, while the very best we do produce will be lured by the cash to Australia. Playing for a feeder club in the Queensland cup pays better than Super League clubs can for young kids starting out on their rugby career. In many parts of the North Rugby Union is really well organised as far as youth development is concerned as well.

All that contributes to an increasingly declining talent pool in our game. It's all down to a lack of cash and you can understand clubs sticking to just fielding a team any way they can at present. That needs to be reversed!!

I just hope that when Super League Clubs have sorted themselves out and raised some much needed new money for the game, which I'm sure they will, the first thing they do is make an 'A Team' mandatory at ever Super league Club.

If that is the case, how would you explain the apparent lack of enthusiasm for the concept among such a high proportion of key decision makers?



Tbf the NRL clubs, while also being able to fund better facilities and structures, are mining a much bigger seam of talent. Also they have a reserve grade rather than a second division. They treat their reserve grade as somewhere talent can develop, while we seem to see the Championship as somewhere that talent withers, where young players go when they've failed to reach SL standard rather than a next step in their progression. And yet the standard of the Championship is higher than any version of a SL reserves format I've seen suggested.