sandy wrote:I don't know but I suspect the changes were due to the RFL doing what they always do and copying australia. Their toyota cup competition is quite successful in its own right over there as a youth competition and I suspect the RFL wanted to turn our reserve comps into a similar youth competition.
The thing the RFL didn't take into account though is that in oz they also have the NSW cup and Queensland cup competitions for open age players with most teams in these comps being affiliated with an NRL club and effectively acting as a feeder club which enables the NRL club to give their over 20 squad players a game most weeks when not required. I reckon thats why the RFL brought in the dual registration system which hasn't been a great success in my opinion.
I would agree the current reserve system isn't working particularly when you consider that forwards tend to mature much later in their career, probably long after most clubs have jettisoned their prospects at 20.
Interesting stuff, there's clearly not the depth over here.
I suppose the best we can hope for players with at least a modicum of talent and development potential such as Spaven is that they end up at a Championship club with a decent coaching set up and bounce back as a late starter, such as Fox when he was at York.
Jemmo wrote:Scott Spaven has signed for Doncaster
Who's the coach at Donny at the moment Jemmo?
BTW, nice to see you on here, some great posters form Donny years ago.
