Danny McGuire has expressed concern about the state of reserve grade.
The Hull KR recruitment manager, speaking on the latest episode of Rugby League Back Chat, has been a strong advocate of its return and been a regular at the Robins’ reserve games this year.
However, just weeks into its return, McGuire has already been left questioning whether the competition is serving its cause, as well as its financial sustainability.
“I’ve heard a few stories about the reserves and most teams are doing it tough,” McGuire said on Back Chat, which airs on FreeSports tonight at 5 PM.
“I don’t think the quality of the games have been great, to be honest. The idea for me was that we were going to get a strong competition, six or seven first-teamers going against each other.
“At the weekend we had three first-teamers and the rest were trialists that we had to source which was really tough. We’ve got basically some lads who were with the academy that drifted away from the game, we tried to get them back involved which is good, we’ve got a dual-reg player from Donny, we’re linking with Dewsbury.
Just how tough are things for @DannyMcguire6 at @hullkrofficial and can @SMTMUK provide some of the answers?
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“I’m not sure if there are enough quality players playing the game to have a really strong reserve grade as well as a strong Championship and League 1. we are scrapping and scraping to get a team for our reserves at Rovers and I don’t think that’s how it was envisaged by everybody when it was first set up.”
He continued: “I’m not sure if it’s sustainable. I think financially not many are watching the games and the costs to put the game on, open a stadium, officials, security, food, we’re paying players, for what we’re getting out of it I’m not sure it’s sustainable.”
McGuire is joined by player agent Craig Harrison and League Express editor Martyn Sadler on the new edition of Rugby League Back Chat, which airs at 5 PM on FreeSports (Freeview 64, Sky 422 HD, Virgin 553 HD, Freesat 252, BT 64).
