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11 definite + 5 'interested'

If we end up with 16 teams, will there be two divisions? Conferences?

Can't see that a 30 game season is going to happen (it has already been said it will be a home and away schedule)

 

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

That's good to see. Newcastle are obviously a very progressive club who are continuing to grow.

Absolutely. Alongside London they are one of the teams that effectively run a regional academy. Strategically important.

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1 hour ago, scotchy1 said:

ive been clear about where I see the drawbacks of reserves RL. Im not going to lament the change because I don't think the old system was perfect either. 

I just hope that the game understands and addresses the consequences of this decision. 

So:-

You are not keen on reserves.

You are critical of league 1.

You are critical of the Championship.

Other than super league is there anything about the game you actually approve of?

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Unpopular opinion, but I’m remaining sceptical about the re-introduction of the reserve grade into Rugby League. Personally, I think it asks more questions than it answers. 

Firstly, what’s the standard going to be like? From a Saints point of view, we have Josh Simm playing weekly on dual-reg with Leigh, he seems, from what I read, to be doing quite well there but the question I ask regarding the re-introduction of a reserve grade is, is he better off playing for Saints Reserves against Leigh’s reserves, or is he better off playing for Leigh’s first team in a real competitive game at Championship level against a Bradford, Featherstone or Toronto? Looking at our current squad, Jack Ashworth and James Bentley have been success stories of regular game time at Championship level with the likes of Rochdale and Sheffield. 

Financially, is it going to be viable? The current eleven Super League sides have agreed to this it seems and are going to be joined by seven non-Super League sides, so by 2020, we’re going to have a Reserve Grade made up of eight non-Super League teams and I question the viability of this. There’s plenty who are quick to point out the “haves and have nots” between the Super League sides and the lower league sides when it comes to the central funding, so funding a reserve grade and the cost of extra kit, coach hire, players wages, players insurance, pitch hire, staffing etc just seems like a strange move for some.

That’s before you mention the existing Super League teams. I wonder how many are running at a full spend on the salary cap? I can’t imagine all are. I can imagine a good four or five are likely not to be. And these clubs now have to fund a reserve grade too? Even clubs who are spending the cap, can they afford to pad out their side with extra men to play at reserve grade and would it potentially water down the first team level because of a re-distribution of their spending? 

It’s going to be a competition made up of eighteen teams, so on any given week, you could have nine games on, so that’s 306 players that are needed for every side to field a full seventeen. Granted, some players will come from team’s academies (if they have one) and player’s from their first team, if allowed, but where do the rest come from? Are we going to see teams naming full seventeens each week? And are the players that are playing in the reserve grade of a sufficient standard that it’s worthwhile to these clubs, the players, the competition, the game? 

I’d also be really interested to see some actually figures regarding how many players leave an Academy and never lace a boot again or go across to Rugby Union? I’ve never seen concrete evidence that we’re losing a generation of players anywhere yet this is the reasoning given behind the need for such a competition.

 

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22 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Absolutely. Alongside London they are one of the teams that effectively run a regional academy. Strategically important.

Yes I completely agree. A strategically important area and club that can fuel further development in the North East region. It would be great if we could get a few more areas covered in the same way.

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9 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Unpopular opinion, but I’m remaining sceptical about the re-introduction of the reserve grade into Rugby League. Personally, I think it asks more questions than it answers. 

Firstly, what’s the standard going to be like? From a Saints point of view, we have Josh Simm playing weekly on dual-reg with Leigh, he seems, from what I read, to be doing quite well there but the question I ask regarding the re-introduction of a reserve grade is, is he better off playing for Saints Reserves against Leigh’s reserves, or is he better off playing for Leigh’s first team in a real competitive game at Championship level against a Bradford, Featherstone or Toronto? Looking at our current squad, Jack Ashworth and James Bentley have been success stories of regular game time at Championship level with the likes of Rochdale and Sheffield. 

Financially, is it going to be viable? The current eleven Super League sides have agreed to this it seems and are going to be joined by seven non-Super League sides, so by 2020, we’re going to have a Reserve Grade made up of eight non-Super League teams and I question the viability of this. There’s plenty who are quick to point out the “haves and have nots” between the Super League sides and the lower league sides when it comes to the central funding, so funding a reserve grade and the cost of extra kit, coach hire, players wages, players insurance, pitch hire, staffing etc just seems like a strange move for some.

That’s before you mention the existing Super League teams. I wonder how many are running at a full spend on the salary cap? I can’t imagine all are. I can imagine a good four or five are likely not to be. And these clubs now have to fund a reserve grade too? Even clubs who are spending the cap, can they afford to pad out their side with extra men to play at reserve grade and would it potentially water down the first team level because of a re-distribution of their spending? 

It’s going to be a competition made up of eighteen teams, so on any given week, you could have nine games on, so that’s 306 players that are needed for every side to field a full seventeen. Granted, some players will come from team’s academies (if they have one) and player’s from their first team, if allowed, but where do the rest come from? Are we going to see teams naming full seventeens each week? And are the players that are playing in the reserve grade of a sufficient standard that it’s worthwhile to these clubs, the players, the competition, the game? 

I’d also be really interested to see some actually figures regarding how many players leave an Academy and never lace a boot again or go across to Rugby Union? I’ve never seen concrete evidence that we’re losing a generation of players anywhere yet this is the reasoning given behind the need for such a competition.

 

On the highlighted bit, a couple of points.

My team, Fev, have funded the reserves this season and tonight have just played Keighley. Just in case you didn't know, Keighley are in League 1. There are other Championship and League 1 clubs with reserves so cut the baloney about it being too expensive for our cash strapped super league masters to fund.

Fev reserves in their first season have already beaten Hull and Wakefield reserves so cut the baloney about the viability of non super league clubs playing super league clubs.

I will leave it there for now.

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14 minutes ago, Private Baldrick said:

Victim of what? I was only asking a straight forward question. My observations are purely on your remarks made previously on the subjects I listed.

Come on Baldrick , did you really expect anything more than the reply you received ?

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4 minutes ago, Private Baldrick said:

On the highlighted bit, a couple of points.

My team, Fev, have funded the reserves this season and tonight have just played Keighley. Just in case you didn't know, Keighley are in League 1. There are other Championship and League 1 clubs with reserves so cut the baloney about it being too expensive for our cash strapped super league masters to fund.

Fev reserves in their first season have already beaten Hull and Wakefield reserves so cut the baloney about the viability of non super league clubs playing super league clubs.

I will leave it there for now.

Is this Featherstone that had a pretty big financial restructure after failing to get into the four last year and ended the season without full seventeen man squads, even resulting in borrowing anyone and everyone for their final game of the season and Keighley, who nearly went bust? 

Not a great example, that. 

 

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4 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Is this Featherstone that had a pretty big financial restructure after failing to get into the four last year and ended the season without full seventeen man squads, even resulting in borrowing anyone and everyone for their final game of the season and Keighley, who nearly went bust? 

Not a great example, that. 

 

It actually is. If Fev and Keighley can run reserves this season after all the issues that you describe then anyone can. There is certainly no excuse for Super League clubs that receive £1.8 million a year in funding.

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5 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Is this Featherstone that had a pretty big financial restructure after failing to get into the four last year and ended the season without full seventeen man squads, even resulting in borrowing anyone and everyone for their final game of the season and Keighley, who nearly went bust? 

Not a great example, that. 

 

No, but don't let the facts get in the way of a reasoned response.

It is partly because of what happened on the playing front last year we decided to run a reserves this year. If poor old Fev and Keighley can do it in their impoverished state I am sure the big spenders of super league can follow suit.

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1 minute ago, Damien said:

It actually is. If Fev and Keighley can run reserves this season after all the issues that you describe then anyone can. There is certainly no excuse for Super League clubs that receive £1.8 million a year in funding.

And where do 306 players come from?

Whats the cost to clubs per man of successful players (e.g, those that actually play 50+ SL games)?

What’s the standard going to be like? 

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5 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

You're observations are based on your victim mentality of poor little lower heartland clubs, bullied by the big bad

(Because we know of course your observations and defence of the lower leagues dont include Toronto, or Toulouse or Newcastle or West Wales etc etc etc)

You have no idea what you are talking about.

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1 minute ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

And where do 306 players come from?

Whats the cost to clubs per man of successful players (e.g, those that actually play 50+ SL games)?

What’s the standard going to be like? 

None of those questions have anything to do with my post or your post that I replied to.

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1 minute ago, scotchy1 said:

Or that the reserves they are running are of a very low quality with little.investment and serving little purpose outside of taking more players out of a community game that can barely sustain it

 

That low in quality we have beaten Hull and Wakefield reserves though. 

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Chris Lister, a director of Halifax RLFC, has confirmed that they have applied. Fax have been running a Reserve Grade for years and have matched and beaten the reserves of Wigan, St.Helens, Hull/Hull KR, Wakefield, Warrington over the years. They lost 30-20 tonight away at Wakefield. Much like Fev etc the Reserve Grade team is financed by the Supporters Trust, with directors topping up any shortfall. The Supporters trust usually raise 30K

First Graders like Chester Butler (Welsh International), Ed Barber, Elliott Morris, Sion Jones (Welsh Student International) The Davies Brothers (Welsh student Internationals) Londoner James Woodburn-Hall (England Student International), Conor McGrath are in the Fax First team Squad. Theres Jamaican, German and Welsh Student internationals that played tonight for Fax. The benefits for the International game at various levels is also plain to see. The Welsh boys had never played League until studying at Leeds.

Most teams run with a squad of 25. So we have a few players kicking their heels or have only DR to show they are match fit after a serious injury. With the Academy being dropped from 19 to 18 that provides a few players. The rest is amateurs, students, Union players. Jimmy Keinhorst came to Leeds via the Student game.

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5 minutes ago, Private Baldrick said:

That low in quality we have beaten Hull and Wakefield reserves though. 

But not Leeds , because Leeds are best , they have facilities and things , and stuff 

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