Dewsbury coach Glenn Morrison says the Rams won’t break the bank to get into Super League and they are continuing to build gradually as they prepare for the Super 8s Championship Shield.
Dewsbury finished the regular season in sixth position in the Championship table, seven points behind fourth placed Halifax. The Rams have also recorded their highest average attendance in 15 years, with an average crowd of 1,429 this season.
Morrison said the club is at least a year away from mounting a proper promotion challenge.
“We’ve realistic, and we’ve always done the right thing with our budgets,” he admitted.
“We’re probably 12-18 months off looking at promotion. We want to try and get there but we want to do it in the right way.
“We don’t want to spend money we don’t have and find ourselves not there the year after. We’re taking little steps. We’re one point off fifth, and if a couple or results had gone our way that we dropped we could have been in the top four. So we’re not too far off. If we can tweak a couple of things and get a bit more improvement we’ll give ourselves a chance again.”
Morrison is a supporter of the new competition system, which sees Dewsbury take on Hunslet in the first round of the Championship Shield a week on Sunday.
“It’s looking good,” he said.
“On and off the pitch we’ve improved on last year and that was the goal at the start of the year, to finish in the top six and try and push for the Shield. We’re on track for that. Off the pitch the club is solid, I’m really excited by this new structure.”
Morrison was linked to the Wakefield coaching position early this year and he says he wants to coach at the highest level possible, but he is content at the Rams.
“As a player I always wanted to play at the highest level I could and it’s the same as a coach,” the 39-year old said.
“I want to test myself and coach at the highest level. I’m always improving and if the right opportunity came at the right time I’d like to take it on and the Chairman has said he wouldn’t stand in my way.
“He wants me to do the best I can as well. If something came up in the right time then I’d love to take the step up but at the moment I’m enjoying myself where I am.”
Check out Monday’s edition of League Express for the latest news from the clubs in the Championship Shield.