IT’S the time of the year when clubs are setting up dual-registration partnerships – but for me, the system should be consigned to the dustbin along with the turkey carcass and leftover sprouts.
We’ve had it for ten years or more, with a bit of a break during the pandemic when, due to Covid, there were obvious issues over players moving between teams.
And it remains as haphazard as ever.
I see Wakefield have linked up with Wigan, Featherstone with Hull KR, Widnes with Warrington, Halifax with Leeds and Dewsbury with Huddersfield.
Even Batley, who don’t seem to have gone down that road for a while – I remember Craig Lingard joking they were too unfashionable to be taken on by a Super League side – have got in on the act, although it is with Castleford, where Craig is now coach!
At least Bradford, who had previously paired up with Leeds, have seen the light and said they won’t have an agreement with any club in 2024. Well done to them on that decision.
The point of dual-registration is to provide up-and-coming players with the chance of gaining experience of competitive action, which is all well and good.
But it’s an unfair system, because some clubs will have more players made available to them than others.
Its short-notice nature doesn’t help because lads end up coming in and playing with little or no preparation.
Some of the senior partners seem to use it as a way of getting players who are coming back from injury or on the fringes some time on a pitch rather than for blooding youngsters.
And what does it say to those who are already at the Championship or League One club who miss out on an appearance and possibly some money?
Meanwhile it waters down the Reserve competition, which should be the way young players get experience and older players regain fitness and/or form.
I’m not opposed to the loan system, but I would lengthen the minimum stay. That way the incoming player can get a proper feel for his ‘new’ club, get to know his team-mates and the tactics used, and as a result, get far more from the whole experience.
And it would do something to stop that parent club acting more out of their own interests than that of their player.