I'm just wondering where all these extra players are going to come from.

In the short term, like.

There's no reason at all why DR shouldn't go away. If it stays any longer feeder clubs will become the norm for those clubs who don't fold altogether.

We need to go back to every club having a reserve grade club for that to happen.

And I don't think we have enough players for that by a long chalk - short of stripping out the amateur game.

That's exactly how it is along with the fact that some clubs are struggling financially to run their first grade never mind anything else.

If and when the reserve comp gets up and running and is successful and becomes the much needed pathway then maybe in a few years time we might have a good stream of talent who will find their own level to play at.

In the meantime it's very thin on the ground and years of neglect takes years to rectify.

It's not going to go away though Hudds.

It's 2019 moving on and RL it's not the game we knew and loved and we either accept the game for what it is now or walk away and I for one totally respect and understand those that do.

Personally I'm still undecided and it will likely come down to whether I enjoy watching it anymore.

If the SL clubs had the power to have some clubs fold and the rest become feeders they would do it now.

As Ian Lenagan said when reducing the funding. Quote "Who cares about the Championship anyway" and he's not on his own.

As I stated the Championship clubs are all under pressure to either survive or get the results with a top 5 finish.

Fax have run with more of their own team this year than for many a season and look how it's ended up, if it weren't for the cup run we would be screwed financially and may well still be.

Not being in the top 5 with a team that needs rebuilding with no money and several strong sides in the Championship all to compete against with chairmen, directors and coaches who will do whatever it takes to succeed and then Fax saying we won't consider all options is just

and = a club going rapidly down the pan never to return playing straight into the hands of the SL masters.

If you choose option 1. Take our DR players and slowly but surely you have to rely on us to get a team out.

If you choose option 2. Don't take our DR players and slowly but surely you won't have a team to put out or even a club.

That's a depressing read. I hope you're wrong.

Hopefully Championship teams can still take players on loan. But when they do, the players are THEIR players, who train fully with their loan club, and are there on a long term basis.

Depressing in deed Hudds.
It will be interesting to see what effect if any, the SL clubs running a reserve side has on DR such as reducing the number of players being offered under that arrangement, as usual it will be the SL clubs that dictate the terms.

If we look back to when the vote was taken regarding the SL clubs getting more of the funding we get an idea of how much some clubs outside SL rely on DR and how much control the SL clubs have over their Championship partners.

Rather than stick together and oppose the reduction many of the Champ and Champ 1 clubs voted for it



The margin of the vote in favour of the SL clubs came as a big surprise to many experienced RL pundit and it begs the question.

Why would any Champ club vote for something where they would get less?

It was well reported in the RL press that in the days leading up to the vote, fearing they might not win several phone calls were made from SL clubs to their Champ counterparts basically saying “vote against us and you will get no one and nothing from us ever again or from anywhere else in SL.”

This was after Lenagen had made his statement so everyone knew how little they were thought of yet still jumped when they were told to jump.

That’s an even more depressing read.

Fax car, spot on. It seems people have been hoodwinked by (mr) Lennigan and his two faced speel .

If its any consolation Hudds, all teams in the reserve leagues will be under an obligation to fulfil fixtures which will have a serious affect on the number of players that go on a DR move. Added to that players coming back through injury are also likely to get a run in the reserves rather than been sent on DR. It probably won't affect the teams that only take 1 or 2 players every now and again but the heavy users will feel the full force of it.

Yes very much a positive there,providing our application to join is accepted.