Erm, where have you been the last 115 years or so? Loads of clubs have gone to the wall spending money they didn't have on players that weren't worth it.

If you want to take a naive view of the situation thats your choice.

we both know that Hull KRs return in regards to youth development is because they have prioritised their first team, where they needed to receive dispensation for overseas players, over youth development.
The reasons for this isnt the issue.

The point I am making is it is very much less than ideal for clubs who have invested in youth development to lose out because of that.

Under this system a club like Hull KR would be behind the 8 ball in terms of recruitment in comparison to a club like Quins until the youth development was of a similar level.

Where is the incentive to make these long term and possibly unpopular with the home support, but never the less integral, investments in developing more youngsters if your success isnt dependent on it?

I dont agree with Smokey about this but that point is true.
Its a fact that all the best SL teams are big homegrown/British core with 4 or 5 top class imports. You cant buy a team of aussies and get anywhere near realistically challenging.

But that is the point of the reducing quota and increasing home grown requirement and the consequence of franchise applications being awarded on a range of criteria.

It is ludicrous to criticise one club for taking one strategy (while conforming to all the RFL requirements) and praise another for taking a different strategy (while conforming to all the RFL requirements).

Hull KR could have taken a different approach (promoting youngsters not ready or not good enough) which would have been cheaper. That would have made the financial side of the next bid stronger at the same time weakening the on field contribution, it's all swings and roundabouts. And the point you are completley missing here is that with a range of different criteria highlighting the importance of different areas of the business it is not surprising at all that at different times different clubs will have different priorities.

The real test of whether Hull KR have got the balance right will be if the get awarded another franchise.

But when teams start applying for exemptions its a joke imo.
Anyway I laid out my stall:
Maximum 5 OVERSEAS (not all these stupid exemptions) players.
10%ish decrease on current cap for homegrown players.
10% increase on current cap for overseas players.
Gradual increase in cap after 2012.

Best way to go, you know it. I know it. My dog even knows it.

No it isnt. We should be praising teams for making that investment in the long term stability of the sport, We should be praising them when the give a shot to youngsters, we should be praising them for putting the structures in place to give the best chance to the youngsters of their area, and we should criticise them when they dont, we should criticise them when they hide behind overseas players, exemptions and dispensations to cover up for the fact they havent invested in youth.


They will have different priorities, they always will. But after 100 years to not have a decent youth policy already in place is embarrassing. We should make youth development a higher priority, force it to be a higher priority for all clubs

thats fairly unambitious, at some point as a sport we are going to need to move on from our ambition being just to survive to improving and growing