Quote wrencat1873="wrencat1873"I fully understand the sentiment in your post, however, if you cut out the 2nd and 3rd tier of the sport and rely on club academies to prepare players for SL, you will kill the sport, you would also massively alienate the fans who do attend those games and whilst some may drift towards their nearest SL club, the majority of them would be lost to the game and probably their kids and grand kids as well.
We need the whole RL pyramid to be as strong as possible, all the way through the amateur game, right up to SL and International level.
If you take out one or 2 levels you would kill the game.
Yes, there are ageing players in The Championship and League 1 BUT, there are also young kids learning their trade.
Many SL sides have players on dual reg at Championship and League 1 sides. Should they sit in the stands and vegetate or maybe just chuck them on the scrapheap if they haven't made the grade at a particular point in time.'"
"The meaning and outcome of communication is in the response you get" suggests I have not explained myself.
I am not saying get rid of layers 2/3 I am saying link them to a SL club. This way we have 14 SL clubs and 14 feeder clubs not dissimilar to the NRL version. All these players that don't make the grade or are too old to make the grade anymore will have a place to play at a competitive level.
Halifax are a Championship club that everyone applauds because they have reserve grade - but if you look at their starting 17 not one has come through the academy system so why should these clubs get more funding to simply employ players developed by other SL clubs - players such as Scott Murrell, Ben Johnston, Will Maher, Simon Grix, Steve Tyrer etc. etc.
If we alienated all the fans from the Championship - which wouldn't happen as I would include Bradford, London, Toulouse and Toronto/Cumbria in the SL - how many fans are you actually going to lose - 300 at Hunslet, 500 at Keighley, 400 at Swinton etc 10-15k at the most and not all these would simply stop attending.
For me history is a anchor not a springboard for RL.
