Quote: Donnyman "It's astonishing how for three years a group of people think that shipping English players abroad to make up a team in Perpignan or Toronto somehow expands the game and brings us riches? What their brains completely miss is that for Catalans to go up Widnes had to go down. For TWP to come up London had to go down. You could not blame either club if they just shut their academies. Why the heck should they continue to try do develop SL players in such circumstances? The answer lies in the longer game. This TV contract unfortunately allows access to Superleague on "merit" and not on any sensible "planning", thus TWP and Les Cats can survive merely on buying in players from here.
The next TV contract will remove the influence of the RFL on Superleague's make up and leave that decision to Superleague. Already we hear that Bradford, Widnes, London Leigh and Newcastle are chomping at the bit for a 2022 SL place. In contrast the reserves league appears to have swallowed up all the spare English and Aussie playing talent such that poor old Toronto and Catalans are struggling to recruit......what a mean but delicious trick to play!!
Meaning Ottawa, New York Toulouse and Timbuktoo have gone very quiet. "Helping the French" is a ridiculous notion. Currently we are helping ourselves to repel predatory overseas clubs who really should concentrate on building their own game not on destroying ours.'"
Irony is, that under ''planning'' imo Toronto and Catalans would be two of the first teams chosen. In that scenario I would worry about Cas, Wakefield and Salford.