It was never fair/realistic to have part time clubs having to make the trip over there.
They (Toronto) will be hemorrhaging cash like crazy and if they do fail to gain promotion this season (or next), it could well be they who are an embarrassment to the game, if/when they run out of cash.

For those players lucky enough to make the trip over there, no doubt it will be a great experience but, these players dont just play RL, most of them have a "proper" job as well.

The expansion in N.America still hasn't been thought through properly and we all remain at the "fingers crossed" stage.

As other posters have said, Barrow are not an embarrassment to the game at all but, they are a struggling Championship side, forced to make an unnecessary trip across the Atlantic.

SATs. No apostrophe.

It never going to be a level playing field in the championship with Toronto artificially inseminated to destine them into Superleague.

What happens when they get there they will need 10 to 15 new players from an already shallow player pool, if they don’t get these players it’s likely they will be demoted after one season. Or maybe the RFL will play the “ cant be demoted in the first 2 years” card. If that happens then we don’t have a level playing field in our major domestic competition.

Dewsbury started planning and applying in April.

And as for your comment about the 8's, it may be easy enough to say who may be in the 8's. But you can't say who's finishing where, so who will be playing Toronto away. Or the date of when there playing them.
Toronto have already been told there won't be any banks of games, and they will have to play the fixtures as they fall.

Dewsbury should have started applications in February. They knew the fixtures.

Point taken about who might be playing away, but it wouldn't cost sixpence to start asking players NOW if they have valid passports (6+ months from travel date) or any outstanding previous, in which case it would be a good idea to start the process even if they end up not travelling. The bottom five SL clubs should be on it already.

Last week Barrow added two players to the squad at the last minute and didn't have time to do the normal 3-week visa application. Nevertheless both those players got into Canada, so someone figured it out and was able to rush the applications through. Perhaps they used the immigration consultant that Wolfpack is providing?

I get what your saying. But you would think 2 months would be more than enough time. And apparently 2 were only turned away at the airport.

Like I said earlier, this isn't Toronto's fault. But some of the blame has to be on the RFL who just don't seem to be doing anything to help the club's.

How can the RFL be blamed for this? This is completely an administrative issue for the clubs. We're not talking about amateur teams going on tour here, we're talking about established clubs with established business operations.

All clubs will or should have somebody responsible for dealing with the administration related to the players - either a football manager / secretary or somebody in a HR role. They should be more than capable of sorting this out. Even if they aren't, Toronto provides support on this very issue.

If the clubs are employing players with a past record that makes them ineligible to play in certain countries, that is their decision but it is up to them to bear the consequences of those recruitment decisions. In any walk of life, poor past decisions can influence you career prospects and your ability to travel - professional sport is no different.

Plenty of clubs have gone to Canada with no issues. If they can do so without the RFL holding their hands, I don't see why others can't do likewise. Please can we get away from this idea that the RFL needs to babysit every little thing that the clubs do?

you mean get away from the RFL being the governing body?

The sooner SL casts the rest of the game off the better, it works for the Premier League to not be run by old men in blazers.

No, I mean get away from this idea that the RFL should be micro-managing club issues to the extent that people seem to think that they should. Ensuring that a club's players can actually attend fixtures is not something the governing body should be doing.

Sorting out passports and visas is completely within the remit of the clubs - they are the ones who employ these players and who have day-to-day contact with them.

Do you honestly think the Premier League sorts out visas for Manchester United players? The RFL is a convenient lighting rod for so many issues at club level and it really does this sport no favours.

Yes, the PL do!

Best tell that to some of the clubs then, because there's plenty that have people spending a lot of time sorting this sort of thing out. I'm sure they'd much rather get the PL to do it all for them.

How do you think OS players get work permits so quickly?

You not heard of the PL governance and compliance department?

Sorry New Canoeman (with your three or four posts (might be ton up before this is typed)). You seem to be "muxing ip" PanDEMONium with Pantomime Dame. A pandamonium is a little known mouth organ like instrument of Chinese origin made from the drilled out teeth of an, increasingly endangered, ursine species of said region.

In your haste to create controversy hereupon, please try not to get your mucking furds woddled.

Firstly, that applies to players coming to the UK, it doesn't apply to players travelling for fixtures overseas. That's still the responsibility of the clubs.

Most PL clubs can pay the premium for the Home Offices fast track service.

And whilst the PL does have a governance and compliance department, it is there to ensure that the clubs are being compliment with eligibility rules. It doesn't do the club's work for them.

All of the above is missing the point anyway. Getting a visa to travel to Canada is not a difficult process. It is something that many employers have no issue with. It should not, therefore, be too much of an issue for what are, at the end of the day, established sporting organisations.

Getting a visa is a problem if you have any kind of criminal record though and if 2 or 3 players have had issues, they wont be able to travel.
You would expect that SL clubs will be more organised with travel/ visa's etc but, time will tell.