My feeling on this is similar to my feeling on mergers...

If my club were at the bottom of the barrel, about to die and there was no way they could survive on their own, then I'd rather still have a club to support than no club at all.

However, I think it's important that if clubs are to become feeder clubs then there is some kind of clause in place that allows for someone to take the club out of the agreement again. In the case of Leigh, if there was no alternative (i.e. no buyer came in and the current owners couldn't fund them any more) and Wigan were to buy them and make them their feeder club, then should a time in the future come when a consortium could afford to buy the club back, the club should be forced to sell for a certain price.

The dual-registration system only allows for a certain amount of players to be loaned out IIRC. If the entire academy were in a feeder team, then it would help all of their development.

I posted a topic a few years ago about how the RFL should allow SL clubs to create their own feeder clubs in the Championship with their own identity separate from the SL brand as an alternative to taking over current Championship clubs (or National League clubs back when I suggested it). This would allow the Championship clubs to keep their identity as well as increase the size of the league so there are more games (so more revenue for clubs) which clubs have been complaining about. Would help the development of players, and in fact would be a brilliant club development tool as well. The SL clubs are effectively creating new clubs that could be bought out in the future.

They can learn good on field and off field procedures from the Leigh club and improve the relations between the two towns which will in turn generate merchandise money.

In football, if another club bids for a player from one of the affiliated clubs then the other affiliated team can make an offer that will automatically accepted.

So in practise if Hull make an offer for Jamie Ellis, Wigan then have the choice to do so and then the player can choose his future. Then they could use a loan back clause to loan him back to Leigh so that he gets experience at a club he knows well.

That 2nd part is an interesting idea.

Leeds for example set up a feeder club in Leicester who play in championship/championship one using for the most part Leeds youth players and players coming back from injury. When that club hits a decent level and becomes interesting to the local population it is sold and run as club in its own right and leeds set up elsewhere, sounds ideal in theory.

Big problem with that is the costs would be massive.

Another thing is why people think that clubs would be forced to be a feeder club. If Leigh dont want to and can afford not to. They dont have to. If Sheffield wanted to, they should be able but if they dont, they dont have to.

How can improved relations improve merchandise sales ?

Sorry but SL clubs don't make ' offers ' for Championship players any more , they just take them

Well I was only using Wigan and Leigh as an example.

Do it then

No problem , affiliate with Gateshead then

Because there could be joint merchandise. And each others merchandise could be sold at each others grounds.

These are only ideas - I'm not in charge of a club and I know nothing about running one. I'm just saying I believe affiliations could help some clubs

I think if we were to affiliate we would aim a little higher.

I would have said Widnes but they don't need our academy guys any more

Why would Leigh want their fans to buy W1g4n shirts ?

Yes I can tell you know nothing about running a club

This much is obvious. Which is understandable. They're businesses. In any feeder situation, their first thought will be, what benefit can we get? Their feeder teams are, if anything, business rivals.

So we're offering championship clubs 50k. I'm sure Super league clubs will flock to that. In return, Leigh get to pick up three players, which they already can on dual reg. They get to share facilities and staff. Facilities, maybe, but they're going to need very good facilities to house two teams and they're already paying them 50k for the privilige. An exchange of staff....for some reason I can't work out. It's not going to achieve all that much. And they share merchandise in the club shops, which will be completely useless because fans are only going to buy their own anyway.

It's the idea of the century. Sign me up instantly.

Ok. Im not sure what Mr Hetherington or Mr Caddick will have to say about it nor the owners of Sheffield, and I wonder what the RFL would have to say about me breaking the rules but as long as I have your permission im sure it will be ok.

Cack idea then