We should start a poll, championship fans only, would you support your club if it became a feeder club. Straight yes or no.

When these fans and directors of super league clubs see the result maybe then they will remove their heads from their s.

Although, having said that, the predicted collapse of crusaders hasn't removed some of the most firmly wedged heads eh?

Maybe even another Freddie , asking Championship clubs fans if they would be happy watching their club play against SL academy/reserve teams masquerading as genuine Championship clubs ?

Its all laughable cack eh Mr Bug?

Pie in the sky ideas about how to further murder the championships whilst pretending its for the good of the game!

Good of the game nowadays translates to what's good for super league or RFL pet projects. Looking at play off attendances, challenge cup final attendances and the wreckage of all those failed clubs and championship gates falling with alarming regularity the good of the game is certainly being served!

You know what's worse? Seeing how many get so excited over that crappy kick and clap competition over in New Zealand. Somehow we are missing a trick if we can't keep the people who love the sport supporting the sport!

It all depends on what the club can get in return from it. If it gets them some decent players from an improved development in a higher intensity league then would it be worth it? On top of that, if the new club proves successful and someone wants to buy it then they've recouped some of their money on that as well.

I think RFL rules at the moment forbid a club owning another club though, so we wouldn't know who would or wouldn't want to anyway. I know that some clubs have looked at it in the past (I remember reading about Hull wanting to set up a club in Goole IIRC).

Something that should be looked at. 95% of CC clubs have no chance of ever reaching SL, most are barely surviving. Financial support and career pathways for jnr's from that area would benefit the CC club and a more intense environment for fringe players. good 21 year olds and returning from injury players would benefit the SL club. I'd love to see my club partner with York for example to the benefit of both clubs.

Can you not read ? , I had you down for being more inteligent than the post you just made , maybe FC should just have Rovers as their feeder club , they're closer than York

Yes I can and I see it could work if the SL club was fair in financially supporting the CC club and in assisting in other ways. TBF if York had the potential to be a SL club then I would not have used them as a example but reality is they will NEVER be a SL club. However being a financially stable sustainable club that is attracting top youngsters as they know they are in a SL clubs shop window whilst having the opportunity for kids from their area to play alongside seasoned SL pros would benefit them imo.

It works well in Oz with NRL teams linked to NSW cup or Q'land cup teams and I see no reason why it would be any different in UK. I can see where there has been traditionally rivallary ie Leigh and Wigan it wouldn't work but for more neutral partnerships without the history it wouldn't be a problem.

Not much use for Rovers then , they struggle to financially support themselves , never mind another club , sorry JB , its bollox , and just for the record , there are clubs IN SL who will never be SL clubs

Im sure they could pick up Leigh for a bag of soft mints. They couldnt do any worse than the last lot.

But a feeder club system only works in conjunction with a franchised top flight system, something which ideally won't be needed in the future. When SL & the Championship are strong enough to support P&R again then you will inevitably end up with an SL team's feeder club being promoted to SL. Which is obviously unacceptable.
If feeder clubs are to brought in they have to be new clubs in a new, additional, separate league that has no relationship to SL. But as I said there isn't the money, players or spectators available for that.

It's not often I agree with Starbug but I do on this occasion. Yes at this point in time York are nowhere close to SL, but if I win Euromillions next week they'll suddenly get an awful lot closer. You can't simply take existing clubs and tack them on to SL clubs just because of location. For instance Leeds' natural feeder club would be Hunslet, yet they actually have far closer links with York, Whitehaven & even Quins than they do with Hunslet. Plus like Starbug points out, how are the SL clubs going to find the money to subsidise these feeder clubs when they can't generate enough income to properly fund themselves let alone another club.

I would not be happy about my club becoming a feeder club. It's patronising to think that championship clubs will sell their souls for a few crumbs from the SL table.
Who wants to support a club whose players can be whisked away at a moment's notice, whose loyalties lie not with them but the 'big brother' outfit up the road, whose team will naturally be looked down on by supporters of the bigger club?
I know all players will want to rise up in the game, and that's fair enough. But I think the feeder system is belittling to smaller clubs, who are, after all, representing the local community in which they are based as things stand at the moment, and that's as it should be.
I want Keighley Cougars to represent Keighley, not the -end of Leeds Rhinos or whatever.

On feeder clubs there are many in Oz, in both NSW and QLD. A lot of them have tie ups with NRL sides. I can give you a bit of background on one in particular.

The North Sydney Bears are in every comp they can be in, in the NSWRL. Their highest grade is at present the NSW Cup. They played here ever since the Northern Eagles joint venture fell through and the licence went to Manly. They have since signed agreements to be a feeder club for the Melbourne Storm in 2005 and 06 and from 2007-present the South Sydney Rabbitohs. With whom they have struck another one year deal for next season.

The way it works is that they an independent club and a member of the NSWRL, they have their own Leagues Club who fund them as well as the other sponsors they have. All to the tune of over $500,000p.a. They select and pick their own players to play in the comp. Now, what Souths have is a first grade squad (which has varied in size from year to year) who all train together during the week. Now of course if they have 25 fit players ready for the weekend, 18 of them will go to their game. Depending on when it's played the 18th man can play for the reserve grade if he doesn't play first grade. So, the other first graders go back and play for Norths. They get first option to play and Norths' coach goes to training with Souths and all the grades have the same calls and plays, so everyone is interchangeable at the drop of a hat. This is, as someone has pointed out earlier, where George Burgess played this season, scoring 3 tries and taking the last goal kick of the season (which was a shocker but a laugh as they'd lost the game). If Souths send back 7 players, then 7 Norths players make way and play in the district's A Grade comp.

Both Norths and Souths are independent clubs. Souths save money on players and don't need to have a reserve grade squad as well as a first grade one. If they comp was won by Norths, then it's their name that goes on the trophy, irrelevant of who was playing for them.


Here is a list of teams meant to be in next season's NSW Cup (NRL teams in NSW reserve grade)

SOUTHS - North Sydney Bears.
MANLY - Manly
PARRAMATTA - Wentworthville
PENRITH - Windsor Wolves
ROOSTERS - Newtown
NZ WARRIORS (believe it or not, fly to oz for every away game) - Auckland Vulcans
BULLDOGS - Canterbury Bulldogs
SHARKS - Cronulla AND MELBOURNE STORM's team in NSW as they ahve others in QLD
TIGERS - both Balmain Tigers & Wests Magpies
DRAGONS - Illawarra
RAIDERS - Mounties

How much do they pay ?

My club is in super league, and this is exactly my sentiment. Keighley should be a proud independent entity and if they go into partnership with leeds or cas or whoever it should be to the benefit of both clubs and not this ridiculous notion of "feeder" and "fed".

If we we're setting up a competition from scratch tomorrow this might be a viable idea....but we're not. Asking founder clubs of the game to become nothing more than puppets is unfair and disrespectful.

Who pay what or whom?