How many new SL players are required every year ?

Let's say a squad of 25 , a career lasting lets say 10 years , so every year each club needs 2.5 new players , we'll times that by 10 clubs for ease of calculation

So every year 25 new SL players are required , how many players do the SL clubs that run academies induct every year ?

Probably a dozen , times 8/9 teams , let's say a round 100

So every year there will be a surplus of players not making the grade , where do you expect these players to go ?

This thread is titled ' Mergers. ' , so let's be clear mergers don't work , so there won't be any , ok, end of

I wasn't meaning players when I said contributing to a merged club - I was referring to cash.

You said "clubs like Halifax don't buy young players from other clubs with a view to nuturing them through their reserve grade - they sign players who are ready to play in the first team". You've changed your point with your latest post.

We don't claim that Fax have taken many school age players and led them through academy grade, then reserves and into the first team. Calcott is one player that has done that, and we have the structure in place now to repeat the process with other players.

What we have done though is taken young players who have been cast off by other sides have developed (and continue to develop) them in the reserves. A lot of these are now registered 1st team players, albeit not many command a regular place just yet.

How this all relates to mergers, is that the structure is very much built on the amateur scene and schools in Calderdale, and it would fall apart if Fax merged with another team (or teams).

So essentially Sparky what Fax are doing is , instead of taking lets say players number 51-63 in Yorkshire every year and trying to find a very rough diamond you can polish up for Leeds or the Giants to nick off you , you are picking some of the previous 3/4 years players numbers 1-50 that hasn't quite fulfilled their potential for whatever reason and giving them a different environment that they might flourish in

Sounds good to me , well done

it is a shame that Halifax cannot run a reserves team like all those Super League outfits. Otherwise I might be congratulating them for their sterling efforts to keep our game alive.

Compared to the Championship-different planet as the vast majority of results in the CC show.

Investing in mediocrity is not the. Best way to spend the cash in the sport

How would you know ?

Full of Bull mate

The Oracle speaks....

They can work if mamaged correctly. Catalans, St Merge-Illawarra and Wests Tigers (although now Balmain have gone belly up)

Indeed they can, but not if forced on the clubs, at least not in the UK. Putting aside the "fake" mergers we've seen in the UK, the only way they could work is if the merged clubs played out of a brand new stadium nicely located between their original grounds.

Let's assume, for example, that Fax, Bradford and Huddersfield merged but chose the John Smith's Stadium where they'd play their games (or Odsal or the Shay, it doesn't matter). Within a single season Bradford and Fax would have disappeared, and we'd just have the same old Giants club (with a slightly different name) with maybe a hundred or so extra supporters.

The game doesn't have the cash to build new stadiums and (true) mergers won't work and won't happen.

There were two levels in the Championship this season, but the entertainment value of clashes between the top 6 clubs surpassed a lot of SL encounters. Sky would do well to consider showing some Championship games next year.

Not unless the original heritage clubs existed in a league below and run by supporters or a board?