Maybe says more about Russell than Currie. I think our strongest back row is as numbered 11-13.

Quite like the look of the squad with lots of young players who have played for the First Team & done OK. It would be good if our reserve team could actually be made up of mainly players from the squad. In the past few years our reserve team has seemed very young & not a true reserve team.

And we've wasted a quota spot on a guy given the 26 shirt.

The fringe players look good, it's our 1-13 I'm worried about. Two slow centres, an unproven 7, props that we all agree need improving on and our best second rower is injury prone. If burgess gets that squad to win a grand final he is an absolute genius!!

The current meagre Salary Cap and club finances, are a major deterrent to clubs having a proper reserve team competition.

ALL clubs just play their fringe squad players combined with their best/older Academy players in the reserve team.

Players are then loaned-out to Championship clubs to expose them to better/tougher games for their development.

The fact that the Reserve and Academy games are scheduled on alternate weekends so that they don`t clash, facilitates clubs` playing their Academy players in the Reserve League and is deliberately designed that way.

I agree that we need a much better reserve league on a similar level to the Queensland/NSW Cup competitions, but it`s not going to happen here for a while, if ever?