www.leighreporter.co.uk/sport/le ... -1-5515640

www.leighreporter.co.uk/sport/le ... -1-5515640

You had me worried for a bit then Derek , as i thought you had turned into Mavis Wilton , or was doing Les Dennis impressions .
Myself im not worried , i think most of the young Wiganers will get games in our reserve side , and the ones that go into our first team , will be good lads , also i dont think Paul R will allow that many to play at once .

Well I'm worried that my club is about to sell its soul (and for NO major reason - we won't go down, we can't go up) to link up with the big parent club down the road.

This will only gain one club long term and will only damage one club long term.
I'd urge Barton and company NOT to go down this route as its not something we need to do.

If we do opt to 'twin' with Wigan (in any way) whats the difference between Dewsburys set up (classed as feeder club by most people) and what we plan ?

Jenky , we have done this for a couple of years now , first with Warrington , and had a couple of Wigan youngsters last season , we are not talking about taking Wigan players en-mass , just a couple of youngsters when needed , and i dont think they would play in our first team .

When we had Laithwaite , Evans , McCarthy ,and Shaw from Wire a couple of years ago , nowt was said , whats the difference now ?Or is it because its Wigan ?Remember we had Matty Russell , and Tom Spencer , and in the past have had Paul Prescott and Bryn Hargreaves , in our team .

Very, VERY worried, personally. Sensed it was on the cards given the different names that have been appearing at times for the U20's this season, but it hurts to see it in writing. This is entirely different to any different deal with Warrington (if such a thing existed) and very different to loaning a player for a set period, even more so that they can seemingly cherry pick any promising youngsters we've got.

TBH mate I'm totally against DR and always have been as I see it as totally damaging long term.
In the link Dereks provided I'd have huge concerns as when Leigh had all those players you mention above we didn't play in a league that had 3/4 of its clubs formally linked with a SL parent club thus in effect becoming reserve clubs , I'd also ask have gates jumped substantionally for any link up clubs due to the "quality" of SL 'Reserves' they now use - or has it been a final nail in the coffin for the few loyal fans they had left ?

We don't need these players IMHO as we are not desperate (the team can compete in this league) and who do we push out to accomodate them - the lads in the youth teams , any others in the town that fancy giving us a go ?
For me its a bad news story that may help short term (I'd be surprised) but like a stuck record I'd say why do we need them ?
Or is it Wigan want somewhere substantial for their players to keep match fit / get game time ?

Leigh would be foolish to go down this route as it would cause a split in our (decreasing) fan base and a reduction in our own players ,both damaging to our long term future plans.

Spot on Jenky.

Jenky like you im against this Twinning , and i was glad Leigh turned down Wigan ,and i agree Leigh would be foolish to go down this route , but i dont think they are ,Wigan have some class Youngsters who we could use in our reserves mainly , we have just signed Joe Bullock and John o Donnell both ex players of Wigans youth team , i would be very very worried if a group of Wigan lads came to play for Leigh en-mass but i cant see it happening .

Having read the report in the Leigh Reporter this morning , to me it sounds more like a couple of players , last night on Boots n All , John Kear was on about the link with Huddersfield , and he said it didnt matter how many players Huddersfield send to Batley , it was up to him whether he used them or not , and im sure Paul R feels the same way .

Matt you know im a Leyther through and through , but as ive said it doesnt matter who comes to Leigh as a player Paul R wont pick em unless he feels they would add something to the Team , Wigan could send their entire first team squad to Leigh , but if Paul didnt want to pick them he wouldnt .

Anyway we are not Twinning with Wigan , but if we did their is no document saying how many or who is sent , i thought it was up to the Championship Club , who comes ?

Can't see it being any different from whats been happening at the club already .PR stated he does not want any senior players who want game time after injury .

It's up to the Championship club in as much as "we want to give you player x, do you want him?" but that's about it, as I understand it. Whether there's additional pressure added to that is obviously something very few of us will know for sure. The issue isn't the who's, when's or how many's, but the fact that there is any arrangement in the first place. Already it would seem that additional U20 players have been drafted in from Wigan, to the detriment of players who had been signed with the squad for months. As Jenky mentioned, it's not as if we're at the bottom of the league desperate for extra bodies, is it?

Thats what im saying , it doesnt matter who Wigan send of offer to Leigh , its up to PR if he picks them .

And how does it work , surely it doesnt work by Wigan telling Leigh they are sending X amount of players to Leigh , it must be Leigh asking Wigan who they are willing to send ?Thus meaning its Leighs final choice , if we dont want them they dont come , as for Swinton , again they must have wanted the said Wire players .

Exactly that .The team we have at the moment would not benefit from any Wigan players other than Tom Spencer as he was with us last year so knows the lads and how PR wants the team to play plus we have players ready to come back soon so don't need any from Wigan .Can't see anything different happening .

I hope I am wrong but It would appear to me that this is another step in the gradual process of 'The partnership' as it is called by the clubs these days.

For me the time is now to ban DR's completely if we are going to maintain the integrity of Rugby League as a viable sport outside Super League

If SL clubs can't afford to keep these players release them. If they want to develop players do it. It shouldn't be down to the championship clubs to do it for them. IMO we were going to do this at the start of the season, until they heard the outrage over it.

Hope its not the start of the slippery slope. There are one or two naive views on here. Oh and Charlie of course Swinton wanted the players they didn't have enough of their own. I think you'll find that the 5 who 'signed' for swinton still train FT at wire.