As someone who watches a lot of RL at Skolars level I disagree. The fate of Hunslet last season shows there is a big on the field gap. As long as that is maintained we need both clubs. They offer opportunities to different players. It also permits Skolars ro hunt juniors in the Tottenham area with the best entering the Broncos system and ex Broncos academy lads feeding into Skolars first team. Mutually beneficial.

Clearly if Broncos decline further and are relegated / go semi pro / the academy packs up etc we may hit a point whereby the bigger picture says we should stop splitting resources but we aren't there yet.

The blunt truth is Hemel are probably the only southern team not funded by benefactors to some degree. It's not a good place to be but I don't think merging Broncos and Skolars would do anything to address the situation.

I'm also not sure Skolars, a proud stand alone team, would have much interest in merging with the Broncos.

How are broncos effectively a 3rd tier club? Have you noticed which league we are playing in next year

& did you notice where Broncos played at the business end of the season?

In the 3rd tier with the also rans.

Actually mate that's not third tier

First tier sl 2nd tier championship

EFFECTIVELY it is.

Almost totally agree. If Skolars finish top of the southern clubs in Championship 1 that will be a good season for them. With the dumping of the five heartlands teams into the league at the end of 2014, it has made the prospect of progress distant, given the attritional nature of the league now.

Funding wise I understand that if this is a shortfall at the end of the season, some of the Skolars directors put their hands in their pockets. It is chump change in comparison to the sums thrown at the Broncos.

I have always thought that there should be mutual benefit between the two clubs and Hemel to a degree given their relative standings. This does not appear to have been the case of late and one must wonder why.

Hemel got JOC off Broncos.

Doesn't that count as a benefit?

So by the same token, what's the point of Skolars then? Or any other lower league club?
Are you arguing for a US style franchised major league sport?

Spot on there Pete.

That's what Super League originally was.

The cock-eyed new system is franchising in all but name too.

Am still interested in finding out how the actual 2mf tier of the game is effectively 3rd tier, sounds like reality and fantasy.
The whole franchise thing a couple of flaws, the financial security it was meant to provide never worked, secondly nothing really to play for if yr not top 4
Super 8s needs tweaking to allow a level field for those that make middle 8
The whole Leigh imploding thing was confusing, but at least it provided some interesting games at end is season

Did you miss the top tiers splitting into 3?

What happens before the split is preamble.

At the business end of the season Broncos were precisely nowhere.

So they're EFFECTIVELY a 3rd tier club.

Honestly I'm starting to think I'd get more sense out of jaybs.

You talk utter Tosh, so by yr logic the bottom 4 in super league are therefore effectively 2nd tier then

Straight fwd question which tier of the game are we actually playing in next year?