Joined us on an initial one month loan deal. Not a player I'm overly familiar with, to be honest! What can Bulldogs fans expect? Thanks in advance.

He is a great little player. Lots of potential

He is a very good player, good luck Matty.

Great new, he needs to be playing at a higher level than U20’s

A good move for all concerned in my view.

Have we moved away from trying to win the pot and actually started developing these young players in a meaningful way?

Very good signing for Batley and a good move for him. Will help his development immensely.

Seems so.

Top player with a bright future ahead. I'm still baffled as to why he is not getting more game time with our 1st teamers.

You can have him for a month or two, as long as you return him in the condition you find him.

It'll be a positive move for all parties and loans or dual registration is something we as a club have considerably under used. The only disappointment is that we didn't do it sooner in the season!

This is the way to develop our youngsters in the future, lets just hope for the sake of lads like Wildie, Davey etc it isn't too late for them

I hope so. Wildie looks like he has something about him, so hopefully game time helps him develop and we reap the rewards in the near future.

Whilst I agree with dual reg in order to develop our younger players so long as it is with the corret club (championship club), can I just put forward an objective viewpoint to get other opinions;

Will this in time see the end of reserve grade rugby?

For me the reserve grade competition is tough and competative and which is rumoured to be going from 20's to 23's if not already done so. If so it will enable senior players coming back through poor performance or injury to play in this competition making it more competative and giving younger players the chance to cut their teeth against quality opposition in hopefully a much more intense competition.

With this in mind and if we keep sending all our fringe based players on dual reg at the same time, is it fair to say we could be weakening our reserves where I believe that in any team you need stronger players around you if you hope to develop the team and the other individuals within it.

Do Wakefield have enough strength in depth to bring the 18's through so early? If we don't take our reserve team seriously then how how do we develop as a whole (club, team & individual).

So I pose the question, could it be said that if we send all our fringe 1st teamers out on dual reg in order to get this experience we will weaken the reserve grade and possibly do more harm than good to other players coming through who might just need that bit of guidance, support and camaraderie on the playing field from a senior player?

It's only a thought,

For me it's all about balance, it's important to get some of our prospects out on loan but not all at once, a month or two here and there at different points throughout the season is about right and that's seems to be what we're doing. You don't want to be sending them all out at the same time for 3 or 4 months it would be a bit counter productive. Like you say having some of the more experienced players on the park is good for bringing through the younger guys but also having a weakened team getting battered each week will do no end of damage to a young players development. We need to keep the standard of the side to at least a decent level so it helps those who are on the fringes of the first team to those who aren't and everyone inbetween.

I would say that you have seen a rotation of the fringe players going out on dual reg/ loan. So far, in the 3-4 months of super league this year, we have seen:

Kieran Hyde - Doncaster,
Russ Spiers - Doncaster
Danny Cowling - Doncaster
Jimmy Davey - Keighley
Matty Wildie - Batley
Andy Ellis - Featherstone

6 'fringe' players out on loan/ dual reg. I think its fair to say that the club are doing it right sending a few at a time and sending different players out when able, to get game time.

As for the reserves changing to u23's, It hasnt happened as of yet, its still u20's with an allowance of 5 over age players. However, I am led to believe that next year it may either become u23's, u19's and u17's as opposed to the current set up, or just a reserve league with no age restrictions. However, I would prefer the former of those two options given the choice in order to allow the development of youngsters.