A rumour on TotalRL that a Hull/East Riding club will be applying for League 1 in 2018 - a new project, not an existing club.

Anyone else heard about this?

I know Beverley are hoping to turn professional in the next few years.

It's rovers planning for another relegation

I'm hearing it's Bishop Burton.

Their BUCS team are a very good side made up of former and current FC academy, wouldn't surprise me if they stepped it up. Got the facilities.

It will be Jamie Waltham won't it and his crazy dream for Dene Park?

just what I was thinking!

Does that mean we'll have another club playing second fiddle to us, or will Rovers be on their own in that regard?

No they're not.

According to someone on their committee they want to, yeamo has signed for them too.

As someone has already said it is Bishop Burton. The RFL have been asking them to apply for 2 years now.

National Conference is the aim, not professional. Yeamo may play, as may Horney apparently!!! Its great to be watching a better standard of rugby at Beverley but its hard work funding Yorkshire league games let alone pro level.

their fixtures last season included Hull Uni reserves. Fair enough, it'd be easy enough to upgrade the squad, but they're clearly a long way away from semi-pro as things stand. Opportunity for growth would be limited, I'd assume.

Unless it was effectively a development squad, I'm not sure I see much sense in it.

They are not even sure they want to do it, it is the RFL pushing them to do it. The COH Academy may well look at a joint venture to make up the squad but it is all talk. The RFL are keen to get it done but for their own reasons.

If you think about it a League 1 full of expansion clubs such as North Wales, Newcastle and London Skolars who are all being supported and encouraged to start academies which will produce players for the first team plus sides like Bishop Burton (Great facilities, production line of players each season who are being educated for a life after sport and no risk of going bust) and Manchester Rangers who appear to be trying to work with a college for a similar model to Bishop Burton (and outstanding facilities) is exactly what the RFL would be wanting instead of clubs like York, Keighley, Workington and Whitehaven who are at risk of going under on an almost seasonal basis.

It's only my personal opinion built on talking to many clubs at that level and above but I'm sure the RFL have a vision of Super League with a strong Championship followed by League 1 which will be nothing more than a league for new sides and current clubs that have had the vision to set up an academy and education side to things like London Skolars and Keighley Cougars have/are doing. I suppose the logic is that the education side of things makes the players wages easier to manage as many of them are students and being paid to study with the Rugby League Club.

So to quote your original point yes, sides like Bishop Burton, Manchester Rangers, Oxford, Hemel (already seemingly resigned to being Dewsbury's reserves) and Newcastle would be little more than development teams in a league full of expansion and development teams with a few old war heroes like Keighley, Barrow and Workington being the bigger fish in the pond and hoping one day to get back into the Championship. There would be next to zero chance of most teams challenging for promotion but their role would be to develop players and not be reliant on success to pay the bills which is sadly the case now for many of the teams such as Keighley who have almost gone under in the last couple of years pinning their hopes on promotion two years on the trot.

They key thing is that most of them are unlikely to be going bust because they are off shoots of bigger clubs or college teams.

Thank you - that is an interesting answer and an intriguing concept.

A low cost semi-pro development league does make some sense. As these clubs will presumably have very low commercial income, I guess that they'll rely on RFL funding in return for providing a stepping stone? Whether the money is best spent here on the grass roots, I'm not sure but I've certainly heard worse ideas!