I disagree. It depends how good they are. Just because they're grown men doesn't need they're bigger or stronger. Possibly not even fitter. Some of these teens are huge. Stars of the future.

Some of them are huge, some of them aren't. But there is a big difference between a young lad as part of a first team playing the odd game against fully grown men and a team of young lads playing every game, week after week, against fully grown men.

I'd agree with Him, the under 19s teams couldn't go in to the Championships as stand alone teams. Don't forget that there is a leap from under 16s to under 19s now where it used to be u15s then u16s then u18s then u20s. Many of the SL under 19s will have 17 year olds who have no other teams to play in playing in them (those lads can't just go away for two years) and the 20year olds can't play for the youth team anymore. Rather than a team of 19 and 20 year olds it would be 17 & 18 year olds mainly and they would get battered by many of the ex-SL veterans now in the Championships. An old style reserve team with about 5 older players in could maybe compete well enough to allow the youngsters to develop but not youth teams.

Yeah but the Burgesses of this world don't need to play in the kiddie league. The late developers do.

You might get 2 or 3 players who can hold there own, but in most cases as a team the consistency of impact from fully grown men would be a damaging one. The younger player no matter how big and strong would have to taken out of the firing line now and again with a few exceptions like Burgess of course.

I think the championship should become a true feeder league but not in respect of simply being a junior partner to SL clubs, but as an independent competition given the responsibility for producing and developing the best Rugby League players we as a game can develop.

I think this will better prepare our young players to step up to SL, i think it would promote a competition to produce the best young players, and i think it would keep some independence for the championships clubs, and give them a clear and valuable position in the game.

Funded by?

The championship clubs themselves.

And dependent on what they were will to actually do, and what format that structure took, the RFL and SL clubs making a contribution.

So bend over and take it basically, nobody will be watching it

Nobody would be watching the championships if the best young players were playing in them?

What crowds do the SL u 20 s get? , and how much do they charge for entrance?

It matters not, the process is already in half way through

They have created a ' death league ' with Championship 1 , all bar 4/5 clubs have no choice but to ' twin ' to attempt to avoid dropping into it, so they will agree to anything ' spun ' in front of them

2 years ago on here people were posting that the DR system was OK as long as it was only 2/3 per club, but would not be happy with anything more, and those same people are now happy to see whole squads DR

Next we will see SL clubs loaning Championship clubs complete junior squads to use as their 1 st team along with 5 DRplayers

Then the process will be complete, the end of PT RL as we know it

But it wouldnt be an U20's league so it would be irrelevent. There wouldnt be any point having the championships as an u20 league, it wouldnt change anything.

Make your mind up, you said the Championship becoming a junior development comp, that would suggest a large number of junior players playing in it, otherwise its just the Championship by another name

As to my previous questions, the answer to both is ' not a lot '

Which is exactly what you would get with a new set up, so very little funding from the clubs, not saving much are we?

That a lovely little strawman you are trying to build yourself, but I have no use for it.

The fact is, that even now, even with the fudge-best-of-neither-world DR system we have now, the only reason these younger players are playing in those leagues, for those teams is because they are better players than those teams could source elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with structure that sees players playing at a level which suits their ability.

Smokey WT

You do make the VT a place not to visit with your incessant bollo* .

But this now isnt just about junior development , it is wholesale loss of identity for Championship clubs

When the DR system was 1 st proposed most fans of both Championship and SL clubs were of the opinion that it was a good idea for 2/3 players per club per season to aid their development , and the ' doomongers ' predicting wholesale squad dual registration was ridiculous , well that prediction has arrived, and now we have them saying " well lets see how it works out " , well now we are predicting further changes that will damage the lower tier competition

This time if we are right, there will be no going back, the damage will be permenant , you might be OK with that, if that is the ' plan ' then at least lets hear it from the horses mouth, then we know who to blame

I didnt disagree that there would be an issue with regards to identity for the lower league clubs. Which is why i said

I dont think the loaning out or dual registration of an entire squad of players is a good thing or something we should aim for. I also dont think it is the end solution that we are going for because it doesnt achieve or sets out to achieve the goals we have.

I think once you take the question of identity and independence out of the equation then it is clearly a positive thing to have more of our young players playing at a higher level. This not only benefits them, but the clubs they play for, like Leigh. Fans arent going to stop going to see Leigh because they have a squad of younger more talented players, the issue with the championships isnt that their squads are too young and too good and nobody is out there screaming for older inferior players.


Dual Reg has its place, and i think it would be bad thing to throw the baby out with the bathwater and get rid of it completely.

Widnes have Dual Registered their entire squad, there are suggestions Bradfird and Hull have done the same, Swinton had 9 Warrington DR players in their team at the LSV on friday, it has already arrived, the next progression will be SL 18-20 yr olds being loaned ' en bloc ' to their twinned clubs

This will complete the de valuing of the Championship to nothing more than a feeder league, with even the un twinned clubs suffering as a result

Every time a twinned club with 5 or more SL surplus ( not juniors ) beats an un twinned club you increase the likelyhood of that club losing support, similarily a twinned club will lose both players and potentially support when overusing SL reserves, especially when they dont perform

Dual Reg as 1 st suggested with maximum numbers ( 3 possibly 4 ) on season long deals was a good idea and worked well for all concerned, unfirtunatly the system has now gone too far, I would suggest it was designed to work this way from the start

lower leagues are feeder leagues, always have been always will be. The league isnt devalued by having better players playing in it.

The fact remains that these SL reserves wouldnt play if they werent better than what they were replacing. There is an obvious question in why we have a reserve competition with some better players than a first teams competition, why do we would have a big group of players, playing at a level below their ability, which stifles their development, when there is a league for them to play in, which better suits their ability and supports their development but has more older, inferior players.

Like most things, your lower league victim mentality has left you looking at it completely the wrong way and asking completely the wrong questions.

If SL reserves need to be playing in the championships to fulfil their potential, and if SL reserves playing in the championship would improve the quality of that league, and if SL wants young players playing in the championship because it would better prepare them for Super League

but

having large numbers of SL affiliated players damages the identity of the lower league clubs.

The question we should be asking, is why do we, as a game, have large numbers of players affiliated to a club they arent playing for. What does the game, as a whole, gain by signing these players up to SL clubs then loaning them to championship clubs to prove themselves that we would lose by those players proving themselves at championship clubs, then being signed up by SL clubs?

Gonna have to say it Smokey............you are a smug and ignorant person regarding the game of Rugby League and the fans that currently support it. In fact you may even be a member of the rfl board.

Feeder clubs would have no sponsorship, under 20 fixtures would not be televised, fans would no longer follow what is no longer their home team club (because it wouldn't be). There would be no financial backers left below SL. The decision to merge 4 academy teams into 2 at SL clubs is purely financial and pushes player development back 20 years. Time some Championship chairmen grew some and told SL to feck off.

On the plus side Smokey you are a quite entertaining read......but that's all

If you had read what i said, it would surely sink in, at some point, that I agree that we shouldnt turn the championships in to an SL reserve league.

But at some point you will have to accept, that barring a move to one huge league including all RL clubs at one level, there will be a feeder league.

He's the perpetual answer to a question nobody asked.

Whilst your attention is sweet and flattering, Im not interested. Your playground flirting whilst funny and almost endearing is still unrequited and always will be. Im afraid you have too much down below and not enough up top for me unfortunately.

But thanks all the same.

Ahhhhhhh Smokey. If there was ever anyone to stop me reading a thread, its you with your 'I'm right and your wrong' attitude. Just because you say you are right, it doesn't make it so. Where you a loner as a kid?

hull fc are hull krs feeder club and we give them our castoffs too



its a good arrangement