You know, RL and RU clubs are competition for juniors and established players 365 days a year and some idiot on here still thinks there are two separate markets....

ok so there are cases where players fail to make the grade in the other code, but that is by the by. they've already been bought and sold on the market. i don't usuaully agree with what spills out of your gob leaguefreak but im with you on this one.

I don't care.

cared enough to reply

Probably not... Exeter play in the Summer Conference, and deal directly with the RFL. There's probably a notional BARLA tie-in somewhere, but I've never ever seen BARLA on any letterhead or development area cheque. We get our fixtures from, and report results to, Dave Lowe and Phil Caplan respectively.

That all sounds very complicated. Very Rugby League.

It's remarkably simple for rugby league! When I played up north I often wondered if BARLA was really necessary. Now I run a development area team, I know that it isn't!

I honestly havent given the time to look into how it all works, but from the little bit of info I gather in reading news, I get the feeling that BARLA was set up to make certain people feel very important about themselves.

I would suggest thats how its turned out, not why it was set up.

BARLA has very little to do with Amateur RL outside of the heartlands.
The politicing and hostility to development from some, has meant that the RFL runs the summer Conference.