Now that Wigan are reviewing their decision to run a reserve team that leaves us and Wakefield as the only two SL clubs. Given that the rest of the league comprises 4 lower league teams one of which is Keighley, who are in dire straits, is the decision to field one a waste of time and expense? . I appreciate that these are effectively practice games but have to have a degree of competitiveness to be worthwhile.
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As LR has gone for "a thicker squad" (his words not mine) there could be a lot of players on dual reg' or waiting for a game.

Radlinski has said that "It is a bad business decision"

I wonder if AP feels the same.

It seems we have been hoodwinked into running a Reserves for 2019 . Only 2 SL Clubs is a farce.
With this news would our recruitment have been different?
Instead of thickening the squad as Radford has said, would we have gone for more quality?
I bet Clubs would be running Reserves if it made them exempt from relegation!!
Maybe that should be the case for us and Wakefield next season?
It at least shows commitment to growing the sport as a whole, rather than throwing money at overseas signings.
The game in this Country is a farce at all levels at the moment.
No Reserves, merged Academy, and the game dying at Youth level .

What a farce! We have increased our squad depth to 'fill out' the Reserves side, to have the talented kids surrounded by players with more experience - and now the Reserves is likely not to happen! With the money that Levy, Langtree, Thompson etc are on - we could have got a real quality prop.

People say the RFL are killing the game, but the clubs have to look at themselves as well.

"we could have got a real quality prop".


My thoughts exactly.

It should be mandatory along with all the other rules which clubs have to abide by - clubs who cop out
need to be hit financially, perhaps only receiving 80% of sky money until they get their @rses into gear
The other 20% going to junior development (or whatever)

typical rl,still no official reserve league,yet they bring in golden point nonsense.the game is a farce and is dying on its feet through poor leadership.

Hoodwinked by who? If it’s a problem for you, it is one of your own making. If it is a farce, it is an utterly predictable one.

I’m sure relegation exemption would get teams to do it, in an at least half-assed way. As it is going to cost money and offers player development benefits that I think are probably massively overstated by its proponents, there’d need to be some pay-off. But there isn’t and most club owners seem to agree. Fans say they want it, but not the extent of demonstrating any great willingness to show that by paying to see these games regularly. Players say they want it, but i’ve yet to hear one advocating cutting first-team wage bills to fund it.

The path to our 2016 relegation was paved with self-harming good intentions, and now you want special protection for similar!

a proper reserve grade should be funded by the rugby league<a far better use of money than wasting it on paying off waste of spaces like nigel wood and the like.

It took me a bit by surprise that Hull invested so heavily in a Reserves set up. There was never going to be a Reserves league in 2019. I thought that Rovers and Hull would join forces and play a few friendlies throughout the season.

The Reserves league will kick off in 2020 but it won't be how Hull seem to think it will be. The current under 19s Academy league will revert to being an under 18s league. The Reserves league will be an under 21s with a few over age players. It won't be a true Reserves I don't think.

Introduing golden point (not that i’m very keen on it) is pretty much free.

Throwing money at overseas signings accounts for about a quarter of most squads. You might be able to make savings going domestic, but you still need 6 or 7 full-timers to complete the squad, and any major savings are likely to be reflected in worse results on for the first team... Unless everybody does it - but if you cut the quota and not the salary cap, it’ll just see demand for fed-trained talent push their value up.

Nigel’s pay-off might pay for a couple of reserve teams for a season. But it was a one-off payment, and the reserves league is an ongoing commitment.

Basically, the sport needs to find a couple of million from somewhere every year. And I don’t see where that is coming from. Even if we went to 10 SL teams, I reckon they’d put the salary cap up first.

Maybe 2020 will be different - although, i’m not sure why it would be.

Also reduce their overseas quota .

And only 3 points for a try?



It’s not a rule or a requirement, so creating punishments for breaching it is... premature, shall we say?

If the clubs want to do it, they’ll do it. The version RBA outlines sounds like a sensible enough approach and not dissimilar to what we had about 10 years ago, continuing the back to the noughties theme of the league restructure.

I agree. Instead put in incentives for doing it. Maybe allocating more cash from central funds or some kind of cap exemption or extension for those running it

I agree that would be better. Although eany extra cash would have to come from somewhere, and if it isn’t from cutting other clubs’ share, it isn’t obvious where that’d be. And a cap exemption is only valuable to the wealthier clubs, meaning the reserves league would likely remain small, if we’re relying on that.

I think there’s almost an acknowledgement there that it isn’t worth it in of itself, if it needs incentivising or to be forced on clubs. With the SL clubs now seemingly taking leadership, while the RFL mainly just does the administrative stuff, who is there to cajole them to do it?

strange how in the bad old days of the 60s,70s and 80s before the sky big bucks ,when teams were struggling,every club had an a team and you were fined if you couldn't raise a side.

FWIW...

No matter how you dress it up, the reluctance of the majority to run a reserve grade, pretty much sums up our game, amateurish at best. Give it up Hull & Wakey, your flogging the proverbial dead horse.

It will be in force for 2020, but the fact we have invested significantly in back room staff and a deeper squad to help to support the reserve side is unfortunate for us - when we could have put that money into a marquee player ourselves.

I saw a good suggestion yesterday about Wakefield and Hull being able to put their Reserve sides into League 1 for the year, whilst that league gets some consistency with the sides in it

I know that it is far from ideal but I wonder if Hull could arrange a series of Reserve friendlies against the likes of GB students, British Army, Police force, BARLA etc.

It would serve to keep players match fit and generate a fair bit of publicity and goodwill for your club. You may even unearth a prospect or 2.

I don't see how it is a farce or flogging a dead horse. Yes it's a farce as far as the game is concerned but from the perspective of our two clubs i don't agree.

I'm talking from a Wakefield perspective hear but I suspect it's the similar to yourselves.

Currently we don't have too much in the academy but we so have a glut of players getting beyond it who are still good enough to persist with. In terms of keeping those players active I don't see even a diminished reserve grade as any less useful that DR which I hate with a passion. Most of these players I'm on about are capable of playing a limited amount of SL where as few if any of our under 19's are. To me I'm far happier to see them training with the first team and being a part of it whilst and playing the odd game than being DR.

It's just my opinion but it gives us a certain depth we otherwise wouldn't have. Also it's a nice platform to explore trialist, something you simply cannot do with the under 19's and you never know what gems you might fine.

Over all I'm happier with what we have that Hetherington's ludicrous argument that Leeds Academy is there reserve - that Gary has worked only once in 25 years!

Unless the quality of the reserve league is significantly better than the current u19s then there's no point in having it. Just make the u19s the reserves, which would allow clubs to keep on to players a little longer, give recovering players some game time, allow older players in the squad to mentor the younger players during games.

The problem is we stupidly “merged” our U19’s .
It would then be difficult for us ,and the unwashed from the East to use an Academy side as a Reserves side.
Simple fact is for SL status it should be stipulated , either a Reserve team or your own U19’s .
Do all the SL Clubs have an Academy set up ?

Salford run neither a reserves or a Academy

Last year's academy league table.... www.hullfc.com/team/city-of-hull ... ague-table

Last year's academy league table.... www.hullfc.com/team/city-of-hull ... ague-table

Quote ="ccs"Last year's academy league table.... www.hullfc.com/team/city-of-hull ... ague-table'" At what point in the season was that from, I only ask because some teams have played 16 games whilst some only 12 - which makes it somewhat lop sided and unreliable.

Quote ="ccs"Last year's academy league table.... www.hullfc.com/team/city-of-hull ... ague-table'" At what point in the season was that from, I only ask because some teams have played 16 games whilst some only 12 - which makes it somewhat lop sided and unreliable.