no such club

HTH

What does the NCL have to do with this?

Quote ="robt90"no such club HTH'" You best tell these guys then hunsletwarriors.co.uk/ hth

Quote ="robt90"no such club HTH'" You best tell these guys then hunsletwarriors.co.uk/ hth

Lol.

BARLA is to blame for there being no colts league.

You've got to be kidding!

Only if the CC want them.

If the NCL allow fringe Championship players to play there then the appalling Championship U23s would fold instantly whether Leigh want to enter or not. It clearly wouldn't even get the 6 sides it has this year.

How ignorant are you?

Why do you think champ clubs would want there players going out to NCL clubs?
Wouldn't they be better letting them go out to champ 1 clubs if needs must?

They're forbidden from sending players to Championship 1 clubs. But I think you'll find the NCL premier division is a higher standard than Championship U23 and next year will be a higher standard than Championship 1 probably. Would you rather Leigh sent a fringe player to Leigh Miners Rangers, Gateshead or a maybe 4 team U23 league? Bearing in mind LMR would be the highest standard of the three.

you'd want them playing at the highest possible standard.
My preferance would be to make a stronger, bigger under 23s.
If we start shoveling players out to NCL clubs what do the amateur players aim for.

A stronger bigger U23 isn't happening and is weaker than NCL anyway (apart from perhaps Featherstone U23 who ran away with the tiny league). And no reason amateur players can't play NCL as well. I'd limit the number of players each NCL club could have dual registration though.

Isn't it part of the criteria for sl admittance, for champ clubs to have u23s and other age groups, or has that been binned now?

Why the choice, why not both?

DR would benefit a lot of players but there's also a lot who'd develop better within a strong well run U23s competition. If we really want to do the best we can we should run both.

There's enough money in the game to run an U23s what the clubs lack is the conviction and integrity to commit to it long term, they don't trust themselves not to rob the funding and buy another ready made 1st teamer with it.

The message to the games decision makers, RFL & Clubs, should be 'grow up, stop short cutting the game, forget the quick fixes, bite the bullet and finance for the future not the now.

Suspect if the league folds it would be binned. At the moment Halifax only enter for that reason, Oldham only enter because one of their directors has a job running the U23s league and York only entered as a favour to the RFL which they regretted as they got slaughtered. Sheffield, Keighley and Featherstone buy into it but could just as easily do it through their local amateur club (getting them to join the NCL where appropriate). Featherstone thought the competition was too poor that they asked to move theirs to Championship 1.

Whatever the present system is, its not working...the youth structure isnt preparing junior players well enough for SL at all I dont think.

The fact supporters know virtually nothing about what is going on (despite clubs already giving press releases stating they have 'signed' to these deals) just shows how poor the RFL have become at communicating.

However lets take 'Hunslet Hawks'who next year will effectively become a training team to Leeds Rhino's and base this on some of the things heard thus far (namely that a club can have 10 players from the Parent club and that at least 6 can start a game for the training club) .

The Long Term Hunslet Hawk fan
-------------------------------------
This guy follows Hunslet because its 'his team' , he's not overly interested in results but more in the performance, he's followed them all his life as did his father and his grand father - its a family tradition and nowadays he also sponsors two players.
The ideal scenario for him is a team made up of local lads giving 100% week in week out for the jersey.
The enemy (and everything bad in RL in his eyes) is Leeds Rhino's, he doesn't care for them and would support any team who plays against them, the thought of watching a Leeds Rhino team in a Hunselt Hawk jersey doesn't appeal to him so he's now decided after 40 odd years of watching them that that's it for him.

The New Hunslet Hawk fan
----------------------------------------
Just moved into the area and likes the idea of watching the rugby, wants result and doesn't care how it comes , he likes the idea of this link up as Hunslet may win more games.
He is however a child of the modern era and he's somewhat 'put out' when he finds it out it will still cost him £20.00 to watch what is in effect a Leeds Rhino's reserves teams which last year cost him £5.00 to watch.
He's gonna stick at it for now to see if they win more than they lose, if they lose more then he's decided to watch Leeds Rhino's as after all he's virtually a Leeds fan now.

The Leeds Rhino fan
------------------------------
He's the fanatic, watches the Rhino's at all levels, he's old enough though to realise that Hunslet don't like him or his team, he wants to watch the Rhino's kids but is mindful they will be playing in Hunslet colours and that if he turns up in a Rhino's shirt he might not be made too welcome at the South Leeds Stadium.
He decides that its a minor risk and opts to go although he's a bit fed up to find out that his Rhino's season ticket doesn't give him free access to the South Leeds stadium so instead of watching the youngsters for free he now needs to spend £20.00 per game, he decides he'll skip it for now or just watch the occasional game.

The Championship part time Hunslet Hawk player
------------------------------------------------------------------
He likes his RL but also uses this as a way of supplementing his day to day job wages, he's a decent player and is well respected at Hunslet by the fans and in the area.
He's wary of the competition by the Leeds players but embraces it and makes a go of it, in the first season he feels like a father figure and runs the shop however in the second season 2 players from Leeds come in who can play in his position and he finds himself on the sidelines, unfortunately this means he gets no money as he's on matchday payments so he decides to go back to the amateur game as he still likes a match and feels it keeps him fit and he misses the crack.

The Local Hunslet amateur player(s)
-------------------------------------------------
1) This is the young kid who just couldn't make it at Bradford Bulls so found himself back at his amateur club , age is on his side and he wants a crack again at the pro game but is happy to step up a level to the local club, unfortunately he can't break into the Hunslet team as its now packed with youngsters from Leeds Rhino's, disheartened he gives up and decides RL isn't the sport for him.
2) This is the senior player who loves RL and likes a match, he's been a cracking amateur player and always won clubman of the year, he's the guy that runs the yearly trips to the Grand Final and Wembley.
The season starts ok but slowly more and more ex Hunslet Hawks players start to filter into the club as they can't get in the Semi Pro club, he gets left out and decides he's had enough of this and opts for the local RU club - after all its still Rugby and he enjoys the crack and whats the difference between a day out at Twickenham and a day out at Wembley.

The Leeds Rhino starlet
--------------------------------
He was made up to sign to Leeds Rhino's after playing well in the local Halifax leagues, he's told all his mates and family about how proud he is to sign for Leeds Rhino's.
It gives him a sense of pride that out of all the lads in the area he's made it to the big club whilst his mates have gone onto try their hand at Halifax.
However he finds himself not playing for Leeds Rhino's but playing for Hunslet Hawks , to make it worse he plays in a match v Halifax and all his mates are in that team - they don't half rib him about 'how well he's done', however he knuckles down and eventually breaks into the Rhino's team and becomes a class player.
Years later in his autobiography he writes about how he regrets turning down his local club as he feels the involvement with Halifax would have been just as good if not better if he had played for them as they where a far bigger team than Hunslet and even though Hunslet opened the door to Leed success he knew deep down he had the talent so he could have saved face and done it from Halifax and not felt like a outcast.

For Hunslet replace it with the name Swinton and York (so far) and -well you get the picture.
Possibly you may view it as a negative piece (possibly true - I'm totally against such a move) , you may think there are lots of positives of such link ups but with the greatest respect I'd imagine a lot of Championship fans will look at what I put above and see that in themselves or the players they follow or know.

A reduction of players playing RL and a possible reduction of spectators paying to watch RL isn't a good move IMHO.

thats a lovely straw man you have made there.

Worst case scenario

Now do best case

Same as the worst case I fear.

My first thought was what if the 2 clubs meet in the CC?
Also I can imagine lots of 20 and under year olds being rather happy about it.

How did you reach that conclusion?

Surely the key should be with the Championship reserve side is what player make up the side....

Keighley's team against Sheffield for the final match of the season had an average age of 19 , we had one first teamer who was on return from long term injury and ALL the players in the 17 had come through either the Clubs Scholarship System or the Cougar Cubs local side .

Throughout the season that figure of home produced players never fell below 13 or 14 players . 4 or 5 of those lads look set to join the first team squad next year and they'll be replaced by lads from our Current U18 scholarship in the reserves..

The production line is rolling ,why stop it ??

Because very few clubs think like Keighley. What's the point of an U23 team if there aren't enough clubs for a league.