Well lets put it this way.

I have no influence with our coaching staff or Board of Directors.

I have followed our club since 1956.

I thought licenscing was the wrong way to go for the pro game and I also think this latest Twinning idea is plain crazy and is a blatent excuse for giving the current Cartel' which now exists for the clubs currently and ridiculously exempt from relegation' an opportunity to save money at the expense of clubs who can never aspire' or currently never think they can aspire to be in the top league of our game.

Why would anyone be a coach of our club' or on our Board of Directors if they thought all our club could do is provide a training camp for Non Relegation club reserves but not at the Non Relegation clubs expense ?

In my time watching pro RL there isn't one UK side I haven't see Leigh beat although we never beat one club who no longer exists.

Leigh RLFC being a feeder club for the Pies'who incidentally' still owe our club for a set of shirts' is not possible and if you are a Leyther why don't you know that ?

Perhaps on your next visit you would explain how Leigh Schools being covered by Leigh staff isn't parochialism.

Well Fred and I don't always agree' however his point is that youth who take up the game' should be encouraged whatever parish their trainers come from.

I think people forget how much "pie people" have contributed to our team over the years!
In recent memory would fans rather Keiron Purtill, Andy Fairclough, John Duffy, Chris Hill etc had not played for us?
I know it is a two way street and Betts, Gidart etc went the other way but we are too geographically close for it to be otherwise.
As long as we are a stand alone club I will welcome pie-eaters to the fold!
I did marry a Wiganner though so maybe I'm getting soft...

Its the fans forum on the 7th November, all with concerns(if they can wait till then) must attend and voice these concerns.
If people can't wait till then I suggest they ring the club or call in and see what the club tells them, rather then let other clubs fans, and managers wind them up.

Lynda I am grateful to you for asking, (like Alan and Fred do on occasions), but like others I wasn’t aware we even had a Partnership last season with any club, was you or anyone on here?

Doesn’t this make Harrison right, in that we do currently have a partnership with Wigan? Whether he’s right in the context of the new SL/Championships partnerships or our partnership is a different animal, I don’t know.

But unless the club come out and clarify it then they can’t moan if people get hold of the wrong end of a ty stick, and decide to keep away.

Paul did say, however" we were equal partners"

So it means that we are equal partners but there is no partnership. Couldn't be clearer.

Toady you are so right





i to married a Wiganer , you forgot to add my owd mate Dave Ingram to this lot , they have all served the Leigh Club well id love to see youngsters like Lewis Tierney , and George Williams play at Leigh in a couple of years time , but again Leigh MUST be a Stand Alone club .

I don't believe that our independence is being jeopardised by any part of the current arrangement with Wigan. If I believed for a moment that it was then I'd be raising a resistance army and planning to march on Pieland to bring death and destruction.

The way I see it, neither club are under any onerous obligations.



There is a partnership. What there isn't is of the RFL's god awful formal twinning partnerships in place.

Very True Michael , i to would be Totally against anything that would threaten our Independance , but it wont happen , many Wiganers i know have been saying for a while now "We should help Leigh ", and i feel the D-R system does benefit both clubs , i was told this morning that young Sam Powell would be a good D-R for us .

The way you see what? I haven’t seen anything other than the RFL statement about twinning partnerships.

The DC arrangement was brought in by the RFL operating rules a couple of seasons back. Is it allowed in the RFL operating rules to have DC’s from a club without having their Twinning partnership agreement in place?

I know people are saying its not an issue it’s the same as last time, how do we know that, when most didn’t even know we had one last season

If we had this arrangement with Warrington, would you be as worried/concerned? Or is it because its Wigan?

If you’re asking me, its anyone

Trialist, loan’s, dc’s have always been part of the game, but formal partnerships with one other club, they deciding which 5 from 8 (or whatever it is) you can have*. Plus possibly supplying coaches (perhaps not this year but...), takes it to a whole new level.


*Yes I know they have decided previously if a certain dc is available or not, but at least we could tell them to stuff it and go elsewhere.

The way things stand at the moment, the D/C arrangement will work much like last season, except there will be 5, rather than 4, and it appears we may be restricted to taking them from one club. (and let's face it, there could be worse clubs than W***n to take them from) I honestly do not believe it will be a case of "perm 5 from 8" or any other number, although remember, last season we could use more than 4, (e.g. Brierley, Spencer, Laithwaite, Mendeika, Shaw, Nash) but could only have 4 at any one time.

Also, is there anything stopping us taking someone on LOAN, from say Warrington, in the new arrangement, which only appears to cover D/C's?

I do not believe the club has signed up to any actual arrangement with any SL club, as yet. Now, it could well be that they do enter into an arrangement with say W***n, but that arrangement would be for the mutual benefit of BOTH clubs. Whatever the arrangement, I cannot for the life of me see it being "twinning' or as a "feeder" club. Our BOD is acutely aware of our need to retain our name and independence, for the club to progress.

Alan I guess you doing the program and sitting on the Psg have more knowledge of whats going on at the Club than any of the people asking? On the site (I exclude Linda from that)
I do not think anyone has a problem with D/C players although I and many more would like to see the day we don’t need them
The word Partnership with Wigan is the sticking point to must leythers and you must realise that yourself especially when no one at the club wants to put on the web site exactly what Partnership term means
You mention their could be worse clubs than Wigan to form a partnership with am I to understand then that you have been lured into the believe this partnership is for the benefit of Leigh their is only one club to benefit from this arrangement guess who
And to the ? is it becose its Wigan Answer Yes

17 pages on and all that has been said is:-
You can now have 5 dual reg from Wigan only, you can still have season long loans from any club, PR picks the team and any good coach would pick the best team available to him, you are not wanting any coaching assistance from Wigan. But could ask should your club need.

How does this differ from any of the other twinnings, partnerships, whatever you want to call them, the answer is that it doesn't an is exactly the same. The only difference is the said agreement has not been put in the public domain for obvious reasons. Some of you grasp that, others refuse to see what is blatantly there!!. Otherwise the club would have spent 5 minutes clearing this up by putting something out there to deny it.

With due respect your posts' conclusions are what you want to believe.

I am not dense. I know Leigh RLFC will never be a feeder club for the Pies or any other club.

Our club holds regular fans forums and any fan who is concerned about anything connected with our club may ask any question they like. The next meeting is November 7.

Come along Faxhali.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions about season long loans - I suspect our coach would prefer that option, over D/C's any day.

At the risk of boring everyone completely, I would re-iterate the FACT that the club hasn't actually signed any agreement with any other club, despite what Karl Harrison may/may not believe. (Has anyone seen such an announcement from W***n?) That's why nothing has been 'put in the public domain'. Nobody can really expect the club to put out announcements about what hasn't happened.

Now it could well be that there may be some form of agreement being discussed. And you are right to an extent - you can call such an agreement whatever you wish, be it 'partnership', 'agreement', 'mutually beneficial arrangement' etc. (but not 'twinning' or feeder club', because I'm sure it would not be that type of arrangement) I don't know what the details of such an agreement will be, but I'm sure we are looking to maximise the benefits to Leigh, of any such agreement.

I believe Rochdale have taken one of Saints' coaching staff on board? Coincidentally, we are looking to appoint an Under 23's coach! However, my money will be on that appointment going to a local man, who certainly isn't with W***n, or any other SL team.

By the way, I should add that I personally don't feel comfortable with having to rely, in any shape or form, on players from any other club, either. However, with our desperately small playing budget, and an increase in fixtures, then we would be fools not to take advantage of any assistance from W***n, or anywhere else, for that matter. The vital condition, in my opinion, is that we don't sell our identity, in the process, and I can guarantee that our BOD feels the same way.

It may well be a short term fix for a season to save money and regather going forward into 2014, who could blame a club for that, it's certainly better than a Bradford scenario, the whole " using" of championships as a whole is the bigger problem and one that seems more Likely to get worse.

Have any of you considered that maybe the reason the club hasn't announced anything is because the RFL haven't formalised the plans yet, and therefore the club hasn't got anything to announce because even they don't know the full rules/regulations of forming a partnership? So how can they answer questions they don't know the answer to?

I really don't know what all the fuss is about. Leigh will not and never will be a feeder club to Wigan or anybody else.

York are partnering with Hull FC next year. That means we can use up to 5 out of 8 lads from their first team who aren't playing.

York's aim this year is the play-offs, and if we get any lads in from Hull who will strengthen our team then great, but they will have to fight for their place just like the 25 lads that are already signed on will. I trust Gary Thornton's judgement, I'm sure you do with Paul Rowley.

St Helens are going one step further with Rochdale, having offered them use of their world class facilities and expertise, as well as recommending them a highly rated young English coach in Ian Talbot. Is that such a bad thing for them? Ian Talbot's job is to build a strong squad for Rochdale. If that includes 5 prospects from St Helens, whats the problem? They will still need a squad of 20 more players to compete.

I tell you what though, Rugby League fans really are World class at knee-jerking...

I do remember an announcment last year , i think it was along the lines of wig@ns new coach is prepared to deal with us better than previous coaches and loan or d/c us some decent players or prospects. I stand to be corrected but wasn't Neil Turley a product of wig@ns development pathway but wasn't given the chance at first team as Wig@ns medical people spotted a possible weakness with his back, the rest as we know is history ( and why did Neil have to retire???). I douibt very much Leigh would or could become a feeder club as you would have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not know what the implications would be.

And you refer to my posts as 'half baked' ?

Look up [iparochalism[/i during your absence Fred. It may take you a while but once you understand it please do come back on.

If it is so fantastic, why have so many experts within the field (including Rush) condemned the changes? Are they all just knee jerking?