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?

Good, I've been asking that question for about the last 4 pages.


Not because of Harrisons comments more Rowleys with Lynda.

I for one hope we can keep it that way.

Its an informal arrangement thats benefits both clubs, that how I read it

If it was informal then you would be able to take Dual reg from any untwinned SL teams, as it is you can only take from Wigan therfore not as informal as you hope. I've heard of rose tinted specs but my god, some are wearing Leigh coloured Balaclavers and burying your head in the sand, Come january we will see whats what and who is twinned with who etc, I expect next year to be a totally different animal to this last year with all this twinning e going on. some of the lower teams will be mid table teams etc. Certainly some of the DR players that might be offered will be no where near some of the quality you have in your squad already and given what PR achieved last year with what he had available i would just leave him to it as i thought he did a magnificent job.

Where is starbug these days ?. Is he still on a voluntary vacation from the forum ?.

Mish , Could the reason behind the wall of silence be that they know what the reaction of the townsfolk would be ?? .

I think I could tolerate an arrangement along the lines of what PR told Linda , where we have the final say in who gets played and who doesn't , besides I wouldn't mind seeing us use some of the Goons higher profile squad players in a Leigh shirt helping us out in an already competetive league , as long as it's on our terms .

What does concern me a bit is would the Pies have any chance of enticing any talented u23's who have come through the Leigh ranks behind our backs ? .

@ Mish , Will Leiyth wireless service via LeighLife be broadcasting the fans forum on November 7th ? , It could be velly interesting indeed and break all previous records for a LWS broadcast .

Sadly Starbug made an announcement that he was leaving the forum forever, definitely never hear from me again etc but fortunately he does make an occasional appearance but generally he now appears as the above Dick

Alan and Lynda have told us at this moment in time we have nothing more than an informal agreement, that’s completely different from a Formal Partnership, and a situation which although not ideal one I can live with.

As for Starbug I miss him too.

Lots of people seem to think the reserve players in the league above would wipe the floor with some of the top Championship sides. They wouldn't as there isn't that depth of quality in their reserve sides.

PR is a proven good coach and will not be taking any players from the Pies unless he thinks they are good enough and will suit our clubs needs.

Leigh RLFC will continue as an independant club or they will go under. We all know that and fans of other clubs who can't understand that (not to mention Karl Harrison) amaze me with their ridiculous conclusions.

Jesus wept, those who have some kind of involvement in the club have all said that there will be no twinning. Alan has gone to great lengths to try to explain the situation and STILL folk would rather believe some Fax troll - I give up.

THERE WILL BE NO TWINNING.......ever.

When people talk about the quality of SL 'U/23's' it's worth remembering that Leigh took the young W***n team to the cleaners, in a pre-season game. Whilst these kids are undeniably quality, it's a huge ask for them to compete against grown men. That's why Tony Smith has been more than happy to send his youngsters to us in the past

I also asked the club to comment today, on the rumours that Sam Tomkins, Kevin Sinfield and James Roby are joining us next season. They refuse to comment on the pathetic premise that they don't want to say anything because nothing has been signed yet! I'm cancelling my four seaosn tickets, that I've foolishly already ordered, as a result!

Ah but I bet you didn't ask about Darren Lockyer did you? Everyone thinks he's coming to Leigh to do 'An audience with' but I know for a fact that he's the new ball boy at Leigh. Of course they're all denying it but I don't believe a word they say.

Mish, I did try and resolve this by asking the correct person directly, its silly season again you can tell, look back and nearly every October we get this sort of negativity on here.
I believe what Paul told me and the directors are not stupid enough to know, what the fans reaction would be to a "twinning".
I know unless the Club come out and give more info on this subject everyone should turn up at the Fans Forum and ask the correct/relevant people the questions as listening to Fax fans etc is laughable.
I HEARD THEY WERE TWINNING WITH WIDNES TODAY BTW

Me too, Alan especially when I heard we was going in with Widnes instead and Paul Cullen was coming to do the coaching, it really is a sad state of affairs

It seems to me that those who are a little closer to the Leigh BOD than most hint at some partnership with a SL club, but if one of the hundreds of loyal supporters who are aware of no such thing voice any questions or concerns, they brush it off as hysteria or silly season. I just do not understand.

On here I have learned we have a community partnership with a SL club, A DC player partnership with said SL club, where we can play (if we so wish I understand) up to 5 players, but only from this SL club and some kind of U23's joint partnership where we can request coaching assistance/ development but only from the aforementioned same SL club and who really knows what else?

But we read posts on here we are not a 'feeder' club and we are not a 'twinned' club.

However the club chooses not to bother to inform any of it's loyal fans about this partnership, or anything about the RFL vision and the direction that Leigh will follow as some clubs sign up to it whilst other clubs instantly dismiss any talk or possibility of following suit?

What kind of similar partnerships are the top championship clubs Featherstone, Halifax and Sheffield entering into if any? They all say they will remain 'stand alone' clubs but does that still leave with scope for a partnership?

The fact is we are keeping our supporters in the dark.

And before anyone say's we will not be a feeder club, can someone point out where ANY club in a formal twinned partnership have come out and said lines to the effect

" We are now a feeder club!!"

What on earth is going on at our club?