So it looks like we won't have a reserve team this season. While on a philosophical point that does seem a crying shame, does it make any difference in practical terms? How many games were played last season? How many clubs had a reserve team. Is it practical to have 2 teams running with the salary cap as it is? Given current injury levels in the sport how many players would be the minimum in a squad needed to run a Reserve competition in which every club had a team?

A total of 21 games were played last season. Wigan, St Helens, Wakefield, Keighley, Leigh and Halifax are all that's left.

Philosophically, a strong reserve grade competition is a good thing. It allows SL clubs to blood in younger players, as well as allow the clubs to keep some squad players playing regular decent level rugby.

However it's not really relevant with our league's structure.

The NRL has a great reserve grade competition, which is based on feeder clubs and is a bit of a hybrid league between a reserve team system for the NRL clubs, and independent clubs.

But we have the Championship, which contains actual independent clubs.

We've tried to sort of emulate the NRL model, with duel registrations, but it's not quite the same as how the NRL do it.

We simply don't have the depth of quality in the British game to run a decent standard Super League, Championship and Super League Reserve grade competitions, and if hardly any SL clubs are running reserve sides, then it's pretty pointless.

It is a shame, but given the amount of clubs that actually took it up, not much of a surprise.

In terms of salary cap, I don't think it has a huge impact, we used academy players, and players like Lee Mitchell in the reserves last year I believe (as well as squad players needing game time), as Mitchell was never going to play in a SL game, his salary wouldn't have counted on the cap, neither would academy players outside of teh SL squad. There is obviously a cost to the club for having these extra players, but I think Briers mentioned it was only £50k or so?

Not sure whether us leaving is Price wanting to do things different, or whether its the frustration of the amount of fixtures able to be played.

Well I honestly didn't know this or envisaged it either.
Huge backwards step imo.

However if the other sl arnt buying into it...what is the point.

30k was the cost quoted in 2016 when we were one of the few arguing the toss over it, and it paid off for us, and for a few players like david thompson, sean kenny and the other fella i can't remember that went to salford, there were moans at the time that other SL clubs who had injury problems and invested in overseas players, were coming to us *coff widnes asking for loans.

Last year we tried to do it again, and it was other clubs letting the side down.

It'd be interesting to hear what Pricey's view on a reserve grade is. Whether he's in favour or not.

This must be another nail in the coffin of RL.Back in the day when the game was semi professional the step up from amateur was relatively easy so the path from school team to first team was fairly seamless. Today there is a vast gulf between SL and the rest of the game and unless that is plugged I fear for the future.

It's so easy to fix.
Cut the number of overseas players to three and/or reduce the Sky tv money by £100K for the teams who don't run reserve grade teams.
It's very difficult for young players to go straight from U19's academy into regular first team rugby.

The other thing I would do is to have eight players on the subs bench, four of whom had to be twenty-one or under at the start of the season. From those eight I would allow six substitutions, one you're off you're off, and let stamina again be part of the game.

Would you like a salary cut to fund a yts program?

It's something they could look at at the next tv rights deal.

Unfortunately self interest rules our game, and the lack of a reserve competition is a good example of that.

Without enough reserve grade players coming through the clubs there will be no peer pressure for individuals to up their game in order to gain a first team place & what are we going to fill our teams with if the money driven exodus of overseas players continues. We all know contracts are not worth the paper they are written on.Without quality reserves coming through international games will soon be a thing of the past.

Problems in the reserve grade go back a few years to when the RFL played around with the levels (many at the time said that the old levels worked for player development better and they never listened) and then took no action when Salford and Catalan pulled their reserve structures (Featherstone and Sheffield taking there place at the time). 2017s reserve competition was meaningless with very few teams being involved. The dual registration system has its benefits (nothing is better for development than game time) and also its pitfalls (local lads miss out) but maybe Warrington's decision actually has more to do with supporting lower grade rugby than first appeared. By allowing Warrington players on dual registrations, it may be a way for Rochdale to play out theri season and have the time to get on a stable financial footing. https://getemonsideblog.wordpress.com/2 ... ifficulty/

Problems in the reserve grade go back a few years to when the RFL played around with the levels (many at the time said that the old levels worked for player development better and they never listened) and then took no action when Salford and Catalan pulled their reserve structures (Featherstone and Sheffield taking there place at the time). 2017s reserve competition was meaningless with very few teams being involved. The dual registration system has its benefits (nothing is better for development than game time) and also its pitfalls (local lads miss out) but maybe Warrington's decision actually has more to do with supporting lower grade rugby than first appeared. By allowing Warrington players on dual registrations, it may be a way for Rochdale to play out theri season and have the time to get on a stable financial footing. https://getemonsideblog.wordpress.com/2 ... ifficulty/