I see GH has come out and said he now supports a reserve grade, so long as its not used to stockpile players.

Quite clearly the main driver behind this is that we have a whole bunch of Academy players who the club wants to keep who won't necessarily be ready for regular first team games next season (he also mentioned Waite-Pullan and Alex Sutcliffe). Using DR plus loans is OK if you have 2/3 junior players to manage, but we've got far too many for it to be able to work effectively. The current system also means we have to make too many early calls - long contracts vs release at 17/18 is a stupidly all-or-nothing approach given the difficulty in picking winners from the best juniors.

When you add in the returning injured players, half of whom don't get to play any game at all before going straight into the first team, its all a bit of a joke really.

I also imagine Furner wants more control over junior development given that his job is to turn things around in 3 years. He's far more likely to get that level of oversight through a reserve team far more than with players out at a number of clubs.

Whilst I agree with the reasons, GH is hypocritical to the max - he was happy with DR when we weren't focused on youth, but he now backs a reserve grade when we are. Its also ridiculous saying that a reserve grade is fine so long as clubs aren't 'stockpiling' players, given that he wants to do exactly that with our current crop of Academy players - i.e. keep them at the club and not let them be lured away before we get the chance to decide if they'll make it.

Totally agree with GH.We put the time money and development into this latest crop youngsters

We used to have an U18’s academy and an U21’s academy with a few overage players allowed. This setup was ideal and only scrapped because of short sighted clubs looking to save a couple of grand. We should return to this system, with the best young players going out on loan to Championship clubs.

Agree with the O/P, the need for a reserves grade is apparent. If it's taken Furner's input to achieve this change of heart then regardless of wherever first team results take him, he'll have achieved something.

18s and 21s is definitely the way to go in my opinion.

The decision to back reserve grade is spot on and so are the reasons given.
A change of mind however doesn't mean it's hypocritical at all it's simply now a better time to implement it.
Not every u19 will get a DR/Loan deal and its also a perfect set up to ease injured players back into action.
The u19's will still be subject to interest elsewhere & playing reserve grade wont stop that either nor will it automatically encourage them to stay in the hope they'll break through.
It's a great decision both at club level and for the sport in general there's nothing cynical or hypocritical in that

Its not hypocritical, he has simply changed his mind taken a different view as circumstances at the club have changed. People do change their pount of view.

I just think he’s given in a losing battle to try and keep DR. I think GH’s view is that DR is the better way (so do I) but virtually no-one was using it and even Leeds and Fev didn’t use it as it was needed to be used.
DR works with a licensed SL, it probably doesn’t with P&R.

Couple of mentions about Furner's input but I suspect this is more likely to have come from Sinfield given he has "control" over "rugby operations".

Either way, I'm not really bothered. It's the right call.

Used to enjoy watching the “A” Team back in the day!

I'd say it is a bit hypocritical given his previous stance on how DR was for the good of the game, but now as soon as we want to be able to keep hold of players it doesn't work so well. What GH is arguing is exactly why Wigan wanted a reserve competition previously and GH was one of the most conspicuous opponents of bringing it back.

Regardless, the current DR and loan system is just a nonsense. The original idea was OK if we had franchises and feeder clubs - those feeder teams would have ended up being de facto reserve sides anyway. Right now we just have a poor system with championship teams getting and losing random players and SL sides unable to make sure everyone who is injured or making the step up from the Academy gets a game before the first team.

As someone mentioned earlier John Holmes used to turn out for the A team...it was a total joy watching him play at any level but guiding a young team around was an education.