Peckerwood wrote:
I'd like to see a return of an open age reserve league, or 'A' team. That alongside an U18/19's league and split the U16/15's back into separate competitions.
This could give players who are too old to play in an age restrictive league to still have the opportunity to play at a high standard with a chance of still playing Super League if they're good enough.
Nowadays it seems once you're pat the age of 20, and haven't had an opportunity in the first team, you're discarded and left to be picked up by Championship clubs or go back to amateur rugby.
I'd love an open age reserve team but I can't see where clubs would get the money from. Even Man United don't have a full reserves team.
It'd cost roughly £300-450k for SL clubs. The only clubs that can afford (or who's owner would be willing to put extra in) would be Leeds and Salford.
But you'd need a league of at least 10 clubs to make it worthwhile.
As I said I'd love a reserves league as I firmly believe it's the biggest factor in the gap between NRL and SL. I'm just not sure it's possible without significant extra funding. SL would need to find an extra £6m either from clubs increasing revenues or extra tv/sponsorship money.