Re: OUT 2020 | Brett Ferres - Featherstone Rovers : Thu Nov 14, 2019 1:55 pm
The Phantom Horseman wrote:
The Leeds/Fev DR arrangement has worked really well for BOTH clubs, far more so than for nearly every other DR link-up.
Fev have been able to slot quality players into the team, and almost to a man they have all arrived with an excellent attitude to playing Championship RL.
Leeds have benefitted with some younger fringe players getting regular gametime in a good-quality Championship team in meaningful games, often in front of fairly good crowds. There are plenty of them who have come on in leaps and bounds which has made that leap to SL so much easier. Newman was one of those in 2018 but this year the progress of Alex Sutcliffe and McLelland, in particular, has been off the charts.
Sutcliffe was virtually a forgotten man prior to this season, indeed he was only drafted into the Fev squad when Cam Smith was pulled out late one day, but he has progressed steadily to the extent that if he were a Fev player rather than a Leeds one Fev would have been inundated with enquiries from SL teams.
McLelland looked a bit lost on his first couple of games for Fev but made dramatic progress and was giving some good Championship teams all sorts of problems in the play-offs, helped by having Chisholm as the other half to take some of the pressure off him.
Who knows whether those two will play more for Fev or for Leeds this season, but players of that calibre surely aren't going to be playing for the reserves (as others have noted, five of Fev's reserve team from last season have been nominally promoted to Fev's 1st team with a view to playing the the Leeds reserve team).
Fev have been able to slot quality players into the team, and almost to a man they have all arrived with an excellent attitude to playing Championship RL.
Leeds have benefitted with some younger fringe players getting regular gametime in a good-quality Championship team in meaningful games, often in front of fairly good crowds. There are plenty of them who have come on in leaps and bounds which has made that leap to SL so much easier. Newman was one of those in 2018 but this year the progress of Alex Sutcliffe and McLelland, in particular, has been off the charts.
Sutcliffe was virtually a forgotten man prior to this season, indeed he was only drafted into the Fev squad when Cam Smith was pulled out late one day, but he has progressed steadily to the extent that if he were a Fev player rather than a Leeds one Fev would have been inundated with enquiries from SL teams.
McLelland looked a bit lost on his first couple of games for Fev but made dramatic progress and was giving some good Championship teams all sorts of problems in the play-offs, helped by having Chisholm as the other half to take some of the pressure off him.
Who knows whether those two will play more for Fev or for Leeds this season, but players of that calibre surely aren't going to be playing for the reserves (as others have noted, five of Fev's reserve team from last season have been nominally promoted to Fev's 1st team with a view to playing the the Leeds reserve team).
Take the point about crowds and meaningful games, and under the last coach (who ended up being assistant at Leeds too), it did seem to work very well - albeit one or two players over there from Leeds were never going to come back.
A Sutcliffe is an interesting one but can you see him getting past Newman or Hurrell, or into Leeds' first grade back row?
I'm just not convinced that players can't progress just as well, or maybe better, in a properly coached and supported Leeds Reserve team. We just haven't had one for years to compare.
For me I still think DR has a place on a case by case basis for individual players, but it isn't a perfect system for all. I'll prefer to see more players brought up through Leeds systems throughout.
Is there anything to stop some SL sides fielding their Reserve sides in the Championship in future? The NRL seems to work pretty well in conjunction with the Cup competitions.
