So looks like common sense has finally prevailed and they will be a mandatory reserves competition next year with all 11 SL clubs (minus Catalans) plus us & Widnes a long with other Champ/L1 clubs who have applied. Two points.

1. Halleuagh! Finally a pathway for young players to develop.

2. Big implications for Champ clubs next year who rely heavily on D/R as they just won't be the players available next year. Don't want to get into a D/R slanging match but Fev have used 20+ players either through loans or D/R. That's an entire squad almost. Don't blame clubs for using the system but it has been a farce with players like Brad Singleton coming in for one game. Hopefully it now stops.

I'm not sure that's necessarily going to be true. Lots of players have been loaned out this year even though their teams run reserve teams. With the age range for academy players being reduced to 18, a lot of reserves line-ups are going to be a mixture of fringe players and youngsters, but it remains to be seen whether players like Danny Richardson, Luke Briscoe etc are expected to spend the entire year in the reserves waiting for injuries to 1st teamers rather than play in the increasingly high-quality Championship.

Wasn't dual reg brought in as a replacement for the reserves comp when it was scrapped?
So what's happening from next year onwards, are both systems going to still be running? Won't one of them kind of make the other redundant?

From what I've read Dual reg and loans are unaffected.

There'll be an U18s and a Reserve Grade.

DR and Loans still available too I think.

Good news about it reverting back to U18s as well as it will allow those graduating from the scholarship more game time rather than hardly playing for a year because they're not physically ready to play someone 2 years older than them.

Dr is staying but with a regular reserve comp it will limit the players available for the SL club to send out. So we
SHOULD avoid the farce of experienced players like Brad Singleton & Mitch Clark playing in 1 game in the championship, never to be seen again after that. The players that will be sent out on DR will probably be sent out reguarly to that club anyway

Hmm, I'm not so sure. Lowering the age of the under 18s will now mean that most clubs will have a reserves side without even trying - all the 19 year old kids that automatically become too old for the academy simply because of the rule change.
Using Leeds as an example, they will have 18s and under in the academy, 19s and above in the reserves, and first team fringe players out on dual reg at Fev. I wouldn't be surprised if it hardly changes anything at all.

However, I still think it is a step in the right direction and can only help to keep those players who might have been let go at 19/20 in the game far longer.

For me this is spot on.

Maybe the likes of Brad Singleton returning from injury may play in the reserves rather than going out on DR, but I'm not totally convinced that it will pan out this way entirely.

Without thinking i'm trolling as its not meant like that, as a Fev fan where do you sit on loans/DR you have obviously utiised it well, would you have concerns going forward if there was a lack of availability?

My cousin (who I recently found out was) is at Fev in the reserves, could you see more reserve players of yours pushing for first team if your options are limited?

If I was a Fev fan I wouldn't be too bothered given how they've gone in the league. What would bother me was what would happen if they looked like they were going to be promoted. If they went up they'd have to recruit almost an entirely new squad and start an academy from scratch. In their situation Inwonder if they've settled for top 5 but don't want promotion because of the upheaval it would cause.

Definitely mate, more work than on the face of it. Wonder how it will apply to Toronto should they go up

My views are well documented across a number of forums. For me it's simple get rid of DR and let's just have the loan system. DR was brought in to save SL clubs money by not having reserve teams, but is a false economy for the game. with it we have had a shrinking player pool, which eventfully means that there will be a reduced quality in the player pool available. less quality equals less interest equals less revenues for the sport including TV.

Personally I would like to see all clubs in the top two tiers have to run reserve sides and to remove DR.

Hope your cousin is as good as Render who has come through this year and the likes of Bussy & Copper who have come through in previous years. Render only joined this year due to the reserves starting back up and got his first team opportunity due to an injury during warm up to a game and now he has made 14 first team appearances. So I think the opportunities are there if you have the ability and are willing to apply yourself.