: Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:47 pm
Johnismental I have long held the belief that being a feeder club under any guise for example having partnerships with other clubs immediately weakens the identity of the club involved.
Lets take York who amongst other clubs have a partnership deal with the Rhinos, the premise behind this is basically to allow the super league clubs chance to keep fringe players fit by loaning etc, I think this will increase sadly as time goes on.
Dont forget this also helps the super league clubs with the salary cap.
When partnership clubs are loaned players it is not for the benefit of anyone except the super league club. All this does is reduce the chance of local players getting a chance.
Anyone who really believes these partnerships are anything less than another version of the start of feeder clubs are missing the trick.