2 Games into the league campaign and this from Hunslet, as time goes on it will be 5 DR in each team as well as Swintons trick of signing year long loans. Goodbye Identity.
The club stated that our dual registration strategy for 2013 would be an arrangement whereby we would have 4 players from Leeds Rhinos joining the club on long term dual registration agreements. Since that initial announcement, we have always been open and honest about our plans in both our communications to our supporters and the rugby league community in general.
The dual registration agreement has in fact only seen us take 3 players on long term dual registration agreements for the 2013 Kingstone Press Championship, in Jimmy Keinhorst, Jimmy Watson and Liam Hood.
Since our strategy was put in place it has become clear that other Kingstone Press Championship clubs would be using a much wider selection of dual registration options with Workington Town for example dual registering the entire Widnes Vikings squad.
We also note with interest that the high profile option of fielding Kylie Leuluai and Richard Moore in last week’s game at Leigh Centurions drew much attention. When In actual fact Dewsbury, Doncaster, Keighley, Swinton, Whitehaven, Workington and York all fielded dual registration players with over 100 Super League appearances between them at the weekend. Two of these players represented Dewsbury. This is not a criticism by any means, we are simply highlighting that this is happening across the majority of clubs. These clubs are operating within the rules, but it does outline that the change in our approach to dual registration is necessary to remain competitive.
It also outlines a significantly unfair and bias press attitude to the Hunslet and Leeds partnership given that we are operating no differently to a number of other partnerships. In fact we would like to place on record here the very positive way in which Gary Hetherington and his team at Leeds have approached our partnership.
Our key responsibility as a Board of Directors is to react quickly to changing circumstances to ensure we remain competitive and retain our current League status whilst maintaining financial sustainability and viability moving forward. To that end it would be foolish of any business not to maximise the opportunities available within its market place. Accordingly we will now look to do that by working closely with Leeds Rhinos to dual register other players where we feel that will offer a potential benefit to both clubs. It is important to note that all playing decisions at Hunslet Hawks will be the sole remit of our Director of Rugby Darren Williams and our Head Coach Barry Eaton.
In an ideal world of course, ourselves and all Championship clubs would not need to enter into partnerships or dual registration agreements. In our case as a 'supporter owned' club and without a significant benefactor or significant crowd levels we have to look to other means of sustainability to maintain and grow our club and more importantly to make Hunslet Hawks competitive on the field. To that end we make no apologies for acting within the rules.
