St. Rughead wrote:
I know, but it's not as though Rochdale/Whitehaven are our reserve teams, we don't own them or anything like that, so I doubt we have any say in team selection.
You're joking, right?
One of our own coaches is the head coach of Rochdale and he picks the team each week so we couldn't really get closer to ownership than that without actually paying some money! As for Whitehaven, that is a looser arrangement, yes, in that Woods is in charge as head coach. But even so, the point was to develop players and so I would imagine that if Whitehaven need a centre or winger or perhaps a fullback, Makinson would be requested or Saints would be asked whether anyone suitable was available or perhaps Saints would suggest they have a player available who can play in certain positions and does Whitehaven need anyone in those positions this week. That's how I imagine it working out with Whitehaven anyway but with Rochdale we definitely do have the final say in player choice as we coach the team!
Having players like Gaskell and Makinson is going to benefit Championship teams, wherever they play (within reason).
It doesn't benefit either Gaskell or Makinson though, given that both have played in Superleague grand finals, except to keep them from totally stagnating. Over 21s shouldn't be allowed to play in the Championship teams IMO; that's one of the (numerous?) wrongs about this arrangement.