Hornets back community game

Hornets beat NCL high flyers Rochdale Mayfield 44-6 in January

Rochdale Hornets chief Ryan Bradley welcomes the proposals of a dual registration agreement between the professional game and the NCL.

Hornets, who won their first trophy in 91 years in the first year of their partnership with reigning Super League champions St Helens, are firm supporters of a system that would players to return to their amateur clubs on a week by week basis.

"We really do believe that allowing lads to play in the NCL if they aren't selected for Championship/League 1 duty is the right thing to do" commented Bradley, who is part of the working set up by the RFL which includes the NCL Management group.

"We use in excess of 30 players each season and a number of these players come from the NCL.

"If they don't catch for us, they should be able to go back and play in the community game. As a sport, we shouldn't be stopping lads playing.

"If every championship/league 1 team has ten players that aren't selected, that's an extra 260 lads not playing our sport on a weekend, which is a crying shame given some NCL clubs are struggling for players which in turn pulls players from A teams."

Hornets have ran A teams and reserves in the past, but Bradley believes a wholesale return to reserves is not the answer.

"If we run a reserves we would just be taking more lads out of the amateur game to fill shirts for our first teamers. The numbers just aren't there to do it.

"Plus the standard in the NCL is better. Why would a Mayfield lad want to play for Hornets reserves?

"We've tried it with reserves and lads get fed up of just missing out on championship rugby and then being asked to play in make shift reserve sides when their NCL club is clambering to have them back.

"That can't be right, as a game we can't be telling players they aren't allowed to play because they are trying to better themselves, we should let them play."

Bradley would want to see a totally fluid system with all players free to move each week, but appreciates it may never happen.

"The NCL is a very prestigious competition and the management committee and clubs don't want to jeopardise that.

"The proposals that have been worked on are driven to protect that competition's integrity.

"The pro clubs started off a long way from this proposal but during talks with NCL officials we could see what they wanted to achieve and believe the proposals in the current guise offer the best solution to all."

A decision from the NCL is due shortly, as plans for 2016 are already being made.

Bradley added: "We have had some players successfully make the step up from NCL. Tony Suffolk is our treble player of the year and Ryan Smith, who was NCL top scorer last year, has featured heavily.