The 2025 Rl Championship is becoming a joke as regards players contracts. The RL administrators have allowed this by allowing agents to tempt players away part way through the season. In the last two weeks Widnes have lost Lannon & now Reilly half way through the season. To be fair we exploited it ourselves to acquire Lannon last year from Halifax.
This has to stop & it can easily be resolved by the RL administrators changing the current rules & move the current approachable date from May to September or October. I am not at all confident the RL will act so hopefully Widnes are contacting other Championship & League 1 clubs to lobby the RL over this. It is not rocket science & it is blindly obvious doing so would stop this farcical situation. Our game is becoming an absolute joke & is detracting from what is a very competetive competition.
This could be resolved so easily.
I agree Geoff, the problem is the player can just stay away or say he’s not fit, and we’re still paying him, even though he’s not playing. So do we stand up to the player and waste valuable money, or agree to let him leave?
@farnworth-viking The problem is with the current system not the players. They have a limited career span & I do not blame them for taking up a better offer. Personally I think it is pointless trying to hold onto a player who does not want to stay. If the contract negotiations were put back to September this would rarely happen.
The difficulty is that player's agents are just dealers looking for change to up their payout from the deals. They are leeches, needing and surviving on change.
Teams like Oldham and others, with money to spend, feed the agents as part of their team building.
I just wonder if their cash will stretch to an ongoing £1.5m a year after promotion!!??