Kilshaw wants game changer
ROCHDALE Hornets head coach Alan Kilshaw believes there should be changes made to how the RFL structure their leagues.
Hornets are currently bottom of the Betfred Championship table, but the division will soon be split up, with the bottom eight sides taking part in the Championship Shield.
The Qualifiers Super 8s then sees the bottom four teams from Super League table join the top four teams from the Championship, with those sides battling it out for places back in the Super League.
Kilshaw thinks the gulf in competition between teams in the Championship is currently too much, as seen in Rochdale’s 80-4 defeat to Featherstone Rovers last weekend, and he thinks that changes need to be considered to make it fairer for teams like Hornets.
“There are a lot of questions about the structure of the competition and the funding, but I don’t think that game last week was good for Featherstone,” he said.
“Is that getting Featherstone ready to play the bottom four in the Super League? I don’t think so. The fans might like coming and seeing tries scored and some good rugby, but I don’t think it’s a good competition at the moment.
“At the start of the season when you get your funding, you more or less know where people are going to finish. You know who the bottom sides will be and where the top sides will be.
“That’s not a slant on the likes of Featherstone, Toulouse, Leigh, London, Toronto etc, as everyone should aspire to be at that level.
“I just think if you look at the results in the last few weeks, London have put a score on us and Swinton, while Featherstone have put a score on us, Sheffield and Dewsbury.
“Featherstone have Halifax this weekend, and was our game preparing them to play Halifax? They’re another team who are preparing for the top four, so I don’t think it’s good preparation.
“At this time of year the competition does separate the weaker sides from the stronger sides because of the depth. If we had as
‘I don’t think it’s a good competition at the moment’
many players out that Featherstone had out last week then we probably wouldn’t have been able to put a team out.
“I’ve got a mixture of lads who have been League One players, amateurs, bottom end of Championship players or academy players, going up against a team who are pushing for Super League and rightfully so.
“I’m not sure what changes could be made. Perhaps a competition with two full time leagues and a part time league. There are quite a lot of teams at the top of League One who could compete with the bottom of the Championship, so there’s not a big gulf there, but there’s a big gulf from Halifax up in our league now.”