There will be a more functional and more regular reserves league in place next season, as the RFL look to give up-and-coming players more game time on the field.

Since it’s return in 2022, the reserves competition has often been seen as an afterthought by most clubs, with sides often not having a strong enough academy or pathways system to provide enough talent for it to be a worthwhile competition.

Those that do treat it with respect get the rewards, with the likes of Leeds, Warrington, Wigan and St Helens all thriving in the league in recent years.

However, with only a small schedule and often weeks between games, there was never any chance to build week-to-week match fitness into players who were about to step up to first-team level.

Now though, that is set to change with new Hull KR boss Nathan Cayless revealing the RFL’s plan to shake-up the reserves comp next season.

As part of his first interview as Hull KR head coach, Cayless explained the importance of having a successful youth system, something his predecessor Willie Peters urged the club to improve going forward.

He also revealed what the competition could look like, saying: “[I’m] really grateful that the RFL have confirmed that there will be an actual reserve grade competition where there are 10 teams confirmed.

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“I believe it’s an 18-round competition with finals games.”

That schedule is a much-improved one to this season’s, where clubs played just 11 regular season games before the finals, which were won by Wigan.

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Hull KR boss Nathan Cayless reveals plans for youth pathways

Perhaps Willie Peters’ biggest flaw during his time at Craven Park was his reluctance to use younger players, instead bringing in older personnel or poaching prospects from other clubs.

When Mikey Lewis got suspended in July, many expected former Hull FC man Jack Charles to take his place. Instead, Peters opted to promote Super League veteran Ryan Hampshire to a first-team contract following a trial period in the reserves.

On the other hand, Cayless has stated he wants to have as many youngsters and academy players involved in the first-team’s pre-season training as possible, with no place in the squad set in stone.

The Parramatta reserve grade boss has confirmed that he will appoint a ‘transition coach’ – someone who will oversee players and youngsters outside of the weekly Super League squad and get them ready for consistent first team action.

Head of Youth Pete Riding has been influential in helping Cayless get to grips with some of the up-and-coming talents in the squad, of which Cayless thinks there are a lot.

Cayless told the KR YouTube Channel: “A lot of the players got their chance against St Helens [Round 27], and we saw Flynn Holden score a try, which was actually awarded as Hull KR’s try of the season against Saints. That was a cracking try, and there’s a lot of talent there.

“The real focus for me is that I’ve had some really good conversations with our CEO, Paul Lakin, and also Pete Riding, in regard to whatever we’re doing in the first team…our scholarships team will be doing.

“As soon as they start as a Hull KR player, they’ll be training exactly the same way as the first team does so that when they transition through, it’s as smooth as possible.

“We’re also very keen on making sure that the players are prepared as early as possible to play in the first team.

“Now, does that mean they may have to work a little bit harder in terms of the intensity and things like that? They’ll be pushed hard because we want to see as many of our good young players that are in the system, and there are a lot of them, we want to see a lot of them understand the difference between talent and hard work.

“The talent will get the players to a certain level, but it’s the hard work and how much they’re willing to sacrifice and give that’s actually going to make the difference between being a really good scholarship and academy player and a championship-winning first team player.

“…When our supporters are watching the scholarship team, they should know that that’s a Hull KR team by the way they play. There shouldn’t be too much of a difference in terms of our style of our defence and our mentality with our defence, and the style of attack with the ball should be very, very similar. So that’s the vision. That’s the dream.”