Leeds Rhinos coach blasts reported rule change proposal as fears for academy game grow

Leeds Rhinos are one of the few teams in Super League with an established academy set-up that consistently produces players for the first team squad.

Legends of the game such as Kevin Sinfield, Rob Burrow and Danny McGuire have all come through the Rhinos ranks, with current stars Ash Handley, Harry Newman and Ryan Hall doing the same.

Other clubs, like St Helens, Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves are doing the same, but it’s fair to say there are only a limited number of clubs with a fully fledged academy set-up that they can use to develop their own talent.

Despite many Super League clubs and teams in the Championship having their own youth systems, they don’t always uncover gems like the aforementioned sides do, and instead end up looking elsewhere for their players.

Rhinos academy and reserves coach Chev Walker is a huge believer in the youth competitions, and after being an academy graduate himself, is now leading those pathways at the Leeds to help them uncover the next generation.

With reports of a rule change that will have huge repercussions on the development leagues, Walker has openly criticised the change, believing it will hinder up-and-coming players’ progression.

Leeds Rhinos coach disagrees with reported rule change as strong statement made

As reported by All Out Rugby League, that proposed rule is that if any of the 11 Super League clubs wish to send their players to any of the three newly-promoted sides, they would receive salary cap dispensation above and beyond the player’s value.

In essence, they would free themselves of that player’s salary on their own cap but they would then also be granted an ‘additional allowance on top of that’, thus both saving and earning money by sending players to promoted clubs.

Walker believes that this move will mean that the development competitions, particularly the reserves competition, will not only have less quality, but will be filled by players who are not ready for that level of physicality. As seen on many occasions this year, Super League level players can play in the reserves league and putting them against an 18-year-old fresh out of the Scholarship league is dangerous and not right.

The former Rhinos and Bradford centre took to X, formerly Twitter, to air his frustrations on the matter.

He said: “Reserves comp will look great next year! Clubs need to field a team! It will have kids playing in a comp in their first year of academy when they’re not ready or don’t merit it. Until the lower grades competitive and coached to be super league ready the player pool stays small.”

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Reserves comp will look great next year! clubs need to field a team! It will have kids playing in a comp in their first year of academy when they’re not ready or don’t merit it🤯 until the lower grades competitive and coached to be super league ready the player pool stays small https://t.co/DXBc5yYEdT

— chev walker (@chevwalker) October 20, 2025