It's still a tricky question.
Forget the whole 'selling your soul' argument (Which I wholeheartedly agree with, but let's forget it for a while) and look at the bigger picture.
There is an undeniable, and understandable, chasm between the level of RL played at SL and that where we are. With the best will in the world, as long as we've got PT players only, we can never match FT levels of skill and fitness.
If you took the Australian national team out of full time RL and made them work a day job before squeezing in their RL commitments, I'd fancy Wigan to have turned them over last night. Talent only gets you so far.
This is where the positives of the DC arrangement comes in. It allows us to have players who train to that level of intensity and talent, and it allows us a limited use of the scouting system that is built into professional RL sides. This in turn makes for more attractive RL, which in turn - hopefully - attracts bigger crowds, which in turn - again hopefully - allows us to invest more in the club, and eventually get big enough crowds that we can get our own full time players, and end the DC arrangement when the time is right.
That's the ideal, dream scenario.
Without, we carry on against a backdrop of annual financial panic as crowds continue to decline as by now we've seen that people will not start coming to LSV to watch 'a local team full of local players'. We've proved that now, move on. We'll never have a side again that can turn a top flight side over in the second half, no matter how much we'd like it.
In the meantime, we are seen as a feeder club for SL teams in general (as opposed to DC, where it's one team in particular), so no real change there.
We do need the DC/partnership arrangement, no matter how distasteful a taste it leaves in the mouth.
Just NOT Wigan please.....
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