Rugby League / Ralph Ellis / 29 May 2009 / Leave a comment

Ralph Ellis believes that the decision to make the Super League a closed shop for a few years is bad news. But could the upside be that clubs are encouraged to give youth a chance?

The Americans who are coming into our football clubs can't get their heads around the concept of relegation. Over in the States the elite sporting competitions are run as closed shops with owners bidding to be allowed to run each franchise. They can't see the sense in investing millions into a club only to have it slip out of the league that provides its finance.

Every now and then somebody will come along with a scheme to abolish promotion and the relegation that goes with it. And it isn't only a debate that happens in football but in other sports - especially in rugby union where several attempts to bar new entries to the Guinness Premiership have come close to succeeding. So the money men will all be watching closely what is happening in Rugby League now the engage Super League has been turned into a closed shop for a few years.

Personally, I can't see the argument for it. If a club owner knows he can't lose his status regardless of how badly his team perform, where is the incentive to improve the quality of the product on the pitch? You only have to look back at football, where Chester's chairman believed he couldn't possibly go down in a year that had three clubs in League Two starting on minus points, to know where that lack of ambition can lead.

But this morning comes an opposite argument from Wigan's rugby league legend Andy Gregory who thinks one of his other old clubs, Salford, could overturn the Warriors in tonight's Challenge Cup quarter-final. He reckons that without the safety net of knowing they can't lose their top flight status, Salford would never have taken the risk of pushing brilliant young scrum-half Richie Myler into the front ranks.

The baby faced Myler, who only reached his 19th birthday a week ago, has been mixing it with the Super League hard men all season and earning rave reviews. "Clubs shouldn't be afraid to give youth a chance when there is no relegation, and with Myler it's paid dividends," says Gregory. "He is the key to their chances."

Wigan are [1.29] favourites to go into the semi-finals but Gregory, who famously as Salford coach masterminded the end of his hometown club's 43-match unbeaten run in the competition with a shock fifth round 26-16 win in 1996, believes another upset is on the cards.

"Salford weren't in Super League then but we had a burning belief in ourselves and had a great week's preparation," Gregory recalls to the Daily Star's Martin Richards this morning. "I've like the way Salford have been playing in the last few weeks - they are playing with a lot more confidence."

Even if his fancy for Salford to cause an upset doesn't happen he still wouldn't take the [6.0] on offer to back second favourites Warriors to win the Challenge Cup (St Helens are [1.63] favourites)

"I do want Wigan to be top fo the tree again but in my opinion they still don't have the squad to challenge for honours".

Five things you might not know about Andy Gregory

1. He was born in Ince-in-Makerfield near Wigan - in the same street as golf course designer Robert Trent Jones

2. His dad played at full-back for Salford, but they turned him down after a trial and he signed instead for Widnes before moving on to Warrington

3. The £130,000 that Wigan paid to sign him from there in 1986 was a world record at the time

4. He's a big Manchester United fan who has travelled all over Europe to watch them

5. He's also a bit of a businessman - he started a scrap metal business with his father-in-law, and later ran both pubs and a fruit and veg operation