Announcements

SAINTS' young forward Liam Cooper has joined Halifax on loan for the 2019 season as the club has called for a Reserves competition to be made mandatory for Super League clubs.

The second rower makes the move to the MBi Shay to secure valuable game time as he continues his development.

Liam, 22, played for Sheffield Eagles on loan in 2017 and split the season with Whitehaven and Halifax in last year making 23 appearances in total.

Announcing the loan deal, Saints say they will continue to use the loan and dual-registration system to ensure its younger players gain game time while a mandatory Reserves competition is not in place.

“The club are 100 percent committed to running a reserve team and did so for two seasons with only Warrington and Wigan also showing their commitment,” said Saints chief executive Mike Rush.

“Following this experience and lack of game time for the players, the club is awaiting the governing body to make the competition mandatory for all Super League clubs.

“We strongly believe that a three tier system, with under 18s and Reserves, is vital to the production of the game’s next generation of elite players for our club and international competitions.

“In 2017, the club played 14 games at this level while the next nearest club played seven and as a result we stated that a greater commitment from the centre was needed to make this a genuine competition.

“With regards to 2019, once again the competition is based on friendly matches with no formal competition and we was felt that the lack of certainty around such fixtures made it impossible to commit to.

“The club will explore the opportunity to play some games against other clubs at this level during the season using our top age Academy under 19s and our first team squad members.”