Workington Town could be able to sign up to 10 amateur players for League One next season to have on standby should their squad be depleted.

Neighbours Whitehaven might be able to recruit five amateurs in a similar scenario for their return to the Championship.

It’s all part of a new RFL initiative which looks likely to become part of next year’s regulations, as they try to avoid the embarrassment of clubs competing without four substitutes.

Workington had only one player on the bench for one particular game, and several clubs have gone into games with men on the bench who were not fit enough to come on.

Supporters of the proposal believe that being able to sign amateurs on dual-registration would not have a damaging effect on the community game. Players would play regularly with their amateur clubs and only turn out in League One or the Championship when pro clubs were affected by injuries, suspensions etc..

Very little had been heard of the proposal until the weekend when the Barrow chairman went on record in the trade paper, Rugby League Express. Barrow have just been relegated from the Championship.

Steve Neale said: “It would allow us to have those ten players on our books that could be used in the event of injury.

“We will need to sit down with the coaching staff to see how this can work and we certainly don’t want to be upsetting the local amateur teams, but we might be able to give opportunities to some players with ambition to test themselves at a higher level without losing their amateur status.

“There will be some invitations being sent out for players to join us for pre-season training and I hope they see that as a challenge to earn themselves a professional contract.”

When Whitehaven had an application to the RFL to enter a team in a revamped Reserve League turned down, one of the reasons given was that it would have too big an impact on the community game.

This new proposal, however, does mean that amateurs would play the bulk of their games with their parent community clubs, and only play in League One or the Championship when the pro clubs struggled on squad numbers.

Whitehaven chairman Tommy Todd and his board will be discussing the proposal with coach Gary Charlton as they prepare for the return to the Championship season which starts in February.

“In many ways it’s a throwback to 30 years ago when we were running an A team and if we were short for a weekend game would call on a couple of amateurs. It worked pretty well then but more and more regulations came in and eventually there was no A team.

“The club was disappointed that we weren’t successful in our bid to reform the A team for next season as I know we have been looking at amateur players across the county. I am sure Gary and his coaching staff will have their views on this latest proposal,” said Todd.

n THE 2019 season in the Iggesund Cumberland ARL is gradually reaching a climax with two more big games this weekend.

Egremont’s Gillfoot will stage the first of them tonight (7pm) when Maryport and Kells A square up in the Division One Top Four final.

Tomorrow afternoon (2pm ko at Hensingham) it’s the Premier Division Top Four final when league winners Distington take-on Wath Brow A.