CLUBS are set to discuss whether to re-introduce automatic promotion and relegation between Betfred Super League and the Championship at an RFL Council meeting next month.
But Keighley Cougars chief operating officer Steve Watkinson insists there are still flaws in what is being proposed.
The T&A caught up with both him and head coach Jake Webster at the Treehouse Bar & Kitchen in Haworth on Wednesday lunchtime to discuss a variety of topics.
What is now being strongly considered is that a Grade B club, which Cougars and Bradford Bulls both are, will go up to Super League in 2026 and beyond if they were to win the Championship Grand Final.
Keighley co-owners Ryan O’Neill and Kaue Garcia have been vehement in their belief over the last 18 months that promotion and relegation should always be based on on-field merit, not a spreadsheet.
But Watkinson insists the aforementioned proposal next month has its flaws.
He said: “Promotion and relegation is very much a positive step, but the way they’re trying to do it, based on the wording the RFL have given us ahead of the council meeting, we’ve got a foot in each camp over it.
“The problem is, with what they’re proposing, you could potentially have a Grade B team winning the Super League Grand Final, say Salford, but being replaced in the top flight the following season by the winners of the Championship play-offs, if they’ve got a higher Grade B mark (Grade A clubs would still have automatic exemption from relegation).
“There’s nothing to stop that happening if that scenario occurs, so it would leave Salford waiting a few weeks after winning the Grand Final to see if they’d be replaced in Super League by say Bradford, Toulouse or York.
“The sport has to ask itself how that looks, because I think we all know the answer.
“There maybe needs to be some parameters, whereby only the bottom three in Super League, are at risk of going down.
“Even then, to send third-bottom down just because the bottom two are Grade A clubs isn’t a great look.
“The debate at council meeting over this is on December 4 and we’ll see how that looks.”
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