IF there is one facet of rugby league Paul Crarey is passionate about, it is striving to bring the best out of players through long-term development.

In an era where bringing in dual-registration players from higher-level clubs has become prevalent among teams in both the Kingstone Press Championship and League One, the Barrow Raiders head coach has steadfastly eschewed that option.

Instead, Crarey has placed faith in his and his staff’s ability to get the members of the Raiders squad – be it those picked from amateur clubs in the area or signed from other professional teams.

It is an approach which he is pleased to see being mirrored by the likes of Mike Grady at North Wales Crusaders and Tom Tsang at Coventry Bears, and Crarey is in no doubt it is the way forward for all clubs in their division.

“I think it’s only fair to your own boys,” said Crarey. “If you get someone in on dual who comes up once a week and he’s taking a place, we don’t see that as coaching.

“If those players play well, they’ve come in and done it from another team, played well for a game and gone, and you get no consistency with your side. If you’ve got a chance to build a side, you’ve got a chance to keep those players and see them develop over a period of time.

“We’ve done that; this is our third year, we’ve won the League One Cup and got to the last 16 of the challenge with, more or less, the same group of players and we’ve tweaked or lost a few who’ve gone to play at a higher level or left because they don’t want to be patient to get a shirt, and things like that.

“But we’re doing well, we’ve got a settled group and we’re difficult to beat because we’ve been together that long.”

Historically, clubs have been able to bring in loan signings, although dual-registration has proven controversial ever since it was introduced four years ago.

The idea was to give young and fringe players at clubs more playing time, but there are concerns over little consistency with availability of players for those engaging in dual-registration deals.

Although he has not needed to dip into it this year due to the strength in depth of the Raiders squad, Crarey has utilised the loan market in the past when needed.

However, several of those became permanent signings and, in cases such as Chris Hankinson – now at Swinton Lions – and Joe Bullock, went on to blossom at Barrow.

“Chris Hankinson was a player who came out of Leigh reserves and we sent him to the Championship, Joe Bullock came from Leigh reserves and we had an enquiry for him from a top-end Championship club, so we’ve got to be doing something right,” said Crarey, who believes that track record helps to attract other players to Craven Park.

“But the lads are wanting to stay here and that’s a big plus for the club. Lewis Charnock played a high level and he’s come to us, so we’re bringing players on, developing them and they’re learning, but also we’re not discarding them for someone else we don’t know much about.

“That’s not coaching to me and we’re going to stick with that. If someone comes in after my day and wants to do that, that’s entirely up to them, but we’ve had all that before at this club and it just didn’t work.”

Charnock is set to return for the Raiders when they head to London Skolars today after a week off, with the hosts being one of the clubs who do make use of dual-registration though an agreement with Championship neighbours London Broncos.

Jermaine Coleman’s side utilised it to good effect in 2016, reaching the Super Eights, and the likes of powerful 20-year-old Callum Bustin have been catching the eye when playing for the club this year.

Crarey is wary of the danger posed by half-back Jy-mel Coleman – younger brother of the head coach –and the Skolars’ forwards on a small pitch, urging his side to heed the lessons from a defeat there this time last year.

Yet he concedes it is still something of a step into the unknown with regards to what sort of team Barrow can expect to be facing.

“You don’t know what to expect there,” said Crarey. “They were a good side last year and they’ve brought players in, but sometimes they don’t get dual and they’ve got to develop their own players.

“It depends what dual-reg they bring in on how they function, so we’ve got to prepare for any scenario and what we don’t know is who we’re playing until the team-sheet goes up on the board.”