The boardroom continues to be a busy place during the off-season with our main focus being budget setting that will allow us to put a competitive team on the park.

I’ve mentioned before that we have lost a lot of central funding through being relegated, but I’m pleased to say that we are not as reliant on central funds as some clubs.

In fact, I’m convinced we could still flourish without any sort of central funding, with that a distinct possibility at the end of the current Sky deal after 2021.

So far, I am very pleased with our recruitment. With one or two obvious exceptions we have kept together the squad we wanted to and have added some real quality. Remarkably, I think we will be as strong as last season, despite that large reduction in funds.

To help keep the squad strong, we are planning to run with a smaller squad, with probably 25 players instead of 29-30 we ran with last season.

We don’t want players picking up contract payments for sitting on the sidelines and if we do encounter injuries we now have two options. We could enter the traditional loan market, and we have had discussions with a new Super League team about forming a relationship, or we now have a second option recruiting from the amateur game.

The RFL have told us this week that we can dual register up to ten players from the amateur teams. This 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. You only have one life, so why not be the best you can be.

Looking at the rugby league scene in general, the two big stories of the week were Salford making the Grand Final and Toronto earning promotion.

Salford is a great story of how team spirit can take you a very long way. Toronto is another great story, but has caused unbelievable bad feeling from rugby league followers.

I have read so much this week about how Toronto are bad for the game, that they have had all the privileges and the RFL have engineered their promotion.

Are they good or bad for the game? My personal view is that they have helped introduce rugby league to Canada. If ever the game was to grow then it needs more global appeal. TV companies and sponsors want to attract a wider audience.

Yes, they have attracted criticism but I feel we need to support expansion. It seems some fans only want to support expansion when the teams don’t rise to beat their own.

It’s fine when your Oxford or Hemel and you lose every week but when you do it properly, invest millions and genuinely grow the game, the luddites come out in force.