Head coach Paul Crarey believes the relationship between Barrow Raiders and the amateur clubs in the area has never been stronger, with his squad set to benefit from a new dual registration initiative.

With the Raiders playing in Betfred League One next year, they are entitled to bring in up to ten amateur players on the dual reg system approved by the RFL.

This will not only allow those players to make the step up and get their first taste of professional rugby, but it will also prevent Barrow going into games short of numbers, should they be seriously affected by injuries again.

Crarey and his staff have already identified several amateur players that they interested in inviting along to pre-season training and many of those have come on the recommendations of the coaches at their respective clubs.

Crarey said: "The best thing about this is we've had coaches from the clubs - I spoke to David High at Dalton, who thought it was a great idea.

"Dennis Porter (Ulverston) recommended some lads, Joe Elliott actually rang me, saying that he wanted his lads to have an opportunity to train with us and have stronger links with Barrow Island.

"I don't think the relationship between Barrow Raiders and the amateur scene has ever been as good as it is now.

"The lads go to presentation evenings - I was at one at Hindpool and I went to the finals day at Craven Park, giving out the trophies to the under-12s and under-14s.

"It's an open relationship between the two parties and we've opened the ground up to a lot of things, regarding the amateur game, and we're working with them at regular meetings to discuss what's going on

"We inform the clubs if we're going to take players, but we don't want to rip the amateur scene apart. We want to work with the amateur clubs and the amateur coaches."

Crarey is looking forward to seeing how the amateur players settled into a professional environment in the months ahead, with Evan Jones and Charlie Emslie amongst those who will be part of the fold.

The Barrow boss has also identified next January's pre-season friendlies as a chance to really put them through their paces.

"We've identified 10-11 players that we're going to bring in," Crarey said. "We don't want an amateur environment, they'll have to come in and be like professionals.

"They'll come in and train with us and then hopefully they can have a little taster in the pre-season games and we can then sign one or two on or monitor them through their amateur clubs."