THE dual-registration partnership between York City Knights and Super League neighbours Castleford is set to continue in 2015.

The legalities of the 2014 arrangement – which was seen as more productive than York’s much-maligned 2013 link-up with Hull - are likely to be tweaked for next year, but Knights new boss James Ford said his meeting with Cas counterpart Daryl Powell and the Tigers’ head of youth performance, Pete Riding, had been positive.

Dual-reg means players can be registered with a lower league club in addition to their Super League club and, when not in the first-team, can therefore turn out for a Championship or League One club.

But problems can arise if, for example, the parent club, with no reserve team structure, demands their players are selected by the partner club or alternatively withdraws them at late notice, or if the player treats the game as a practice match.

There are also financial issues in the smallprint, and also ethical considerations – is it fair for a stellar Super League player to turn out for the partner club in a one-off match, for example.

Ford, though, reckons partnerships can work if communication is right, and he is keen to keep the benefits of such an arrangement, such as that which saw Cas starlet Ben Reynolds – joint Young Player of the Year in Championship One – stay at Huntington Stadium last season effectively on a long-term loan.

Said Ford: “I spoke to Daryl Powell and Pete Riding and we got on well.

“They stated how they wanted the agreement to work and I suggested how I wanted it to work and we met somewhere in the middle.

“We will play it a bit by ear as it goes on but Daryl understands we’ve got to protect our environment at York and I have to look after my players first.

“He understands where I’m coming from and I understand where he’s coming from in that he wants his players to get games.”

One alteration to the partnership smallprint will mean Cas can send with no financial penalty a player on loan elsewhere if York don’t require them. The Knights still have first refusal, and the player will not be allowed to play against them.

York fielded four dual-reg players last year, in young guns Reynolds and Brad Day and, for one game only, first-teamers Jake Webster and Dan Fleming. Younger players are again the ones being touted for longer-term spells with the Minster city club but again there could be an option to borrow more experienced men who are stuck on the sidelines at Cas.

Added Ford: “I don’t know my first-choice team yet and I’m not 100 per cent sure where I will need to strengthen come the start of the season but, while we can’t rely on getting them, we could have the option to bring one or two in.”