SWINTON Lions coach Paul Kidd believes the Rugby Football League must now do everything in their power to make the game national leagues viable lower down the scale.

While neighbours Salford City Reds celebrate their Super League return, once mighty Swinton must battle on away from the bright lights of the big time.

So too must neighbours Oldham, Rochdale, Leigh and Widnes as they face a daunting challenge as part-time clubs.

Lions boss Kidd is a realist through and through and a supporter of the decision to scrap promotion and relegation.

He said: “It would be very interesting to see how it all works out. We at Swinton have no aspirations to play Super League. We have no chance. But we will be battling on in the National League.

“We play in National League Two. It’s a very close competition, a very good standard in fact, and teams can beat each other.

“The big concern however is the fact we are not pulling in the crowds for some reason and this is a worry.

“I believe it’s now up to the RFL to make these competitions viable. They have to find something from somewhere that adds excitement and entices more people to also follow the game at our level. We all need greater levels of support.

“From a club’s point of view we just have to keep going, playing week to week and preparing for the next game.

“Clubs who have missed out on Super League like Leigh are naturally disappointed but at least they now have three years to prepare and build a base in readiness for reapplying.

“They have the opportunity to strengthen. In football, if you are promoted to the Premiership you are already a full-time team but rugby league is very different.”

Alex Murphy maintains the franchise application issue has been badly handled.

He is pleased to see Salford being granted Super League status but has reservations about the inclusion of Celtic Crusaders, who were given the go-ahead in favour of his own club Leigh and Widnes.

Murphy said: “Both Widnes and Leigh have been extremely unlucky. I hope the Crusaders won’t be fielding a team of Australians in Super League. It will be interesting to see how they would fare with 12 Welsh lads.

“In my view, this has been one of the worst-managed projects ever under-taken by the Rugby Football League and a lot of people are not very happy with Richard Lewis.

“I just wonder what is going to happen to teams outside Super League, they’ve not much to look forward to. They face a very tough three years.

“The crowds are nowhere near what they were like 20 years ago. Widnes have a first-class stadium, Leigh are moving to a brand new ground but yet we go for Celtic who are a relatively new club.”

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