You are missing the point - Halifax have found themselves in this situation because the RFL moved the goalposts. A year ago the plan was to create a championship u21s, so Fax quite rightly scrapped their reserves to move towards this new set up. now the rfl have scrapped that idea and stuck with the old reserve system. That means Fax would now have to follow the super league model and create an u20s and u18s and play against super league teams. Widnes to their credit have done that but they have a chairman who pumped a million quid into the club just do it could break even!!! why can't championship clubs have their own u18 competition with players on basic match terms of say £50 a win. Games could be played as curtain raisers to first team games.

What? You mean like all the succesful sports in this country. Surely not, that would be suicide........

Sorry, I think I was possesed by Wood and Lewis for a moment then. On the subject of putting all your eggs in one basket (or team). That shouldn't be allowed. All clubs should run at minimum a 1st and reserve team.....if it means paying players slightly less then so be it. If they still won't run a second team then cut the salary cap to say 75% of the full cap allowed for clubs that run two or more teams.

Why?

If thats the case then it wouldnt suprise me.

fax are building from the bottom up as and when these lads get older and develop. RFL have changed the what they said they was going to, no surprise there really, ie u20,s u18,s

And I applaud that but you chose to use what money you could have invested to plough into the first team for immediate success...the lack of talent coming through previously, your decision to scrap these teams and focus on the first team and your 'recent' decision to re-start looking at this area means that you are now 'behind' where you should be for this criteria point to be met for 2012.


From what I have seen that's all these ever were.. plans. There was no formal decision made that this would happen which meant there was always scope for them to shelve this idea. Personally I'm glad as it means that the considerable time, money and effort spent on our structures would have been wasted just as they are beginning to bear fruit. You are in the unfortunate position of not knowing which system to go with possibly but it is a position entirely of your own making by cancelling these sides back when you did.
The major stumbling block in the article seems to be cost and the fact that you don't have the £70k each year to spend on nurturing your future players. As others have said, you seem happy enough to spend whatever money you have on your first team.
That's fair enough and under the good old system would probably have got you the desired result in a year or two but now it is about an overall good application and Halifax have all their eggs in one or two baskets. You don't seem to have the resources. Even Barrow mentioned in the article seem to be gearing up their youth teams so you might well get left behind on this one.

To allow player development, to allow comebacks from injury. That way you wouldn't have to sign pensioners on stupid salaries and oh look the outcome of that would be you could afford a second string / U21s. It worked for HKR because there was still P&R then, now there isn't you will have 2/3 years bringiong no one through, hence your pensioners and foreigners on EU passports. They will penalise you in the franchise 'war' for having no youth development.

Widnes have scaled back a little on there 1st team and have been succesful at U18 level for the last two years. Leigh have had a successful U21 and then reserve team set up for the last few years, despite what DH Lewis said. To afford 2 teams you pay less to the 1st team, =#FF0000EDITED BY TS. THAT'S AGAINST THE AUP into just one place. Therefore I reckon the RFL should make it compulsory. How many Fax lads are in your 1st team.....one is it? Bet the Crusaders will have more Welshmen than you have players from Fax

But you got relegated last year - so what good did having them sides do you then? I want a Fax team full of Fax players - but at the moment that isnt possible and it might never be possible. Would you prefer a thriving u21 and a 1st team that isnt up to scratch and ends up being relegated? Its a tough to get the right balance.

Whats relegation got to do with it. Anyway according to the RFL we were only relegated due to Gateshead gaining an unfair sporting advantage by paying NRL experienced overseas players but not paying anyone else. Not much different actually from only paying the first team and no other teams

The only reason was not because no one was coming through, it was so all the playing budget could go on the first team. But then again Salford lied about their stadium and it got them to SL. You WILL get knocked down a notch or two in the reckoning for 2012, due to your lack of youth development. Where for example will you get your 8 'homegrown players' from? Thems the rules, just like Toulouses exemption from relegation, we all know the rules

No you got relegated due to finishing in a relegation spot - but thats another conversation! What good would it be having 8 home grown players if they are not good enough? We could ship them in from the local teams and tadaaa there they are - might never play in the first team - but it would show that we had local players in the squad. Or is there a requirment for the quality of home grown players?

=#4000FF[iQuote removed by TS[/i

I'd be very careful what you say if I were you. Hiding on a message board does not immunise you against the laws of libel. What are your grounds for making those sort of accusations?





Mods - attention required here, I think. =#4000BF[iDealt with. TS[/i

fax had a succesful u21 team up to 2 years ago, won trophies n everything. but none except one were good enough to make the 1st team so what does that say about the standard of players at the other teams. RFL should notice this and do something about it. a fax academy player in the article has been signed up by warrington, same old story. teams at championship level cannot compete with SL.

You have to bite the bullet and do your best. There are loads of lads from Widnes who are are at other clubs like Warrington and Saints. You just have to make do with who you've got and see who comes through. Giving up and purely concentrating on the 1st team is simply not an option for any club wanting a licence. If and when SL comes then the good youngsters will more than likely stay - short term loss for long term gain.

Well said V4E.

Hey demon. Check out the success of Fax's under 21s before it got disbanded before you come on here mouthing off. Seems our =#FF0000EDITED BY TS is a better policy than hoping a team goes bust so you don't get relegated. Let's hope every team is well run this season so Leigh don't get so lucky. Your youth policy really helped you last year eh? At least our board is trying to strike a balance and we have boxes ticked! At least Halifax are in a position to apply, if that were true at your club you would be delighted.

Dry your eyes boy

I am getting a tad annoyed at fans of two clubs in particular who have money men to fund them being able to run a junior set up, no not jealousy this time its to do with level playing fields as we just cannot afford a junior team or can we???
Thing is RL is just full of holes and I am sick of it, whether it is clubs with money men paying by means not on the radar of salary caps etc... or expansion clubs who have a whole different rule book to the rest, the game is corrupt.

Running an u 18's is basically a waste of time at championship level , however some clubs [ including one that got a licence 18 months ago used the NYL to run a team , so you would expect the RFL to accept other clubs using that comp as an academy , wouldn't you



But it seems they dont , I was totally disgusted with the RFL when they brought the ' minimum wage ' argument into the running of juniors

I had a meeting with Bill Appleton and Lee Crooks down at Leigh when I was Academy director , the argument was unless you paid a minimum wage to a set number of players you could not run an u 18's , the u 21's however could play for free , How bloody stupid is that , so you had to give players a contract until 19 , then you could ask them to play for nothing , I pointed out to them that we would be paying u 18's more money than some 1 st team NL 2 players were getting

It is all quite simply another hurdle to jump over , the number of SL players that come through the academies of Championship teams is negligable , basically only Widnes can afford it and if any other clubs want to waste money on it they are stupid

So, basically, the RFL are making it difficult for MOST teams to be in a position to take promotion to SL?

nothing new there

Oldham are able to run a reserve side... www.roughyeds.co.uk/231209.htm

Oldham are able to run a reserve side... www.roughyeds.co.uk/231209.htm

Not only did the Evening Courier mis-report some of the details in their original article, as I discussed it with Mr. James Roberts, so Nosey Parker has lazily got his facts wrong in today's League Weekly rag. It appears he hasn't checked out some particular facts with regards to individual names/schools, seemingly just taking either this thread or the Courier article as correct. I notice Parker is down to a single page of gossip nowadays, a 50% cut from previous times, another 50% cut on that would do me fine he talks a right load of rubbish and he spends quite a bit of time making excuses for previous stories he got incorrect in the first place.....
He even has something of a surprise in his tone about how Halifax have had their eyes opened with the scouting network in this area, if he was on top of his journalistic game, he'd be informed enough to know that every single boy on the Halifax RLFC scholarship scheme comes from schools or clubs within the Calderdale boundaries, that I can assure him is some hotbed of rugby league at under 14's, 15's & 16's with the top two under 15's sides actually playing up a year as under 16's in the Yorks league after recently leaving the ranks of the West Riding leagues. I wonder how many other RL clubs at any professional level can boast that claim ? Very proud are we at the club of our contacts with the local clubs, coaches & players, OK, so we've missed out on a few, but we've over 30 boys on scholarship forms who WANT to be involved at Halifax now and in the future.
So incensed were the parents & coach of one of the young lads in question, his parents got in touch with me as their point of contact with the club's scholarship to ask what on earth was going on. I then approached our club's football manager for permission to clear a few things up with Mr. Roberts at the Courier, which I did via a telephone conversation recently.
He ( James Roberts ) actually surprised me rather, on how clued up he was on some of the junior talent in the district as I don't see too much of him on the sunday morning touchlines, nevertheless we had a good chat about one or two things topical in the game.

Rant over, but very proud and excited of what's going on at Halifax RLFCfor the future.

I'd have actually been suprised if anything he ever reported was true.

Which one do you mean ?

Hopefully you mean Nosey Parker. I think we are lucky to have two good journalists at the Courier. James for the rugby and Dave for the football. I think we are also lucky to still have a daily, local newspaper.