This thread is about player development.

I honestly believe TM as taken players like westerman/shenton backwards.
These players wont be at cas next season, you can include owen in that as well.
All will be playing for other clubs....we need drastic change asap or they will be gone.

HAHAHA comment of the day. Shenton's gone backwards? He's an England international centre! Westerman wasn't even in the Cas side when TM took over and is a damn good player. And he's looked pretty impressive this year. If Westerman and & Shenton won't be at Cas next season then Cas will be receiving a hell of a lot of money their way, which in this current climate I can't see clubs paying £'s for players.

=#8000FFShenton's out of contract isn't he.

I thought he had 1 more year after this one. Owen is out of contract however.

Owen will sign for the Bulls

I have seen it in my crystal ball.....

Don't we get compensation for players leaving under the age of 24 anyway, regardless of whether they're under contract or not?

If we offer them a new deal, I believe so

Im sorry Poppys Mum, you often post some sensible points on the board - but this sounds suspiciously like 'we've only won 1 from 5 sack the coach' to me. Talk about knee jerk - we're 5 games in there's 28/29 rounds to play. Do you realy think another coach would be doing better with whats available than TM?

I thought it was 22

Shenny was a damn fine centre when TM arrived and has been Mr Consistent since then. I do not believe he has developed at all under TM. He has matured as a player-got a bit older and wiser

Westy, well he arrived in the first team as a lad with a sack full of skill, these skills have gone backwards, because he aint getting chance to use them.

Owen, what has he gained from being stuck on the wing instead of fullback? Again, not benefiting the individual in his development.

So...........lets see, who exactly has the current set up developed again?

See we lost then?



We have one of the finest pool of young players in the world on our doorstep. Look how often Cas schools make finals. Surely only the Wigan / Leigh Servie Area can rival ours.

Now, the club is paying a bit of a price for cutbacks that had to be made when we were relegated. I know money is often tight, but if we ringfenced £100k of our playing budget and instead of paying an average overseas player to play and give him a house etc....., why not invest that on top of what we do currently with our juniors?

I know the club has a junior structure, but there is always more that can be done. At present we cannot be the biggest club in the game yet, BUT we can have a junior programme that rivals the best in the world.

If we staff it with high quality sports science and coaching staff and invest in the finest facilites we can that will pay off. Ajax is not amongst the biggest football clubs in the world, but its youth system is. That can be our model.

There is no reason why we cannot have a squad of 24 with around 18 local players in time, no reason at all, but it need the vision and investment.

Im very disapointed in the news about "oh well Liam Watts was got rid of cos he was leading Westy astray!" RUBBISH. Maybe he was, but you manage the situation! Work with young players. Im a teacher and if we did that we would excude 20 kids a week! Thats so very very poor and is a worrying signal from the club. At worse, we should have loaned him off to allow him to grow up - which he would.

A very good post cheshire



This area is an absolute gold mine for talent,but we miss out to alot of them due to the set up.

Its like a quiz,think of the G.B internationals that were born in the town but never played for Cas.

Gareth Ellis,Andy Goodway,Paul Anderson,Daryl powell,Paul Broadbent, Rob burrow(not sure about Gareth Raynor)

Any others?, do know there will be others

Fine post Cheshire, absolutely spot on in every way!! Clearly you know a thing or two about sport!!!!!!!



We've heard so much over the past few years how the focus of our club must be to develop our own players.

IT SIMPLY ISN'T HAPPENING




As for not being able to manage an 18yr old, it is pathetic.

You seem to be getting a young player becoming physically and mentally more mature---which happens to a large extent as a matter of course, confused with a player improving. Shenton, Westy and Owen, fine players, fine athletes, have not improved under the first team set up. And as for the poor lad being only 20, look around you, open those eyes, because there are and always have been plenty of brilliant 20yr olds out there playing our game who have gone from strength to strength.


At present, our star home grown players, as good as they are, appear to be stood still in there development. See Cheshires post in how to improve the situation!!

Agree,i am beginning to wonder why i am still in the Tigers lottery scheme...Developing talent for other teams to benefit

As for liam watts leading joe astray, these 2 lads are cousins....not like they arnt gonna see one another out of rugby.

Having a scholarship and academy structure is not having a youth system. It a start, but the talent ID and nurturing of it is a scientific process which needs investment. A set of tracksuits is not that!!

I'd love to see a RL club to employ a specialist in talent ID and youth performance specialists. This does not have to be a RL person, we have coaches for that. Someone to oversee the process.

Im not aware of anyone to take this type of view and this could be Castlefords niche that makes us stand out from the rest. That said, someone at the club has to have the knowledge, vision and focus to make such decisions. Thats the hard bit.

You clearly appear to have more than a good idea of whats needed Cheshire.
Why isnt anybody on the B.O.Ds thinking like you

Sorry to be pendantic but didnt shenton play on the wing before tm arrived?

I think Shenton ended the 1st N.L season at centre when Dave Woods was the coach

yes i think you could add another 20 or so to that list it just depends how far you want to go back i suppose.

One of the major problems in development is that whilst clubs will happily spend 60k on an average overseas players, they only ever seem to allocate 25k maximum to development staff. Now elsewhere in the workplace, people with the necessary skills leave to chase the greater earning potential.

Now Im not saying thats me, but I worked in RL development at 2 clubs and my earning potential was fixed at that with low job security. Hence I left to teach with much much higher earning potential and much greater job security. I know of plenty of very high quality staff who no longer work at clubs because of this.

RL development jobs are often seen as the jobs you do first after university and thats what you get for the money. Its things like that that I mean when I say, invest in youth. Its a highly specialist job, so employ specialists and renumerate them accordingly. It will be a better investment than paying the Sean Rudder's of this world.

Its definately 24, And there is a minimum i think, Unless an agreement can be reached between the 2 sides, But i dont know if its a certain % of the contract.

I think we will be making Rich an offer in the region of 80k a year, Fitness dependant. If any club wishes to take him, They best have a very large bank balance