We all know we have a team what is not getting any younger

St Helens have the new batch of talent and even Wigan but where is the next generation of the Rhinos ????

What Youth system have we got, who is knocking at the First team door and where have they being last 3 yrs ???

Yes we need to spend money to bring in qualilty in to the first team but also need youth and engery... is the acadamy poor or we just not giving them any game time, with the performances this yr and injuries we should have tried a few, after all this yr is a write off !!!

some good players coming through. some great ones in the u16's until warrington pinched them and paid them massive 'petrol money' allowences

The last 3 years?

What about McShane, BJB, Watkins and Clarkson in the team now plus Amor and Ambler both playing well at 1st grade elsewhere? Add Hardaker to that list even though he was signed from Fev and I thing we have done OK. For me its not the kids who have let us down. It's the experienced players like Webb and Burrow (Before his move to Dummy half) to name a couple that havent been up to scratch.

Warrngton haven't pinched anybody. If you wanted to sign them badly enough i'm sure you could have signed them. You could say you "pinched" Hardaker, Peacock, Senior etc.

I think you'll find that the Bulls gave Peacock to us on a plate when they couldn't offer him a new and improved contract due to financial constraints

But then went ahead and committed financial suicide by pinching Harris from under our noses



A masterstroke if there ever was one from Mr Caisley



Jog on clever cloggs

If you're think that there should be a crop like the one we had ten years or so ago, then you're going to be disappointed. It's very rare that any club gets a crop of quality youngsters mature at the same time as we did with this current side.

All the Academy should be there for is to drill players in the skills and moves that the first team employ, and to produce one or two first team squad players per year. If you get one top SL level player from the Academy every three or four years, you are doing well.

It is not about winning silverware.

Leeds will have no trouble attracting quality players but it must be a worry with the lack of young talent at the club. Just look at their recent academy record etc.

You can spend to the cap all you want but without quality young players bulking your squad out and adding quality you just can't compete.

Look at us before IL took over us.

This thread is about young players under 19s etc, Peacock and senior were the finished product.

We are still looking

There's talent in our Acadamy and i'm sure there will be break throughs and more than enough quality to gel into the 1st team.

You moron - we paid a significant fee for Hardaker and the other two weren't signed as youth players



And Leeds can't compete with Simon Moran's deep pockets if he wants to splash the cash on plucking the best kids from other clubs scholarship programmes

The academy results shouldn't really be taken at face value.

Yes, we used to spank everyone when the likes of McGuire, Sinfield, Burrow, Diskin, JJB, Calderwood and Mathers were in the U21s but more recently, the club has rather academy players play in other club's first teams (BJB at Quins, Amor at Wakefield, McShane at Hull, etc)

I'm sorry, but people convince themselves of things and believe it to be true, despite how very wrong they are.

There is a reason it does not happen, but that is by choice rather than potential. When you have a crop of younsters come through at the same time that are at the level required then you don't push for immediate replacements. That's why it doesn't happen, and the next batch are to a degree ignored.

On the contrary to what you believe, there is always another batch.

If however you are saying you are not likely to see a McGuire, Sinfield, Tomkins, every year, then on that basis you would be entirely correct. But let's not confuse that with a batch of youngsters. A Mathers, Diskin, Bailey, Ward, JJB, Scruton, etc, are available every year if you plan their development properly.

The benefit those players had is given first team rugby at an early age, which allowed them to develop much quicker.

The benefit those

We have had a strange sort of problem for a while, where the path to the first team for a lot of players in a few positions, most notably the halves, was blocked by previous academy alumni. In 2006, for instance, there was hardly any point producing a pair of new halves for the first team, because there was no vacancy.

The golden generation is now knocking on a bit, and succession planning should be happening.

The new U15s are getting announced at HQ on Friday too. Some REALLY promising lads in that bunch. Defo names for the future if we can keep them.

Ashton Golding (Half Back), Sam Hallas (Forward) & Jordan Lilley (Ball Playing LF or HB) will be the spine of our team in 8/9/10 years if all goes to Barrie Macs plan.

Stevie Ward is the future isn't he?

He's looked a quality player every time I've seen him play, but has been out with an injury for the last 3 months or so

We're doing fine.

We get a gradual stream of 1/2 coming into the first team every 1/2 seasons.

Maybe slightly below what it should be, but if you think you're gonna have a big batch of ''fledglings'' all at once every time you're in cloud cuckoo land.

Gotcha got it bang on for me and RR

I watch alot of academy games and we have got some cracking youngsters in the ranks . If they all go onto fullfill their potential theres no reason why we can't repeat past glories.



This is ofcourse dependant on other factors, the biggest of these is the first team coach. If the present incumbant is still at the helm with his policy of giving over the hill, average players an extra year on a contract the majority of us wouldnt have offered inthe fist place. Then we will struggle to retain most of the young talent currently representing our glorious club.

What we don't seem to have done very well IMO is target players for particular roles. You'd have to say that our production line of forwards isn't that impressive. We now have an abundance of average props and second rows IMO - plenty of bodies but with Peacock's decline not a single outstanding one. I wouldn't look at any of the Leeds pack for England.

Bluey pointed this out, and made a point of recruiting Ambler and Amor from outside the club because we had nobody he saw in the Academy with any potential at prop.

BM seems to be Ok with players that already have a bit of experience - he's backed BJB, Watkins and Clarkson for example - but in a poor season with lots of players underperforming you'd expect more than two debuts, and neither Singleton, Elliot or anyone else seem likely to get any game time this year.

Or next year if you look at how many props we will have on our books.

we did have an outstanding prop until morans cash saw him move

Nah, it wasn't cash tad.

The lad will be playing super league by middle of 2013. He would be lucky to be playing for 2016 had he stayed.

He took the same choice a lot of others have, and decided opportunities were better elsewhere.

I disagree, I think we have done very very well in targetting players and good succession planning, We have players who have made that step up or are making that step up all over the field. As Senior’s star has fallen, Watkins has risen. As Donald has aged and left we have seen BJB move up as Diskin and Buderus have aged McShane and Hood are stepping up. as JJB hits 30 Clarkson comes through. We are still seeing it now, as Sinfield comes into his early 30’s we have the best young Loose Forward since him in Stevie Ward in the academy. As Peacock hits his mid-30’s we have an England captaining Prop coming through in Singleton, Ali and Kirke decline and we have Steward waiting in the wings. That’s not even mentioning Pitts or the likes of Normington, Bravo, Smith, Who all have decent potential., or the fact we have actually gone out and brought in Ambler and Hardaker which isnt a failing.

I think we are doing particularlly well at our succession planning, and I’m confident that we have enough, and of a good enough quality for us to challenge for honours and that is no mean feat, in fact it is very very difficult and not something anybody but saints have managed and I think we can do better than they have with the crop we have coming through

I think the problem with forwards is the take longer for their bodies to sufficiently mature, firstly for SL, then to be a regular, then to be a front line player. Very few achieve that before 22/23 and it is very difficult to see who, physically can make that step up. We have all seen props killing it at 16/18 get dominated in the big leagues at 20, and players like Scruton and Carvell who just arent physically up to it at a young age resulting in a large part of their twenties being taken up with injuries.