Agreed. Do you think Cassell will go onto to be a first teamer,, Matt?

Yeah, im confident he will, got everything needed to be a quality Super League player

You would bloody well hope so. The academy has been a mess for a few years now.
I was told that it had got better in the last year or so but defeats like these certainly put a dent in things.

Hopefully its something now Brad is staying he can cast an eye over and make a shrewd appointment.

Another awful performance from the academy tonight, going down to Bradford

Really poor

Were you at the game Matt? Was it really as poor as that?

A must win game, too. Surely Grix has to go. Are the players really that average, or just really poorly coached? How can we ever be confident of moving forward at 1st team level when the pipeline just seems so mediocre?

Bradford weren’t even at full strength, that’s a real bad loss that one.

Bradford's first win this season

I thought it was Tony Smith coached the academy?

Yep, think you are correct. Anyway, off with his head!!!!

Blease said in the pod interview that increasing the quality and the number of coaches at all junior levels is one of his top priorities. About time.

Something's gone desperately wrong somewhere. At half back we've got Sinfield, who debuted in 2022. Before that the last Academy halfback to play first team was Lilley way back in 2015. Compare that to players who have come through almost every other club in the same time and its embarrassing. A club with our resources can only produce two halfbacks in ten years, one of whom was never good enough and the other yet to really look like the real deal?

It does look finally as though we're starting to see progress with the lads breaking into the first team this year. But if there's one lesson it surely has to be you cannot stop prioritising juniors. There is no harm in finding a Luke Gale even while you have Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire ahead of them. There definitely is harm in good players retiring and not even a glimmer of a replacement coming through.

Thing is, if you have the wrong people in the wrong positions then your going to run into self made problems down the line.

We went away from a winning formula, appointing the best we could find regardless of club affiliation etc into a "Jobs for the boys" mentality, now were having our backsides tickled due to this. It been a sword of Damocles problem for many a year as many with greater expertise and insight have constantly maligned and opined.

No disrespect / arrogance implied but we are supposed to be one of the biggest teams in the country, if we want to get to the top consistently and dare I say "cost effectively" then this will only occur (with current salary cap rules etc) with a strong academy pipeline and excellent coaching / scouting respectively.
If this means we have to go to another team and poach / entice them then so be it, we should always be looking to surpass our rivals not catch up / draw level. The coaching side is where the real bang for the buck is, there's no salary cap and we shouldn't scrimp on this side. Go out and get the best we possibly can.

Nail on the head

https://www.therhinos.co.uk/article/210 ... e-for-2025 Can anyone offer some insight into the players in this intake?

https://www.therhinos.co.uk/article/210 ... e-for-2025 Can anyone offer some insight into the players in this intake?

2nd year U16's are strong, 9 players from Kippax and 5 from Lock Lane, all the best players from the best 2 teams in Yorkshire, players to look out for:

Robin Smith - Prop
Jack Mears - 13/6
Brennen Townend - Back Row
Jacob Tooala -
Sonny Hetherington - /Fullback


With quite a few more good prospects

1st year U15's, really strange intake, with just 6 of the 20 actually playing in the top division of the Yorkshire League, the other 14 scattered between divisions 2 and 4 and RU. Quite a few of the obvious better players in the Yorkshire league are crossing the penines to Wigan/Warrington etc, on the surface, it looks like we've missed on quite a few. Some could be decisions on what the club think they can become, rather than what they are now, but know we missed on one with big potential who chose Huddersfield over us.

The best U14 team in this age group are West Hull, but we dont seem to look anywhere other than our doorstep these days, which is really dissapointing, Kells U14 in Cumbria are a great team, with lads going to Wigan/Warrington, who recruit from all the hotbeds, but we dont bother. On a side note, the Scholarship players of the year at Saints and Warrington were lads from Siddal

But yeah, apologies for waffling on, strange, but interesting, intake of first years this year

Blease has mentioned that targeting juniors from Yorkshire based RU clubs is going to be something they're going to try and do more of.

Think Matts is spot on with his assessment of scouting.

Tony Smith leaves the club with Chev likely to take his role.

Weird. Heard mixed things about Tony but I guess with all the other stuff going off around the club and Blease wanting to make his mark / take advantage of Brad Arthurs advice maybe a good clear out and a refocus is the best for all.

Hopefully with the appointment of Langley and with his stint in the RU code he might have some inside leads into the mesh of juniors / RU clubs that were now looking into. Theres a lot of untapped potential within them for sure, so having someone who was involved in those circles cant be a bad thing and may pay off.

I used to work with someone who ended up at Headingley his brother is the kit man.
Nice fella part of his job talent spotting youngsters.
Only problem he did not drive.

How do we rate our forward pack heading into the new season. Potential starting pack: 8. Jay Oladipupo 9. Harvey Butterworth 10. Joe Butterfield 11. Jacob Stead 12. Zak Lloyd 13. Presley Cassell

[quote="The Eclipse":28khz4d6]How do we rate our forward pack heading into the new season. Potential starting pack: 8. Jay Oladipupo 9. Harvey Butterworth 10. Joe Butterfield 11. Jacob Stead 12. Zak Lloyd 13. Presley Cassell[/quote:28khz4d6] Extremely talented pack, if developed correctly, should be the best pack in Academy rugby, by a distance. But there lies the problem, development. Mentioned in the pre-season thread, i cant believe the lack of physical development these second year academy lads look to have had over the last 12 month, granted thats the backs, but they looked tiny, like they hadnt been in a gym for the last year. Fortunately, the packs got plenty of natural size 7.Smith 6.Brown Two quality halfs, with Jacob Hardy, who can play backrow, 6 or centre, potentially the best player out of all of them, to fit in somewhere aswel.

Yeah to be honest I thought the young backs who played on Boxing Day looked tiny which is worry in the modern game. Agree the halves look an exciting pair but do we have any big centres coming through ?

[quote="The Eclipse":2abd689r]Yeah to be honest I thought the young backs who played on Boxing Day looked tiny which is worry in the modern game. Agree the halves look an exciting pair but do we have any big centres coming through ?[/quote:2abd689r] Jacob Tooala and sonny Hetherington are both in their 2nd year of Scholarship this coming season, both among the best in the country in their age group, both play centre for their community clubs. Both got good builds, Hetherington in particular, he's well over 6ft already