yes but compare that to millward, who went out and signed players like des clark and leon felton when we had a few injuries

I played against Hansen at Under 19's level when he was 16, and you could tell then that he was going to make it, was the best player on the pitch by some distance.

I'm just acknowledging our wonderful youth coaches (and assistant coaches) and all the work of community saints in scouting around and encouraging young talent out there in amateur land. (To say nothing of all the volunteer coaches out there in amateur land) All Potter gets to do is choose who is going to cover an injury spot but then people want to give him all the credit for 'developing our youth'. Ha!

Oh, I'm not saying any previous coaches were any better, just that Potter isn't any different. I doubt very much we would have seen the number of young players in our team had we not had so many injuries last season and had the Chief not decided to go without recruiting over the last two seasons.

You don't think Potter coaches the young lads who train with the first team (before and after making their debuts) ?

Well, if the young lads who are promoted to the first team squad train with the first team squad then yes. But they have already been very well developed by that time. What Potter is doing is creaming off the best and he will (or can - I don't know the policy) play those players only when we have injuries because they are our backup.

Meli will swan back into his place this coming weekend and would do so even if Foster had been the best defender, ball leaper, tackler and attacker in the land. And should we end up in the Grand Final again, Meli will be there again to help us lose again regardless of how great Foster might become in the meantime!

That's because Meli is a better winger than Foster at this moment in time and was playing well prior to his injury.

Credit where it's due - yes an incredible amount of work goes into developing these young lads, but there is still a lot of work to do when they are promoted to the first team squad and Potter will have a big influence on their game.

To be honest, I'm starting to wonder what Potter has to do to get a little bit of credit for anything from certain sections of our support.

If you read my post, I said that even if Foster had been the best at everything, Meli would still swan back into his place. I didn't say he shouldn't in this instance.


I can't speak for anyone else but he took us so far from where we were that he may not win me over before he leaves. Or he may. It all depends on how we go from here. Saturday could have been all about the players and their determination to kick Rhino a$$ or it might not. I don't know. I'm still on the fence.

Whilst I agree with the incentive, I don't think it should be as high as 50% - i think this could help cause over spending for clubs who can't afford the cap. I'm also not too worried about british lads moving from club to club. For instance, if Saints (considering them a more attractive club) were to pinch Westerman and Owen from a club traditionally lower in the table, you may well see the likes of Dean and Ashurst leaving to make way, who would be able to fill the gaps at other clubs.
The important think for me is that a combination between salary cap and quota rules means that most clubs areproducing young players who are replacing the below average journeyman assuies in our squad. The more young players who get their chance, the more chance qulaity has to emerge.

8 Blackbrook lads played on Saturday that is a great testament to the unsung heroes that work with the kids and youth teams. It would be nice to see the SL clubs investing some money into the local amateur clubs. Without this work we would all be watching 13 aussies.

Excellent call. For years the amateur clubs have got very little back from the pro clubs. I've always advocated that the pro players should, as part of their contract should be given an amateur team to be associated with, and help to coach.

Can you imagine for example a young player telling his mates James Roby (or Joel Tomkins) is helping with our team this year. Do you think it would help bring other kids into that side. I'm sure it would.

I have always thought they should do more of that kind of thing. They have always been good at sending players to hand out medals and trophies at end of year do's but it would encourage the kids to train if they knew a pro player would be taking the occasional session. Like many SL players the local players DO a lot of work in the community but often these duties are not associated with the game at all.

As for investment in 29 seasons playing the game I saw some very poor facilities that probably rivalled a Japanese POW camp. With many more outlets for young blokes to spend their time its hardly surprising teams are disappearing like wildfire. They wont rough it. As well as investing time some money into the infastructure wouldn't go amiss. Sadly I fear it will continue to simply line the SL players pockets and when the conveyor belt dries up it will be too late.

Exactly.

I don't know what other amateur clubs look like these days but Thatto Heath now have excellent facilities.

Do you think there is a "problem" (probably not the right word) that pro clubs become too close to certain amateur clubs.
Saints - Blackbrook, Wigan - St. Pats and risk alienating some of the other local amateur clubs.

I'm not sure. Clearly those clubs have a track record of turning out quality lads in numbers over a long period of time. You would hope that if the pro clubs have quality scouting that they would look at all clubs to identify talent. I guess to a degree the talent will gravitate to the stronger clubs. I think if players are poached on the suggestion that they have more chance of being spotted at a certain club its a bit dodgy but I'm not close enough to say whether that goes on or not to any degree.

Strangely Wigan St Patricks gave a game away to Blackbrook recently on the basis they couldn't raise a team as did Oldham St Annes and Leigh East - the latter were top of Division 1 at the time all very odd. As a result Blackbrook are Division 1 Champions following the controversial relegation from the Premier Division last season for non fulfillment of a fixture against Pilkingtons based around there being no warm water for showers !

Was that at pilkingtons? I remember playing Pilks at under 18s yeaaaars ago and there was no warm water then! We had to get cold showers! Youd think after all these years they would have managed to get hot water running

That's what I was alluding to. I know of one player (a Wigan fan and season ticket holder

) who was playing at U14 for a Wigan based club who was told he would have a far better chance of being "spotted" if he moved to a much more famous Wigan amateur club.
He stood by his club and carried on playing with his mates. He eventually signed pro terms but not with Wigan. That was a few years ago by the way.

I have heard a similar story regarding two St. Helens based amateur clubs and the lad doing exactly the same and not signing for Saints. I'll fill you in with the details over the weekend at the hotel.

At a recent Wigan fans forum, the issue was raised by someone from the Chorley area regarding scouting outside the big two amateur clubs in Wigan.

All the Wigan squad would have to take just a fortnight each at St Pats. And that's it really.

Mike Rush was at Blackbrook. Thats why the likes of Scott Moore left Leigh Miners. Ste Bannister left Orrell, Andrew Dixon left Cross fields etc.....

Believe it or not but Bold are now our feeder club.

One of the reasons blackbrook and St pats have more players that go on to be pro players for the likes of saints and Wigan is because these kids parents know the kids have better chance of being picked up at these clubs, hence all the better kids sign for likes of blackbrook and St pats.

When I was a kid we moved to widnes, I was 10, my dad drove me to blackbrook every Tuesday, Thursday and sunday. When I asked why I can't play with my new widnes friends at widnes tigers , he replied you got better chance of signing for saints at blackbrook.

The ironic thing was saints never come knocking but I signed for widnes!