Has anyone read the T&A article with Beattie today?

Has he seriously said he hopes there is interest in our younger players or has he been misquoted??

I think it's a misrepresentation of the quote. He's bigging up the young lads saying that they're SL quality, but hasn't quite had the eloquence to make his point

I didn't read it the way Ewwen did to be honest, but even if he did say that, it's a statement of the flaming obvious. Our academy sides were beating SL teams in their league last year, and seem to have started this season in the same vein. Given the performances of some ( all....)of the youngsters in the first team and you'd need to be a real dimwit not to realise that bigger clubs are going to be slinking around.

How do we manage to keep young players?

Obviously we can't manage to pay them the same as SL sides so what is it that we do that keep them wanting to stay at the club?

Outside of the basics like paying them every month on the agreed date. I'd say regular first team football. Once they are established first teamers they are off to superleague where they belong. That's a fact of life while we are in the championship.

What I find gutting is seeing Adam O'Brien turning out for Halifax. Not because of any rivalry with them (good luck to them) but because he is genuinely superleague class. He's at the wrong superleague club IMO.

If Ethan Ryan were to leave I'd want to see him ripping it up on the wing in Superleague or NRL getting the show biz billing his finishes deserve.

A few years playing regular first team for us and I'm sure he'll be ready to step in to that level and certainly international honours.

There is no way in hell that Ethan Ryan won't be playing Super League eventually. As well as the spectacular finishes, he is one of the best defensive wingers I've seen in a long time. I wouldn't like to try and count the amount of times his read or a great ball and all tackle has saved certain tries down his side.

I just hope we get a good couple of years out of him before he inevitably moves on. And I won't begrudge him that move either.

From reading this and the comment you were replying to, the best way forward is an open and honest approach. Let players like Ryan, Oakes etc know that if someone comes in and it feels like right time and move for them; we'll let them go. But if it doesn't feel right, they're not quite ready for that level it would be better to have one more season at this level, if they go to Club X they're likely to not get a shot and just get shipped out on dual reg at this stage (i.e. O'Brien) etc etc

Would require players to have a lot of respect and trust in whoever was delivering that message as it could sound like you're just trying to keep them but if we're genuinely looking after the players best interest than it could work. May be being a bit naive here

Maybe we should start insisting on transfer fees for our players then in future. If we are to become a feeder club for super leagues then I would hope we get as much money as is possible.

That was my thought too, but I don't have any easy answers..

It just feels really gutting that we are now, in essence, a feeder club for SL teams. I know all the stuff about 'cutting our cloth' etc etc (it's certainly not that people haven't rammed it down our throats enough!).

But, part of being a supporter is to have that hope that one day we'll be at the top table ourselves again - and if all of our best players are 'inevitably' going to be moving on as soon as they develop, well, what's really the point?

I guess one way of attempting to keep the class young lads at the club is the way we managed to convince some of our ex players (Addy, Olbison etc) to stay when we got relegated ... convince them that they don't need to leave Bradford to play SL. Clearly now that will be a much harder sell than it was when we were initially relegated, especially this season with the -12 deficit. But if we managed to stay up and keep a few of them, and get another good crop through, maybe we can start to build that feeling back.

Very much wishful thinking but I think that'd be the only way of keeping hold of anyone.

it will be his agent (Karl Harrison) who you need to talk to and persuade the young lad is better off staying with us and playing.
Adam O'Brien can be used as a good example to all young players as to why they may be better staying. I am sure there are other players who left us for glory and are now playing CH. rugby. Where is C Naughton now and that other winger who went to Hull a few years ago.

Curt Naughton in on a season long loan at Super League Leigh. Although admittedly he hasn't played much for them yet.
I assume by the other you mean Jason Crookes, who was never going to do anything. He had one good game for Bradford and everyone screamed him as being amazing. Scored one good try against Hull in a friendly and they signed him. Then ended up at Dewsbury which is about the right level for him.
I'll always remember Crookes for getting absolutely destroyed by Pat Richards at Odsal. One of the most overrated "prospects" I've seen in a while.

Good point regarding Agent's. Always a bit wary of agents due to seeing how they behave in Football, never convinced they're looking out for the players best interests compared to how much they can make out of a transfer; which is clearly going to be far less of a risk in RL. No knowledge of agent's in RL to be honest.

Jason Crookes wasn't it who went over to Hull? Playing for Dewsbury now I believe.

Agreed but we are where we are.

Realistically we're not going to be making a push for promotion until 2019 at the earliest really and that's assuming we keep our best prospects and make several decent permanent signings.

By then we may have gone back to franchises anyway in which case it'll be a different ball game.

If we treat all these young guys right, give them their chance, get them to love the club, then if (when?) we get back to SL, we could sell Bradford to those guys as a kind of "unfinished business at the Bulls" sort of sell. If it's a while until we get back to SL, we may be able to pick some ex-Bradford guys up after they've had a testimonial at their new club, but when they are still good.
Bateman may still want to be Bradford captain when he gets to the back end of his career.

Not convinced we'll go back to franchise but think we'll scrap the super 8s. I reckon 14 teams in SL and maybe a mini version of middle 8s. Bottom 2 of SL and top 2 of championship.

This is the big point for me. The only people who have the power to do this are the owners and Toovey. I cant believe Toovey has come to just try get us out of trouble this season, there must be a vision that has been sold to him in my eyes to get us back to SL. Whether this is achievable or not is down to the owners and what they are or more importantly are not willing or can put into the club in terms of finance.

If the dream can be sold to a legend like Geoff Toovey why not to these young lads with the bulls running through their veins!

Am I being slightly too optimistic?

After the past 10 years optimism is in short supply. I'll settle for staying in business and avoiding relegation for the moment.

I think you're over 'egging' Geoff Toovey a little bit to be honest.

He was a terrific player, no doubts, but his coaching pedigree is a little more open to question, imo. Whether he's come here as a favour to Charnley and Lowe I don't know, but he wasn't then employed as a head coach 'back home' and hasn't been since he lost his first job, so far as I know, and it goes without saying that, like virtually every coach the world over, he didn't leave that job in the way he would have wanted.

We will be back in super league next year if the meeting off super leagues power brokers has any sway with the dim witted RFL.

Really? Ooh I can't wait for the reaction from our pals at Wakey, Fax, Keighley etc. If that comes off.

In terms of keeping our academy players, there are salary cap dispensations in place for home grown talent.
Not sure of the exact numbers these days, but a couple of years ago we could pay players that had come through our academy anything up to £40k and they would be salary cap exempt (anything above £40k and the excess would count on the cap etc.)

Now in theory this works, but obviously for most clubs including ourselves, you have to have the cash in the first place to be able to make the most of those dispensations.

I have to say, I hate to see academy players being snapped up by other clubs. Not just ours, but anybody's. It's probably one of my biggest gripes I have with the game currently and that's saying something.
The current dispensations aren't enough imo. I would want to see the [ientirety[/i of an academy player's salary completely exempt from the cap. Give clubs a reason to 'grow their own' and once they do, give them a significant advantage to help keep them.
I guess one obvious downside to this theory would be the differing catchment area sizes.

The catchment areas is definitely the issue there. The reason the likes of Wigan have always got such a good production line falls down to that and the amount of top amateur teams in the local area.
That being said, I totally agree with you. I would love to see much bigger incentives for teams to have home grown players in the squad and make it more likely for them to keep those players, than what is currently in place. Would potentially be a better balancing tool than a salary cap.

Imagine an Oldham team with the likes of Iestyn Harris, Kevin Sinfield & Barrie McDermott. (I may be wrong about one or two, but I think all came from that general area). Was Deacon from there too? I forget now...

Deacs is from Wigan. We signed him from Oldham though.

Ah yes, that's where my confusion was coming in. I knew there was an Oldham connection somewhere, and my mind didn't want to say "he's from Oldham!" so deep down I must have known that...