The U16 kids are redundant too (the one I was talking to earlier confirmed it). The meeting was in the interests of helping them out and looking after their futures. Exactly what the RFL should be doing.

But at meeting tonight they said academy was staying yet 5 of my mates in the 19's were binned off yesterday while Wigan and Warrington are fighting over Cameron Scott, only ones not free agents are scholarship kids it seems

If I remember rightly the RFL did not have a very good opunion of Salfords academy when the gradings were published

An interview with John Bastian is in the guardian tomorrow. Will certainly be worth a read i reckon.

Gut wrenching all that hard work gone..im in rage mode again!

I texted John on the day and he was devastated. The man's an inspiration. I hope he's ok. Any club would be lucky to have him.

Looking at the BullBuilder email things look a bit more positive about an academy being part of any new club. Finger crossed.

If John Bastian was somehow re-hired, that would be a massive boost to fans. It certainly would to me. Getting him back on board would be better than getting a Kieren Moss, Dane Chisholm or even Rohan Smith for me.

Yeah I'd pretty much go along with that.

Me too, I continue to exist on the very faint hope that behind the scenes there is more agreed between the parties and the RFL than they're letting on, but I'm still in a place where if everything's actually gone for good, and in particular Bastian and the Academy setup, then that would be me done with it. All that is presently left is the fragments from the nuclear explosion, but even those are being picked off. Each passing day with nothing announced seems to me suicidal if there is actually a man with a plan. WTF is he doing and why?

Is their a link to that, I can't find the article

The hiring of John Bastian completely sold me on the whole Green era.

Me too. My meetings with him for BullBuilder things were great. Despite everything that was going wrong with the first team under Lowes and all the rumour and intrigue that was floating around about Ferres and Green the atmosphere amongst the youth side of things was spot on. Mark and Leigh are both great blokes and totally professional. The class of the setup was there for all to see. I used to come away feeling really positive. You could see the end product on the field too with more lads coming through. The links with community clubs in Bradford were better than they’d been in decades. I just hope some of that hard work can be salvaged.

Im not a member yet but if the academy is part of a new club I will certainly sign up to bull builder, really hope Bastian can be a part of it and hopefully salvage a few of the current squads if at all possible

BullBuilder really worked well with John and his team. Things were really taking off. We had over 200 at the quiz night just before we went into admin. Raised a lot of money too which we got matched by Barclays Bank. The future looked bright then. Fingers crossed.

So has the u16s now been scrapped or is it staying ?

Don't forget, the u16s don't get paid so providing they have a place to play and someone to coach, they could possibly still play but it would basically be like a Sunday league team with parents etc driving them to games.

Tbe u19s are paid players so I can see how it's been scrapped as obviously the club can't pay them.

I'm totally gutted for the club.

That would be all the clubs you outbid with money you never had - face up to it the only people at fault are Bradford.

Wakefield CEO Michael Carter is on record as saying Bradford have out bid Wakefield for three Wakefield based players in the last three years. All in the certain knowledge they couldn't afford them.

Trust us we know. Sad fact is, the players we probably outbid Wakefield for probably only played about 10 games between them. We had a squad of about 43 with the coach only preferring to use 20. The other 23 probably played about 10 games between them.

The academy was pretty much paid for via lottery and bullbuilder. John Bastian and many others worked so hard to try and create a conveyor belt of young Bradford produced players that over time, would have hopefully brought us back to SL in the future years. Now we've lost that because we had managenent wasting money on players we didn't need want or the coach had any intention of playing.

A lot to be said for having regional academies.
How about this - All teams have to pay a fixed fee towards the cost and the rest comes from central funding. That way all youngsters get equal resources. They are all paid a fixed fee which can increase through years 1,2 and 3 in the U19s. The junior team the youngster belongs to is designated a senior side and they get "first dibs" on those players. There could be a minimum fixed wage for their first professional contract which could have a maximum tenure of one or two years. Teams in SL have to pay the full wage amount, championship teams a proportion, champ 1 teams a lower proportion with the rest made up from central funding. Yes ok it might mean some players will have to play for keighley when their dream is to play for Bradford- but it would only be for a short time. If they are serious about being professional it shouldn't matter.
All junior players would then receive the same level of coaching and resources, all teams would get access to young players, this would improve the flow of junior talent and improve how the talent is distributed.

Not a bad idea Jools

Could I just change one thing in that though

"Some kids might have to play for Bradford when their dream is to play for Keighly"

You beat me to it - I was just gonna say the same thing

Haha we'll share it pal

first draft pick. Maybe your changes would make the difference

That's the point of bull builder thought, rightly or wrongly they have made a play for the best talent about. Prime example is Hampshire at Wigan, as you lot will know

Imagine if we had a draft like system that ensured junior talent was equally distributed?

Trying to think how it could work, any ideas?

This was an idea certain members of the RFL tried to push quite heavily about 4 years ago. A friend of mine in sports science was involved as a consultant to carry out data collection for the RFL supposedly pre a trial of the system. Sadly some clubs were totally against the idea (guess which ones) and so the regional academies were set up-but the idea went no further. I don't know the details of any proposals but know it involved having regional academies and an American style draft system.

I can sort of understand why, some clubs can afford, have spent more in time and capital and other resources to improve their talent pathway over the years and are now in positions to be reaping the benefit from that investment. Obviously they wont want to see their investments benefit another club, when perhaps they haven't done as much previously.

Some catchment areas are large and strong and probably develop a decent number of potentially professional standard players each year, but behind that is likely 5 years of investment to bring them to that standard. Is it fair that other clubs stand to benefit from that? I'd say no it is not.

Only way I see a draft style system working from regional centres is if it cash funded partially by the RFL and equally funded by SL clubs. Each club nominates a number of players each year to the system for age groupings. That then brings up the problem of larger or more successful systems and catchment areas potentially missing out on the numbers they wish to bring though.

Also FT clubs in the lower leagues, when do they get their picks. Bradford for example have a strong record of bringing youth players through, would a system such as the above hamper clubs like Bulls, KR, Leigh or any other in the lower echelons with bigger ambitions?