Seem to recall there being a big fuss made about the youth coming through under McNamara, but things have gone a bit quiet (correct me if I'm wrong). Is this because Potter hasn't given the kids a chance, or just that they have been disappointing? Other clubs poaching the best talent?

Elliot Whitehead looked pretty good at the start of the year but seemed to fade after that. Haven't read much positive about Donaldson on here but he seemed to be good the previous season. Burgess seems to have come on also.

Are there any decent backs coming through?

I'm not sure if wardle and hellewell were part of McNamara's legacy but they could have seen some game time this year if they didn't move on. One of the striking points from the forum was that we were really low on numbers in the youth setup.

It was all smoke and mirrors. We were spun that line to deflect attention away from the fact that we were shiite and Macnamara was shiiter. At least, we thought, in a few years, things would be better as we were investing in youth.

Most of the top teams bring through youngsters - Wigan, Saints, Leeds, even Wire could claim a few of their won coming on. Also Hulls & Cas will always have a production line. Apart from a spell in the early 2000s Bradford seem to struggle in this area.

Bradford have always had a lack of quality backs coming through the youth set up especially outside backs. Apart from the exception of Leon I can't actually think of a homegrown three quarter who made his mark in the first team during the last 10-12 years. Obviously Atkins (big mistake to let him go) and Bridge have since proved how good a players they were/are and Wardle and Helliwell may well become top players in years to come. The reality of it is any top quality young English back the club just can't keep hold of as money talks and the clubs such as Warrington and Huddersfield can offer much better terms with there money men ploughing it in.

O`brien, whitehead, addy, crossley, burgess, donaldson, olbison, crookes, finnigan all have made sl appearances..wardle has gone on to make sl for hudds but would have probs got game time for us if he hadnt of moved on.

Then koppy has improved beyond anyone last season..think thats a fair few and more than is normally brought thru in 2 or 3 seasons..normally you like 2 to make a breakthrough per year...any team would love to have burgess in their ranks.

I think you can add Bateman and G Burgess to that list too.
For some reason we don't really produce any junior talent in the back line. Medley tried to blame this on the state of the weather and pitches in our area but I don't think anyone bought that excuse



Anyway, the new training facilities should hopefully start bearing fruit over the next few seasons, as evidenced by us recently poaching one of the Rhinos' best young prospects

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Thats something thats always seemed strange to me. could it be a case of having players who played as forwards (noble,mcnamara and medley) in charge of u20s and them concentrating on the forwards as they understand the role better?.

No, it's just because everyone in Bradford is too fat to run fast

You're wrong, so I correct you. On the contrary, given the disastrous injury situation we have experienced, if it hadn't been for a considerable number of decent youngsters to blood, we would sometimes hardly have been able to raise a team. Whether they go on to top level remains to be seen but we have had a fair number coming through, some sooner than we would have ideally liked.

I would agree that there remains a shortage of backs, though.

I'm never very sure which way round it is. Is it because we generally produce good young forwards that our overseas recruitment are generally backs? Or is it we don't need as many young backs coming through as we have overseas backs who would block progress to the first team?

Very few in British RL have a clue what a good outside back is, that's why the majority of British backs produced are the size of a pea in comparison to their Antipodean counterparts and they simply get run over in the big games.

Correct with the perfect example been Michael Lawerence at the Giants been shifted into the pack because of his size.