I think the academies would need to be regional and separate to the clubs.

The problem I think we would have is money and geography. If a young prospect from Sheffield was picked by Catalan (or even Wigan) it would probably mean they would have to relocate. How do you do that on 25k a year?

To be fair to Salford, this isn't necessarily their idea. I think Craig Harrison and Danny McGuire are the main people behind it. I think the idea is that more young players will be competing against better quality teams, and receiving better quality coaching, similar to the elite camps they used to have 20 years ago.

It would also prevent a young players pathway being blocked, as they would go to the club most in need of a player in their position.

I'm not necessarily in favour of it, but I'm interested to see how they plan to make it work.

The idea might work if the clubs were already financially secure and the game wasn’t owned by the SL Club chairmen who will serve the interests of their own clubs before the game itself.



Until then, it’s a pipe dream.

Exactly this.

It's a great scheme and could be to the advantage of all but it will take a massive amount of money to implement.

It would be typical of the RL to try and implemet without thinking it through and on a shoestring

In theory it's a decent idea, but the article makes it sound like a gimmick. But and its a big but, this would only work if the Super League was a fully franchised system. Plus for regional academies to work every club would have to stump up cash or have a reduction of central funding to pay for it. Now as most top tier clubs spend well on academy and player development that would be fine, but as others have stated some clubs do jack all player development to start with. I like the idea and it should not be dismissed, it requires more though and a long term plan and some debate. Trouble With RL is though we never stick with anything long. Go with it go with franchises both for Super League and League one.