https://widnesvikings.co.uk/widnes-viki ... ouncement/ "Current Academy licenses across the sport are due to expire at the end of 2021, and it has been indicated that Super League membership and the ability to draw players from non-heartland areas will be integral to successful reapplication". I'm not sure what this means, as it isn't exactly explained, but it does represent the start of Superleague planning for the top tier under the new SKY deal 2022. Looking at this it seems academies are to be restricted to Superleague clubs only. [i"ability to draw players from non-heartland areas"[/i again unsure of what this means. Anyone?

https://widnesvikings.co.uk/widnes-viki ... ouncement/ "Current Academy licenses across the sport are due to expire at the end of 2021, and it has been indicated that Super League membership and the ability to draw players from non-heartland areas will be integral to successful reapplication". I'm not sure what this means, as it isn't exactly explained, but it does represent the start of Superleague planning for the top tier under the new SKY deal 2022. Looking at this it seems academies are to be restricted to Superleague clubs only. [i"ability to draw players from non-heartland areas"[/i again unsure of what this means. Anyone?

Looks like your dream of approx 6 M62 clubs being left with the remnants of a broadcast deal,and ever decreasing player pool is coming to fruition. Gone brilliantly since Lenagan introduced Elstone. The non-heartland Academy players explains Salford and the Welsh Academy https://www.salfordreddevils.net/salfor ... rtnership/ The question was raised,elsewhere,about Widnes joining an Academy with North Wales Crusaders. The answer is the mindset of the men in suits and with the grab for power and money. Those outside the M62 elite have been deliberately squeezed out.

Looks like your dream of approx 6 M62 clubs being left with the remnants of a broadcast deal,and ever decreasing player pool is coming to fruition. Gone brilliantly since Lenagan introduced Elstone. The non-heartland Academy players explains Salford and the Welsh Academy https://www.salfordreddevils.net/salfor ... rtnership/ The question was raised,elsewhere,about Widnes joining an Academy with North Wales Crusaders. The answer is the mindset of the men in suits and with the grab for power and money. Those outside the M62 elite have been deliberately squeezed out.

[i“The Wales Rugby League National Development Academy in partnership with Salford Red Devils will be the only RFL accredited Development Academy in Wales and will look to continue the illustrious history of Welsh talent in the Salford ranks, which dates back to 1896 and spans across 147 players. Ian Blease said: “This new partnership puts our club at the forefront of recruiting players across Wales. “This is an exciting time for our club and another big step towards our vision of creating a legacy within our rugby strategy, which Salford Red Devils will be proud of for years to come.”[/i

Salford had an academy and IIRC Koukash closed it, so it was always hard to complain of no Academy at Toronto but more particularly no academy at Les Catalans after they closed theirs. If these moves to insist all SL clubs have academies forces them to have quality development systems (of the right kind not pretending another French club was Catalans reserves/academy) then that puts Catalans and TO in a tight spot.

Catalans may have the ability to return to their (real) Academy set up, but the question there is did it really work when they ran it? TO on the other hand don't have the money and I doubt there is the talent in France to develop players to regular first teamers with both clubs fielding Anglo/Aussie teams to be able to compete here.

What has been,or is,the benefit of preventing clubs outside of Super League,in England,not being allowed to run their own reserve sides and academies?

The whole sport in this country is shrinking ever faster.

If only financing a first team is the way ahead - then those overseas clubs seem to be ahead of the curve.

All the young,talented athletes will be finding easier,better funded,better supported sports.

Rugby League has been taken over by agents from the other code.

St Helen's send a successful Academy side over to play NRL sides in Australia every 2 years.Only a small number make the Saints first team.

Increasing the player pool must be the priority...Not shrinking it rapidly!

Never has the sport looked in a more precarious position...

Which overseas clubs are you talking about ?

Absolutely embarassing that a heartlands club doesn’t have an academy.

It's more embarrassing that it is the red tape or criteria set by the RFL that restricts being 'allowed' to have an Academy !

In the interview with Matthew Shaw & Derek Beaumont, D.B tells how during Leigh's last stint in Super League they were "not allowed" to run an academy but will be allowed to *apply* to run an academy this time around, his suggestion being that he will seek to form & run an Academy & create a "legacy" that benefits the club & the amateur game longer term !

Donnyman gets his wish, kill the game, plenty of grass roots pitches to walk the whippet.

Don't let the facts get in the way of the Wind Up's Ste

Not a clue what he's on about but it's always been a fact that only one or two kids per hundred or even far more than that make it to Professional level so if all SL clubs run academies that's enough academies. OK a London academy and a Newcastle academy is needed due to distances.

But taking on kids for the sake of it and watering down the quality of the academy teams is a nonsense.

As with all "junior" sides, clubs are lucky to find one player in each year that will make the SL grade, although not all players develop at the same rate.

Academies are neccessary but, they're probably not as important as getting numbers in at the bottom and above all, decent coaching.

Exactly hence SL clubs have development foundations to encourage this in schools and community clubs.........

Puts that one to bed. We need quality in the academy system not quantity......

Ill be amazed if Widnes are still around this time next year. Big trouble ahead for them

Grow up

True.

The real failure of the British system is not the Academies it's what the Acadamise miss.

There needs to be a far more obvious pathway for players who are not ready at 17/18/19 but are at 20+.

The best way would be no P&R and the chance for the SL clubs to create genuine tie-ups with Championship clubs to use as feeder clubs. That is all your problems solved at once. The Championship clubs won't need Academise as such, SL clubs won't need a reserve comp. Players will have a genuine platform from which to impress the senior club.

Of course, I totally understand why people baulk at this, thus it will probably never happen. P&R is what I'm used to and it's by far the fairest way to run a competition but with it comes massive instability and short-sighted responses. Its very strength is it's the greatest weakness.

The NRL is full of second-chance players from second-string squads, some of them are now stars, that is not the case in SL and it robs us of a huge IMO talent pool. Not every player is ready at 19 and those that are may not last the course. Those that weren't but are now must be frustrated to hell.

Thanks for putting the "poster" straight, much appreciated as is the Mods intervention.

There's some great discussions in these interesting times, I can only think being insulted (on a regular basis for me

) puts some interesting people off bothering.

Thanks again........I urge people to report not reply to this sort of thing........

As far as I'm concerned the minute you see the word 'Whippet' being used you know it's a Steph Curry style troll. It seems to be their generic stand by response to anything they don't agree with.

Do you not see a value in the reserves competition? I go back far enough to have been to many "A" team games? Is a reserves side a more settled environment for a fringe player....or is championship Rugby the better game to be playing??

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Correct...............But [url=https:///viewtopic.php?f=22&t=631678[uPlease read[/u[/url

I 100% do but the problem is that there probably aren't enough players to make it competitive nor it appears is there the will.

So a Championship team working both as a competitive club in that league and as a feeder club for a SL team is probably more cost-effective and competitive. However the chances of that ever happening are low.

When I say feeder club I'm only suggesting a small number of players who are signed to the parent club, say 6, or otherwise, that would rob the Championship club of its identity and be self-defeating. It would effectively make them a reserve team and that's not what I want, I want somewhere that players who are not yet SL can spend a few years developing in a good environment. Essentially they stay SL contracted players bit say 50% of their wages paid by the Championship club, beneficial to both clubs and stopping potential being lost.

At the end of the day, it's just my thoughts, the real problem is that there simply aren't enough youngsters playing RL or indeed RU anymore. Like any other resource, when that happens re-cycling has to become an option.

I appreciate your thoughts entirely, and it's a well thought out strategy which deals with the issues of championship clubs becoming "A" teams

This is my understanding of how the academies are funded - I'm happy to be corrected if someone knows more.
The RFL is in charge of academies - funding them, assessing them, licensing them. But, the funding the RFL doles out comes from SL TV contract money which is transferred over from SL, rebadged and handed over to the clubs which have academies. Mainly SL, but now down to 3 non-SL clubs.

A couple of questions. Only licensed academies can receive central funding. Is there anything to stop a club setting up an academy if they can afford it without central funding?
Academies are another point where responsibilities/funding are shared between SL and RFL. Could the RFL fund academies without SL financial support? Important question if the next TV deal is 25% less than the last one.
Could SL assess and license academies if they took them over? Would SL have any interest in non-SL academies in this case?

Well thanks for the interesting post. The listing of the monies provided by the SKY contract showed £17.8M paid by SKY for the SL clubs [i"coaching and charitable foundations"[/i so it seems that the money to run academies is paid for by the clubs from their own funds? Thus clubs can choose not to run an academy like Salford choose not to if they don't have the money. AFAIK Superleague has an element of control of the academies in that they appear to be able to veto an academy if they do not see it having any strategic worth.

Strategically SL see academies in London and Newcastle important as they underpin clubs important to widening the footprint of the game, conversely they have knocked on the head the ideas of academies 10 miles down the road to an existing academy, again IIRC.........Not sure they can stop a club opening an academy but if it isn't allowed in the academy league then there is no point as there is nobody to play.

Notwithstanding Hull having two acadenies, then combining and i think splitting again

Thought Northern clubs didn’t need academies these days as they just nick young players from London?

From the Widnes announcement:

“Current Academy licenses across the sport are due to expire at the end of 2021, and it has been indicated that Super League membership and the ability to draw players from non-heartland areas will be integral to successful reapplication.”

This reads as though SL will not allow non-SL academies from 2022 onwards. I assume by license they mean permission to run one not just the funding that goes with it although not sure from the wording if non-heartland Ch and L1 clubs will be allowed to continue.