then you should have no issue with making the contribution to the development of british players as befits an SL club do you


that was 4 years ago, the fact Hull KR may have needed to bring in overseas players to try and stay in the league years ago doesnt influence signing a 23 year old NRL reserve grader for next year at all.

and that is relevant to what i put because?

If hull kr cant run themselves in a sustainable way with the RFL needing to prescriptively legislate for them then they dont deserve a place in SL

where is it then? where are the 18 year olds you were scouting 3 years ago? where are the lower league players you have attempted to polish into an SL player? If you are doing it rather than paying lip-service where are the results?


no i wouldnt, im more than comfortable, and in fact would positively encourage long term development of young players, if 10 years down the line you still havent progressed then that would be something to look at, but it would be more than happy to see the lower clubs like yours follow the lead of Quins and Castleford and put your trust in the youngsters, and when adding to the squad looking at british players rather than NRL reserve graders

The funny thing is I actually agree with you in parts. We do and will next year have too many overseas players for my liking. I like Green, he's a good player and as a Rovers fan, I will support him, but if we could have got a decent English halfback (Ratchford maybe, or Matty Smith would've been nice), I'd have probably preferred it. Problem is, anyone anywhere near this level is in great demand, and despite what you say, there are not many of them available.

The only way a fully functioning academy and youth setup can work is signing players under 15 and (as you say) developing and coaching them into SL players. Considering we've only had that for less than 4 years, what we could first grab hold of back then are only just turning 18/19 now. AND that was a setup in its infancy competing directly with a much more established one at Hull FC (and even Leeds & Bradford) that has a proven and successful track record.

If it was down to me, we'd have run a better youth setup all the years we were in the NL's, but for a variety of reasons (mainly financial) that didn't happen and we've had to deal with it. Believe me, we're signing a lot (and I mean a lot) of good young players now (check how our academy sides are doing). It actually amazes me the likes of Welham, Taylor and Latus are so good considering the restrictions we've faced. As I've said before, we're using the rules to the best of our advantage, but the aim is to replace the likes of Galea, Mason, Fisher and Newton with homegrown talent. And it will happen.

What are you talking about? Hull KR's Scholarship and U15's look very strong as do our U18's who did well enough to finish in the higher U18 tier with the top academies out of the Super League whilst also beating established sides like Saints and Wigan along the way.

We've gone through this before some time ago Smokey (prior to SL being expanded) when you then insisted that the competition would be weakened because by definition there were not SL quality players outside SL because if there were they would already be at a SL club. At least be consistent with your arguments otherwise you might appear to have an agenda which entails arguing a point purely because the target is Hull KR.



If there are such players (and I believe that there are as a matter of fact because we've signed such players in the past, I don't know what you really think because you keep changing your mind as long as it gives you a stick to beat HKR with) then Hull KR can take 1 fourteenth of the blame for not spotting them.

And please don't give me the Harlequins argument when they are only using the players they are because they can't afford to sign anyone better, British or otherwise.

What were your opinions of our signing of Dobson?



How do you think our under 18's have done this season?

lets face fellow kr fans our club should be foreign player free and have a academy team full of stars all that in four seasons. because lets face it other teams can do what they want .but when it comes to our club where being slated left right and centre they must be at least three threads on here that are slating us for different things. i give up arguing with some of you people on here because your expectations for a team promoted from national league one/championship in under four seasons is unreal i wounder what people will be saying about widnes when there promoted ??????

Cas got relegated twice and lost most of their youngsters but still don't have 10 overseas players in the team.

Nobody is saying that at all. But you keep exaggerating to try and make it out that other fans have a vendetta against KR.

and how have they gone since being promoted? We talk about the NRL's intensity and wish SL was more intense then when new sides come in we moan as they try to build the best squad they can to be competitive. You can't have it both ways!

ps I am taking great pleasure in watching our mainly overseas pack steamroll FC!

Won the same amount of trophies as you. Actually, I lie. We've won the Adam Watene Memorial Trophy.

win-lose ratio?

Doesn't matter how many you win if you don't win anything as a result.

But FYI, Hull KR have won 55% over last two seasons, Cas 45% in all competitions.

You've only won six more games over past two seasons.

fair enough,

whilst you spend the week sitting at home smug about how your team of less foreigners may fair next year, me I'll be looking forward to watching HKR take on the next round of the playoffs!

Not sitting at home smug. I long for the day all clubs produce a number of youth. Not only will it make England better but it will strengthen our clubs too.

Because you are hypothesising a situation where clubs could sign more and more overseas players and suggesting that this is in some way Hull KR's fault. The RFL determine how many overseas players a SL club can sign. Hull KR (like all SL clubs) need to operate within the rules laid down by the RFL, if those rules don't create a make up of players at SL clubs that you prefer it is the operational rules (which Hull KR adhere to) and not Hull KR's fault that you don't like it.



So, for all the elements that make up a good, solid SL club, for all the tangible improvements that Hull KR have made prior to promotion and after promotion, for the things that Hull KR have brought to the SL and enriched the competition by on this one matter you think Hull KR don't deserve a place in SL?



I suspect you will agree, since it is the [uonly[/u stick you have with which to beat Hull KR with. Make hay my friend because in 1 or 2 years, you won't even have that.

Great try from that average player last night

I'm guessing he is feeling rather silly right about now as this squad of avg and below avg players handed FC their ar5es last night! Wonder what it says about their overseas signings of the last couple of years?

It's interesting to hear Cas fans slagging off Rovers youth development when our U15's, U18's and U20's have won more games and performed better this season. Ironic or are Cas fans worried about the impending franchise bids?

As people have said before, it's not how they perform in the level below, it's how many actually make the transition to first-team rugby at the top level.

Oh and FYI, our U15's won 4 out of their 5 games. Yours won 3 out of their 6. That makes ours better, no?

Our U16's won 5 out of their 6. Yours, 4 out of their 6. Again ours better?

As for our academy, if we beat Warrington, I think we finish top of our group. You've done well to get into the top in that.

Any number of our youngsters could have made that transition to the first team and perhaps we too would have missed out on the play-offs. As it is, the ones who made the transition did so quite successfully.

Hull now have Berrigan and Manu classed as federation trained, I trust all the Hull fans now think this is a brilliant rule and they agree with it

i don't agree and have stated in the past its a rule i don't like, if your aussie/nz quota they should stay a quota regardless if they have played here 1 season or 10!

besides i'm sure a certain fc poster has already given you the details of our possible overseas for next season, 6, the same as this