Just when I think the VT can't get more idiotic another one arrives.

Wakefield have won the Academy Championship in the last few years - there are currently over a dozen players playing for other SL clubs who are Wakefield products. Two of them, Westwood and Ellis are current Internationals, and IMHO close to world class which cannot be said for many England players. Wakefield currently field on a regular basis Wood, Cockayne, Trout, Walshaw and occasionally Spiers and Wildie. This of course would have been higher if the club hadn't been forced to part with our best youngsters when we went into admin in 2011.

Huddersfield (your dream club) who to be fair are getting better at producing players still relies heavily on Wakefields talent pool - Brough, Ferguson, Mason and Murphy to name a few. All Wakefield Academy products.

At this exact moment we are in transition hence rightly IMHO no players this time round, by next year I reckon a few of ours will be knocking on the door as they mature - that is how it works.

Cas are also very good at producing players.

So please go away and have a think and come back when you know what you are on about,

His son played for Wakefield - he may have gone to Hull I'm not sure - unless Mopsey has another son. Also had it in my head he went to play down under but may be wrong.

I think it's certain some clubs could and should do more to produce young players, however like Vastman points out there are some doing ok.
I think there might be an issue in clubs like Wakefield & Cas (& others, I'm not just picking on them) who produce plenty of average young players but not many top class players, but is that an issue with their academies or is it just the fact that a good young player at Leeds or Wigan, for example, gets to develop in a (generally) better first team?
It'd be interesting to see how well each club takes advantage of the loan or dual reg system to develop the youngsters too.

Erm I think it was the OP who said the reason for teams finishing outside the top eight was because they weren't producing their own players. My red and white friend was alluding to the fact that since our promotion to SL in 2007, we have only once finished below 8th,

I just explained we produce loads of top quality players - as many as any teams other than Wigan, Leeds and perhaps Saints!!!!!!!

Nothing to do with average or top class!!!

Problem is VERY VERY simple - we can't keep them. There are as many ex Wakey players spread about the SL as any other club bar those mentioned, more than some. Even more who were pinched from our service area who joined Leeds or Bradford for more money than we could ever offer.

Hence there is sod all wrong with our junior set up, but a fair bit wrong with our finances and the system in general.!!!!

Brough, Cockayne, Ellis, Westwood - Wakefield produce some bloody ugly players.

Just Yorkshire deformities in general really, why do you think Sinfield was sent over so early and Jon Wilkin brought the other way?

You would hope the new stadium news would mean you werent so insecure as to continue to make things up you know not to be true. Sadly it seems you cant help yourself.

Realistically, there are similar amounts of players Wakefield have produced playing in SL, as Leeds have players they produced playing only for Leeds, never mind the other academy products we have playing for other sides in SL. Wigan and Saints similar.

I didnt know you spent so much time admiring the male form over the other side of the hills.

and i dont care what you say Sinni iz fit.

No you didn't, you explained you produced plenty of players now playing at other clubs, you admit that only 2 of them are top class - Ellis & Westwood.
Just calm down, I specifically said I wasn't just picking out Wakey & Cas, just using them as examples of clubs who produced plenty of average players but not many top quality players. Given the England academy squad, the Elite Training Squad & the England Knights squad announced earlier this year contained only 3 Wakefield-trained players (admittedly it would include Ellis were he here, so 4) including Brough, don't you think this shows that there is an issue in taking promising youngsters and getting them up to top quality standard?

As I said, is it a problem with the academy structure? Are clubs using the options available to them like loans and DR's? Are clubs lower down the league putting lads into the first team too early? Or is it simply that they don't kick on because they're playing in a (generally) poorer first team than the lads at Leeds, Wigan or Saints?

Ah, the oracle speaks.

I haven’t read the full thread but I am sure that it is full of people wishing the England Academy squad the very best of luck on their tour Australia. I hope they do us proud

it doesnt take an oracle to understand that when one number is much bigger than another number, those numbers arent the same.

Or do you disagree with what i put? its a fairly easy verifiable fact.

y do threads turn into bitchfests good luck the acadamy team and lets hope they produce some results and some future talent REGARDLESS where they are from.

Most of it.

Lets see these verifiable facts then?

Because one or two VT warriors demand the last word and have particular clubs they want to put down, its always been the same.

Good luck to all the players and lets hope all clubs can continue to turn out quality players.

So you disagree that there are a similar amount of Leeds Academy products playing for Leeds as there are Wakefield academy products playing in SL.
There are 15 players who have come through the Leeds academy system and played first team RL for Leeds this season.
BJB, Watkins, Smith, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Ablett, JJb, Bailey, Sinfield, McShane, Hood, Clarkson, Singleton, Ward

How many players have come through Wakefields academy system and now play first team RL in SL?

(btw, that doesnt include players like Ben Cockayne or Danny Brough who didnt make the move through academy RL to first team RL in the same way it doesnt include Richard Moore who did the same thing for Leeds)

Whilst others just want to pretend everything is alright and its not their club which is failing in youth development, its always others even though we can clearly see the numbers.

oh my god get over it some towns are smaller and have a smaller encatchment area therefore less talent pool to get their players from. other teams have more money so can swoop in with promising the earth and money. some teams have more chance of winning trophies and attract the better talent. it is not as black and white as we produce more than you or my d@%$s bigger than yours.

GROW UP AND LOOK AT THE BIGGER PICTURE FFS

Interesting that Leeds are thinking of not releasing Ward yet Bateman is being allowed to go by the Bulls who i would of thought is a much more integral part of the Bulls than Ward is to Leeds. How many of the squad are on fulltime compared to Academy contracts does anybody know?

Yawn.

Im not getting suckered in with you again smokey, you are the VT terminable bore.



Seriously.

I will be disappointed if Leeds don't release Stevie Ward, they can easily cope without him and the tour could do wonders for him. Also, England will need their best players available, Australia haven't named it's squad yet but i have a fair idea who will be in it and it will be as strong as any i have seen.

I'm enjoying him these days, it's funny to see just how much of a pedant he can actually be before the universe implodes. It's all lost for him and he's the only one who can't see it - this is the only occasion when it is OK to laugh at the mentally deficient.

<< that's me laughing

The bigger picture IS youth development. Its all clubs producing lots of quality young players, not just a few

Beating the aussies is all that counts. Couldn't give a stuff who the lads back home play for.