really? you think all SL clubs are putting every ounce of effort into bringing through juniors?


In this context acheivement would be bringing in the required number of juniors

im not sure thats the case. I dont think all 14 clubs have retained and recruited this season to give them the best chance of winning a trophy either this season or going forward. Some are simply treading water


No problem.

our elite clubs have a duty to the game, if they are the top of the RL pyramid and they are given all the benefits that provides they have a responsibility to the game in this country, That responsibility is to provide a pathway for the young players of this country to fulfil their potential.

We can use a carrot and stick approach through the salary cap to help achieve this. We currently dont

I would like to see clubs who dont invest the time effort and skill into helping as many kids as possible fulfil their potential punished and those who do rewarded.

But this is all within the context of the licensing requirement isn't it? Clubs are doing what they think will earn them the maximum amount of points for the next round of franchising, which will necessarily involve different strategies. Of course your goal of producing more juniors could be achieved through weighting the respective areas differently, this would then better align the goals of the club with the goal of producing more juniors.

It's Super League. Not Super School


Required for what? This is professional sport, not some addition to the school system.


Who?



With the RFL, BARLA, Summer Conference, National Conference and Champtionship all in place, why are you asking our TV and spectator showpiece and greatest revenue generator to also function as a school system?

Exactly.
This is pro sport. Whilst it's nice if teams can produce junior players, that can never be the prime aim of the league.

He seems to be selective in his description of SL , this time he is forgetting it is a business , something he has reminded me of many times

There is no reason both cant be done

it is the pinnacle of the game in this country. Not having the necessary pathways to produce enough young players of sufficient quality to not only sustain the game but grow and improve it will lead to ruin. Right now we dont have close to that, we rely on the Australian system for a huge part of it

required to make sure this club that has been granted an opportunity at SL level is actually making a meaningful contribution to SL

id rather not get into an inter-club spat, suffice to say i dont think all SL clubs have a plan to get from where they are to the top. Some are happy mid-tablers

im not, im asking them to make sure they have the pathways underneath them to bring through as many young british players as possible. Im not asking SL to turn itself in to the SL academy, im asking SL clubs to put everything in place to make sure that more players of better quality and more potential is fulfilled by players leaving SL academies. Im asking them to put more effort and more quality in scouting and training more young players, Which will in turn improve SL, improve the levels below it, improve our international side, and put the game on a much more sustainable and stable footing.

it is one of its prime aims, its what keeps the league going

Im not forgetting its a business. I think it makes business sense. Investing in your employees is rarely a bad thing, Neither is training them to be better

And i dont really think that the game would suffer long term from seeing us replace the likes of Scott Donald or Ryan Mcgoldrick or Michael Korkidas with british players

I'm sure we would all agree , but ultimatley our sport is and was born of the use of proffessionalism to compete with each other , you cannot change that , the only way your utopia would work is when all clubs either revertto the type of union club competition they have had for the last century or you have all clubs so financially rich that they dont need to be competitive with each other to survive

What you want is not viable at the moment , and is unlikely to be viable for a long time , if ever

Unfortunatley no it isn't , just as in football I'm sure the Arsenal fans will be more than happy if their ' foreign legion ' win the premiership this year and in the future , eventually premier football could quite easilly become a completely non british competition , will it affect the fans going through the doors or the sponsors contributions ? , no

Quite simply the Bosman ruling has removed all need for any proffessional sports clubs to produce it's own players , for many many years big rich clubs like Leeds and W1g4n in RL and many others in football profited from buying in the best players produced by smaller poorer ' selling ' clubs , this made it important for all clubs to try to produce juniors , as they actually had assets that then could be sold

Now that incentive has gone , in fact it has reveresed , the big clubs have the profile and the money to attract all the best juniors from much further affield , but they quite simply dont have room for them all , so many end up moving on to other clubs ,

The poorer lower profile clubs get the 2nd even 3 rd level of juniors , making the process of producing top quality even harder , and therefore not financially viable

If you want to even out the production of juniors , cap the numbers each club is allowed , but you will not agree with that

in ten years time imagine where the game will be with every club spending the full cap and it being sustainable

the days of two or three clubs dominating the league are boring and bad for the game.

share the love around

bradford have had their go, so has saints and leeds

next i want hudds, wire and wigan to win it.

how good would les cats winning it be for the game?

For the bank books probably not very.
Old Trafford would be empty

wembley final a few years back, st helens vs les cats mate.

i was there too.

leeds vs saints GF aint selling out anywhere. neutrals arent interested in either team any more. we need some fresh blood, maybe your mob can lose the chokers tag finally.

you guys are the parramatta eels of SL. same colours too

Pathways are there. Probably more so than for any other pro sport. They just shouldn't be the responsibility of a pro club.


A contribution in interest, spectators and financially. Running a school should not be a prime requirement for them.


Well, in the absence of specififcs, I'll say: All clubs are ambitious.


The pathways are there. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because there are other pathways with different starting points that the pathways aren't there.

By the way, why are you linking an improved international side with a more stable footing for the league? Surely increased club revenues (which will not come from an international side) and decreased running costs will be the key to that.

No it isn't.
What keeps the league going is revenue. Revenue that comes from fans, both fans attending games and fans via TV. The top ties teams producing players is not a factor at all.

The real employees of the club in this respect are the first team players. That's why teams put their best coaching resources into that area of the club.
Academy players are like students on work experience. It's nice thing to do for the community, and you might find some talent, but it's far from vital to the business.

So where do these "finished" products come from?

If no one is training them then...........................

The shortage of trained personnel in my industry is causing real problems as more and more are chasing fewer and fewer but will not pay for training!!!

So where do they come from?

It was the first ever new wembley final, it was going to be well attended regardless of who played.
hudds and Wire was fresh blood this year at wembley and it was half empty, I was there...

so the crowd for the CC final was 45,000 then?

No but there was a hell of a lot of empty sections of seats. it was probably the lowest attended final in a while, I haven't looked.
Some teams are better supported than others, fact of life

and the teams that arent as well supported will grow their crowds by making and winning finals like clubs like wigan, st helens, leeds etc.

That's one theory but an unlikely one.

the giants crowds have grown from 3000 or so to 8000 or so. some because of the new ground and marketing. watch how much more they grow when they win trophies.

warrington will be the same etc

why are wigans crowds so good. sure RL has been strong there forever but the success of the late 80s/90s makes a difference.

winning a SL title should add between 3000 - 5000 to a clubs average gate if it hasnt won it before