Solid effort that.

So if it came to it, every club in the league could actually field a decent looking full matchday squad of homegrown players.

That wasn't so hard now was it?

But at least 4 of ours have now gone!

I would have had Maggenis in there on the bench. Here is a club trained team...

1. Wellens
2. Gardner
3. Foster
4. Wheeler
5. Makinson
6. Gaskell
7. Lomax
8. Graham
9. Roby
10.Clough
11.Wilkin
12.Magennis
13. Moore

14. Dixon
15. Eastmond
16. Ashurst
17. Armstrong

For Salford We've got

1 – Stefan Ratchford
2 – Jodie Broughton
3 – Sean Gleeson
4 - Ashley Gibson
5 – Danny Williams
6 – Marc Sneyd
7 – Matty Smith
8 – Ryan Boyle
9 – Wayne Godwin
10 – Lee Jewitt
11 – Luke Adamson
12 – Adam Neal
13 – Stephen Wild

14 – Adam Sidlow
15 – Rob Parker (as he's now on loan at Castleford, I'd include Toby Adamson)
16 – Gareth Owen
17 – Jack Spencer

OK so put in Dixon, Williams, Mc Meekin and Bishay!

Do you think I give a monkey's about what you said. I was making a point using my own free will, I couldn't care less if it meets the criteria of the thread you started.

Go wash the sand out of your vagina and come back to me when you're ready for a bit of grown up discussion mate.

Unlike Warrington who dont know the meaning of producing Warrington produced players. Big applause to Wigan and Saints in that department.

I wouldn't bother with him mate, to be honest I find that nobody other than Vast can have an opinion, and if you do you are wrong, and then shortly later called a child for no particular reason!

The Club Trained players argument is an interesting one,

Shame actually, There wasnt a cup competition, That could run for only club trained players. Would give the youth a chance, And reward those who promote their own youth.

With Wigan's current star player, Sam Tomkins, a self-confessed Warrington fan who owned an Alfie Langer Warrington shirt in his youth, and Wigan's future star player Joe Mellor being a Warrington fan poached from the Warrington youth structure, the big question is when will Wigan be able to bring through some "true Wigan" star players in to their ranks



Paul Wood
Ben Harrison
Lee Mitchell
Matty Blythe
Rhys Evans
Gareth O'Brien
Tyrone Mcarthy
Mike Cooper
Rhys Williams
Chris Riley

All players who have played for the first team THIS season. This isn't exceptional by any means but I would guess puts us comfortably towards the top of the super league ranks, certainly in terms of quality, with most of those players being full or youth internationals.

Would that be the born and bred Wiganer Paul Wood?

Yes. One of the best players to emerge through the Warrington youth system since Iestyn Harris and Paul Sculthorpe in my opinion.

The way this thread is going there does appear to be a need to separate "homegrown" players from "club trained".

Home grown perhaps being players who have come through the schools and amateur clubs and scholarship schemes.
Club Trained as is quoted in the rules as a player who has been at a club three years before he no longer qualifies for the U20s.

What is happeneing now is that smaller SL clubs who run good scholarship schemes are having their best players poached by larger SL clubs who do not develop RL at school amd amateur level. These larger clubs then classify the players as "club trained" due to the 3 year rule as they are signed at 16-17 years of age.

The "Club Trained" should be replaced by "Home Grown" There is a massive difference. All clubs should be forced to develop the schools in their area and run quality scholarship schemes. Not just poach other clubs scholarship players and suggest they are their own.
Most ludicrous case being Salford who took Myler from Widnes to the Willows and he counted as Salford's "club trained" player. Beggars belief does that!

I understand your point but the days of having a team full of players all born within 2 miles of a club's ground are over. If a club such as Warrington is prepared to go to South Wales and scout out 2 promising youngsters such as the Evans twins and bring them to Warrington and to rugby league at age 15 then they shouldn't be punished for doing so in my opinion, as this is clearly benefiting the game in many ways.

There is lots of movement at scholarship level with 16 year olds moving between clubs. Wigan, Warrington and Saints have all been signing each others scholarship players to their Academy teams in the past few months for example. This competition is probably a good thing and for example, has led to all 3 of these clubs investing heavily in youth coaches, training facilities etc in order to be more attractive to promising players, which again is a good thing. Most clubs have probably lost a few scholarship players to other teams, my own club Warrington having lost Kallum Waktins and Joe Mellor for example, but I dont think there is a case of one super league club consistently losing all of its best players to another that is just poaching them all.

I agree it's important to increase participation and interest within a club's own town, which is something Wigan have clearly been better at than other clubs, no doubt boosted by the success the club has historically enjoyed. But this is only one aspect of the picture and should not be the sole focus on youth development. Anything that gets the country's best young players, playing our game and improving as much as possible is a good thing.

I think your point regarding Sam Tomkins is somewhat lost when you then go on to include Rhys Evans in your list. Was Rhys a Warrington fan when he was playing for Tondu RUFC?

Myler DID NOT come through the warrington academy.

Indeed you are correct, signed along with a number of other talented youngsters and placed into a revamped youth system at Widnes by the coach at the time, Neil Kelly.

5 years ago Hull beat Bradford to reach the Grand Final with 16 British players, most of them from Hull I think. Shame how far the clubs academy standards have fallen from then, with no players making their debuts this year.

We call it 'The Agar Effect!'

In case the winky face didn't make this clear, this wasn't a serious point

Fair point... I will lighten up!

Ahem

a team consisting of players who have PLAYED for one of our academy teams ( not necessarily brought through our academy system)

elliott hodgson
leroy cudjoe
michael lawrence
joe wardle
jermaine mcgilvary
gregg mcnally
kyle wood
eorl crabtree
shaun lunt
larne patrick
danny kirmond
andy raleigh
jacob fairbank

adam walker
jon molloy
keal carlile
jamie cording

a team of federation trained/british born players

scott grix
david hodgson
leroy cudjoe
micheal lawrence
jermain mcgilvary
kevin brown
danny brough
keith mason
luke robinson
darrel griffin
dale ferguson
lee gilmour
dany kirmond

graeme horne
shaun lunt
andy raleigh
eorl crabtree

It is testimony to the strength of Huddersfield’s English/GB qualified player pool that such a 17 could be named and a player the calibre of Larne Patrick is not even there (not a criticism of the team by the way, if Patrick was named and Raleigh not the same comment could be made)

You have to say well done to the Huddersfield club