The new business magazine for St Helens RLFC was launched today, in it, Saints Head Honcho's Eamonn McManus and Tony Colquitt discuss the future of rugby league, and there are some superb interviews in there.

[url=http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/sthelens/thesaintsway/#/0Some excellent debating points, especially regarding the playoffs and the future of the WCC.[/url

The first paragraph, in the McManus article, should be heeded by all clubs bar Leeds.

It still amazes me that clubs like Wigan, with an abundance of local youths playing, still cant really produce any young players of note. I also cant understand why randoms like Hull Kr, dont even have a youth policy.

3 of the 4 last men of steel have all been produced by St Helens RLFC.
The 2 leading teams in SL, Saints and Leeds, have both relied on local talent, whilst teams like wigan still persist in bringing over $hite like Tim Smith, Amos Roberts, some fat hooker etc. I wont even begin to go into the foreign $hite at teams like Hull KR, Hull FC, Castleford etc.

Its time for these clubs to put their resources into the youth system.

How can you say that?

They also have some of the most promising youngsters aswel, eg;

Westerman, Briscoe, Welham, Owen, Maloney, Boyle,Shenton etc

We might have a few overseas but Saints and Leeds also have aswel.

Castleford only have 1 more import than Saints and 2 more than Leeds and considering where cas have been in the last 5 years, i dont think thats bad going.

think you will find that on saturday HULLFC fielded no less than 11 british players, so where this foreign e you are spouting on about is coming from god knows

last week we fielded just 2 overseas players (Manu and Cusack)

Ok ok, maybe hull fc wasnt the best example, but you get my drift

Try this,
Ainscough, Tomkins (X2 or 3) Hock, O'Loughlin, Hansen, Prescott, O'Carroll, McIlorum, etc.

and Cas fielded 11 brittish players against Celtic

Where have you got idea from?

He doesnt have a clue what hes on about

Is this another we are St Helens and love ourselfs thread ?

Maybe half the clubs you listed weren't good examples.

Yeah, but you get his drift?

Interesting stuff. Shame about the typos, undermines it a bit.

What the heck is he spouting for he could atleast get his facts correct.

Hull KR's Reserves are 4th in the table our U18's are joint top with a 100% record. It makes it worse as our foundation team played St Helens in there 1st match at weekend losing 34-36.

Is the guy a clown?

All credit where it's due, that was a very interesting read and very professionally set out. Very easy to navigate and sponsor links very easily accessible. Well done, Saints.

As for the articles. Eamon McMannus has made some good point, but I don't necessarily agree with them. He talks about the league becoming an afterthought to the play-offs due to the size of them, but if the play-offs only involved the top three then the league wouldn't even be a thought to many teams. If there were a greater number of professional clubs in many leagues like there is in football and to an extent RU, then yeah this may be viable as you could have UEFA Cup and European CC style competitions for those not in the top. But we don't, and have to play to what we've got at the moment. I don't think he would think the same if he didn't run a team that consistently finishes in the top 3.

The Abi Ekoku piece was interesting also, but in some areas I don't think it was very well thought out (and there were a few glaring errors: i.e. Leeds vs Canterbury last year? That was 2004, Abi! Melbourne last year, mate!). Expanding the WCC is interesting, but is it possible and how? He didn't really offer many ways it would be viable. Playing the game in London I am an advocate of, but ONLY if it is announced a year in advance and consistently there so fans can grow attatched to it. More Aussie fans would go (many expats there), more media attention and more prestigious venues there than up here. One possible way to expand it would be to give the top 2 SL teams (or CC winners and GF winners) a bye in the Challenge Cup to the 5th round, freeing them up for one more week. Food for thought?

Yes
An ignorant one.
Gardner - Barrow
Gilmore - Wigan
Pryce - Bradford
Long - Wigan
Hargreaves - Wigan
Wilkin - HKR
Meli, Gidley, Puletua, Cayless and Flannery overseas.

Q.E.D.

As he said any promising youngsters of note.

Ainscough is useless in defence and under the high bomb. Yes he may have scored a lot of tries but the vast majority of these have been walk in tries. I seem to remember Colbon scoring loads of walk in tries last year but where is he now... Sam Tomkins is not a patch on Myler and Eastmond and apart from pace hasnt got much to his game. These two players in particular are your typical overated Wigan youngsters who wont be there in a few years time.

O'Loughlin works hard but seemingly many Wigan fans dont even rate him.

Hock is more often poor than he is good.

Joel Tomkins, O'Carroll, Prescott, McIlorum, Hansen are all average at best.

You are basically just listing all the average british players that Wigan kept hold of.

St Helens could have kept Smith, Tyrer, Hardman etc, played them in the first team and patted ourselves on the back about our youth policy, whilst languishing mid table like Wigan.

The key is quality, not quantity

And which "quality" Saints youngsters would these be?

3 of them have won the man of steel

Which current youngsters have Saints produced? In the oldest team in Superleague.

It will slowly turn into a Wigan aren't famous anymore but I can't stop going on about them thread. (See Eurob0y's posts as a reference)

Ah the riposte of someone that has no argument



I forgot all these quality youngster are why Wigan are in the top 8 and arent near the bottom