This is the problem, how many lads before them have been allowed to progress through the amateur ranks to U18’s then become disinterested in the sport and give it up.

Isn’t there a talented centre at Folly who Wigan have signed up recently? Also a lad from Cadishead who Warrington have also either signed or shown interest in. Given the tiny numbers we have in Salford of kids playing RL, it really is scandalous that we allow this to happen.

MR I agree we should be working more closely with head coaches of local junior teams, in return the players should be going down and taking sessions, or even better our head coach (every now and again). We should be supporting all local amateur teams as much as possible and ensuring relations are watertight. At least that way, if we do overlook a player that Wigan, Warrington etc are sniffing around at they can give the club a call and alert them to it.

If it was up to me, I’d be setting up an U16’s Salford Red Devils team, that would compete in the North West Counties Premiership against the best local teams. The basis of this team would come from cherry picking the best players at the end of the season from local U15’s teams and if not already, signing them on a scholarship with a view to playing them in the SRD U16’s team on a weekly basis. Rather than waiting until U15’s, you could also sign players from any age to join the scholarship programme with the ultimate goal being to inviting them for training sessions with the U16’s, giving them the appropriate nutrition advice etc and then once they finish their U15’s season with their local team joining the SRD U16’s team.

Following a season at U16’s, any player showing signs, we keep and promote to our U19’s.

The lad who signed for warrington from cadishead, is george. I told the story in the alan hunte thread, i mentioned him to hunte who wasnt interetsed as soon as i mentioned cadishead.
I hoped it would change as soon when he was sacked, but nothing so far to suggest this.

Yeah Jack Wells, he's actually a back rower. He got Wigan U19's player of the year and is very much on the verge of the first team from all accounts.

Only Langworthy and Cadishead have teams at U16's and Cadishead and Bury at U18's from the local area. The amateur game from U16's is really a mess at the moment and has been for a few years. Locally a lot of teams have struggled but it is not all bad as each club has been really working hard below this age group with most local teams having teams at each age group down to U7's.

I know Salford are looking how to improve the local links with clubs and have run a few community club meetings which have been designed to look at how the club can better link with the local teams. In the summer on the back of this, saw an U12's festival and an U8's festival take place with just local teams. I also know from conversations that the club are really keen to get away from the previous way, where local lads have been overlooked and I know they have been visiting local clubs to look at lads at U16's and U15's teams with a view to inviting them to the scholarship. I know a few lads have been recently receiving letters with invites so things do seem to be changing.

The foundation have also been running the new Embed the Pathway program designed to coach any child, either currently playing in the area or not and open to other areas to come down and be involved. This is for school kids Y7-Y9 and has been well attended and very beneficial, with lots of local kids now on the pathway. They have also just completed the first Embed the Pathway coaching seminar where coaches from Cadishead, Folly, Langworthy and Salford were in attendance and each club will in due course become England Rugby League ETP accredited clubs which is a step over a lot of other amateur clubs in the game so in that regard the club are in fact ahead over other areas.

Staff involved at the club do seem to be aware of the stigma that the club has not had good local links for many years but seem keen to work to change this and want to work to better improve the standard and participation in the area. Time will tell of course but the noises coming out of there presently are encouraging.

I think it's easy for us to point the finger continuously at the areas where the Club falls down. It's helpful in keeping issues fresh and in the minds of the Club as something that the fans would like addressing.

It's also nice to hear that those problems are being addressed at some level for the long term survival of the Club.

Let's be real local amateur clubs haven't exactly been a breeding ground for producing the best young talent over the years have they? OK there's been the odd player every few years but it's nothing compared to what other stronger rugby towns have produced.

Personally I can't fault the club for generally looking beyond just Salford for emerging young talent.

all of us can probably quote decades where recruitment haven't been logical .
At present the RFL assessed the academy structure as ' basket case ' sorry mis-prunt 'not category 1 status' meaning we won't even be included in the SL reserve/ U19's fixtures. so even if Sheens/Carvell / Gleeson manage to attract talent , they won't be matched against the right opposition to develop and would probably have to be loaned out to get any experience ,
Every other SL club can walk into our local teams and show the parents of these kids glowing reports of the wonderful academy structures.

Other SL clubs are building links with clubs all over the UK, [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/34463912St Helens: Super League giants link up with Cornish Rebels[/url

we'll have to judge the current coaching staff on how they progress from now , but they should be tapping every resource & link possible for undiscovered talent uk & abroad :-
France
Italy
eastern seaboard USA
Russia
Serbia
Lebanon / Palestine

Sad as it sounds i'm desperate to hear news about who we are potentially gonna sign guys, so any genuine news would be great. Ta guys

Well I did see Sam Burgess at the Marriott earlier today so you never know

That's where England are staying I seen Owen Farrell there

I know, was playing golf there and saw them all milling around.

Cheers for nothing

My mates lad spent 6 years at Langworthy and he said he saw Alan Hunte twice in that time. He's now moved to Folly. And so far has been approached by 3 Wigan scouts and been invited to training at Saints. Nobody from Salford (so far) has,spoken to him. It looks to me as though the scouts need to get out more.

I may apply for a scouting job at Salford haha seems no one else can be d doing it at the club

Do we even have scouts? If so, does anyone know who they are? Whilst Alan Hunte and now Gareth Carvell should be showing their face around the local amateur games, it shouldn't be their entire responsibility to scout players. This is where closer links with local clubs can help, any player showing promise and there should be a clear pathway for firstly notifying the club, the club sending down a coach/scout, making a judgement on the player and then either signing or continuing to monitor.

I said it before, but given the stark lack of numbers playing RL in Salford its criminal that we're allowing the likes of Wigan, Warrington and Saints to pick up players from our local teams.

Salford should be offering to buy ALL local clubs their kit and insurance, for all their teams each and every season' in exchange for the local clubs telling Salford of every promising lad coming through. A small price to pay to make sure no one slips through the net

To be fair mate, from what ive heard we don't even pay for our own kit.

I don't believe the club do have any scouts other than lads involved on the scholarship. I know I spoke to Danny Barton about them coming down to look at a few lads playing and they did come down and have since spoken to a few boys but not sure of any others in that role at the club.

Just thinking what it costs for a squad's kit for every year group in every club
PLUS
full insurance for all these players when you (ie Salford Red Devils) cannot control the management of risk.

Could be a decent role for Mozza, particularly as he himself has come through the Salford amateur game. Has huge respect in RL, imagine him approaching a kids parents and asking them to come down to Salford for a trial? I am sure his son plays at Eccles, so will be aware of any half-decent players at that club already.

Do we know if this kind of work is in Garreth Carvell’s remit? I know he is looking after the under 19s but I thought his actual job was more in line with Paul Highton’s old role rather than Alan Hunte’s.

In fact, when Garreth was interviewed on BBC Radio Manchester a few weeks ago, he was talking about emulating some of the work Karl Fitzpatrick is doing at Warrington regarding player welfare. One example he gave was helping Chris Hill carve out a career as a plumber on the side; Hill now actually undertakes work alongside his professional RL career: [urlhttps://twitter.com/premplumbing15[/url.

I imagine this is a full-time job in itself.

`

The club recently advertised for volunteer academy performance analysts. I wonder whether a scouting network could be set up along similar lines with expenses for say travelling outside Greater Manchester and commission paid for a find that signs with the club. This is an interesting snippet from the an article about football scouts:

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24653124[/url



Bar low reward, because essentially it would be a labour of love, I guess the problem here would be knowing what to look for in a player and forging links with a people in the game at various levels. I guess the Academy manager could coordinate this, however.

In answer to Chico's question it states on his twitter account bio;

"Salford Red Devils Player Welfare Manager and under 19's Head coach"

We have a boy from Serbia who has just turned 16 years old.... He plays for the under 18's and also the open age in the top Serbian league... He has huge potential to become a professional rl player if a club can capture him early... Does anyone know who would be best to contact at the club? Here are some of his highlights from this year youtu.be/_ZhOoQ4VZfo

We have a boy from Serbia who has just turned 16 years old.... He plays for the under 18's and also the open age in the top Serbian league... He has huge potential to become a professional rl player if a club can capture him early... Does anyone know who would be best to contact at the club? Here are some of his highlights from this year youtu.be/_ZhOoQ4VZfo

Gareth Carvells our U19s coach his Twitter is @carvs81
Don't have any other contact details

Thanks mate.