Whats he like Declan Patton? Heard stuff about him. Is he U15s?

That's fair enough then, it's their careers so the lads are entitled to make the choices which suit them best.

It's funny how when young players make the decision to leave the club and go to Saints, everybody points the finger at the club and says "what are we doing wrong, we must be doing something wrong if players are leaving to go to Saints". They don't blame the kids involved.

But when Nick Fozzard signed for Saints or Iestyn Harris signed for Leeds, everybody said they were judases and booed them every time they played us.....

Moved up to U16's this year for Latchford.

His a very good Scrum half and the lads got that cocky attitude a half back needs. He punched a Orrell player straight in the face the other week in the first game of the season which resulted in the ref abandoning the game. Good goalkicker aswell.

Your U15 scholarship only lost narrowly against both Wigan and Saints last season despite losing so many players. Saints ended unbeated. The year before at service area level, Warringon won St Helens 50 - 0!

Both Warrington and St Helens have very successful youth polices, however I think it is highly more likely that a youngster will get his chance at St Helens easier than at Warrington.

I am sure parents and players will appreciate this. St Helens are definetly more ready to give youth a chance! Personally I think Warrington will continue to concentrate on estabilshed good senior players. Maybe you get short term game? maybe it is because you have the cash to do it? but I do think local British youth gain with St Helens policy.... Any thoughts?

I wouldn't have said that was the case in recent years. I can think of a lot of lads who got their chance at Warrington - Mark Gleeson, Gary Hulse, Dave Alstead, Jamie Stenhouse, Dean Gaskell, Steve Pickersgill, Andy Bracek, these lads had a lot of first team games between them that they wouldn't have got at Saints. The honest answer is those lads were not good enough to have got the amount of games they got in SL, if they had been at Saints. The only one we brought through who I think would have been a long term first teamer at Saints, is Paul Wood.

If youngsters got their chance more easily at St Helens than at Warrington then Lee Briers wouldn't have joined Warrington.

The difference between us and Saints was not that Warrington aren't willing to give young players a chance, the Cullen era especially was good for that, Cullen brought a lot of lads through to the first team and gave them their chances, Harrison, Riley and Cooper have gone on to make it, others fell away. The real difference between us and Saints was that they have had top quality players come through their Academy and we haven't (Roby, Graham, Eastmond...and going back further, Wellens, Cunningham). Last time we produced anybody in that category was in the mid 90s with Harris and Scully.

He wanted to join Warrington and was a fan of team but we couldn't afford him, so he went to Saints.

Yes, KC, the St Helens lad whos brother played for Saints, supported...THE WOLFS.

protip for you, Saints signed him from a wigan amateur club, think it was orrell st james

Warrington is a much bigger place than st helens... its hardly suprising that we are churning out much more talent than they are.... they HAVE to turn to warrington lads to make up for the shortcomings in their own area.... its been going on for ages now...

Are you absolutely sure about this?

I can only assume this is an ironic post.

St Helens pop: 102,629
Warrington : 196,200

Almost twice as big. May not have been sarcastic. May even be true.

its ok... you're not alone.. warrington lads make up half of wigans ' local talent' as well.

Its rubbish

I notice the wolfs fans crying about Saints nicking a few youngsters who would rather play for a big club, havent mentioned themselves nicking Sculthorpe and Harris

we aren't complaining we are asking questions. Why are they leaving? If it's down to the fact that they support the club there is nothing we can do about it. But if it is down to the quality of the system that is where questions need to be asked. And regarding the 'big club' comment, yes saints are classed as a 'big club'* but what are warrington? Granted we aren't there yet but we are certainly a club on the up and are not looked at as a 'small club'*


* i really don't like this phrase because who decides who are the 'big' or 'small' clubs.... big as in winning trophies or fan base or what???

I'm not sure what conclusion is supposed to be drawn from this story, are people saying that Saints snapping up players out of our youth ranks is a negative for us or them?

It's just like a balance of payments, we're a net exporter. The German economy is built on producing stuff which is exported, that shows that they are producing stuff that others don't have hence they need to import from Germany. I know we're not receiving payments for these young lads going but if our young players are in demand from other clubs then something must be right at Service Area level if it's Saints who are interested.

If we have a thriving youth system then we are inevitably going to come across the situation where someone ends up going on to make it elsewhere. In the early 1990s in Newcastle they had Andrew and Matty Johns coming through the system and also Brett Kimmorley and Scott Hill....the Johns boys stayed, Kimmorley and Hill made their futures elsewhere, its just a good reflection on their set up, you wouldn't have had all four of them being first teamers at the Knights.

Money talks?

No!
My lad left Warrington scholarship because of the focus and overwhelming desire to bulk the lads up from 14 yrs up with an intense weight training programme at the expense of developing core skills. Quote Peter Farrell - "we like big lads at Warrington".
Saints have a different approach, core skill 6 -week training blocks, didn't pick up a weight until 17, all core work.

Now when contracts were signed, completely different matter, Saints pay buttons, Warrington pay top draw.
No I'm not bitter with cash, my lad is developing at a decent rate not at bulking up but at learning the game.

You're right, just look at Charnock as an example. He's played 1/13 for the majority of his junior career, yet the Warrington academy were trying to turn him into a second row! He left because he was unhappy with the coaching and the amount of training. He loves the club and detests Saints, but it's obvious why these lads are leaving, as they firmly believe they'll become better players at other academies. We need to change that if we want to keep players we're investing a lot of time into. Instead of farting around letting players go, intervene and find the root of the problem, that is if the club identify this as a problem.

The guys running this know what they are doing, Jon Bastian, Peter Farrell, they have got good experience elsewhere. Didn't Bastian do Service Area at Leeds, then coach their Junior Academy, then end up Head of Youth Development there....Leeds had the best youth system in the country. I would trust them on that, plus Tony Smith has a good track record of bringing players through into the first team so he will know what needs to be done at junior level. If some lads want to choose to join another club because they think the regime suits them better then its up to them and good luck, but we've been hearing this for years about how our best prospects leave because of faults in the youth system, and it hasn't been guys like Riley, Harrison, Cooper and McCarthy leaving, it's been other guys who haven't made it.

If we won St Helens it would mean we'd have loads of players so couldn't sign any more from Warrington.

thats exactly what i said, i no of 4 friends who have signed for other clubs due to not liking the way warrington treat them they only want you to have muscle

Was talking to the mum of Josh Swift today. She was aware of this thread and wanted to make it clear that Josh was only offered a scholarship from Warrington months after offers from firstly Widnes and then Saints. The only offer from Warrington came after he had already signed at Saints.

As far as she is aware the Warrington scouts watched a Crosfields team including Josh play around December last year. Some Crosfields players were offered scholarships as a result of this, Josh was not one of them. As stated above the 2 scholarship offers from Widnes and Saints were made in May. He is/was a member of the Warrington service area team but was not offered a scholarship until, she believes, Warrington lost a number of players to other clubs and were looking to make up the numbers.

Why Joe and Kane ended up at Saints I havent a clue.

That bit in bold shouldn't be happening with the recent success the club has had young local players should be staying with us not going elsewhere, basic mistakes are being made somewhere.

Twas St Judes. He played in the sameteam as Longy, as well as GB U16's.