Here is an interesting article from Love Rugby League;

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/ed ... r-success/

They say that you have to go back to 2006 to find a SL winner that fielded less than 7 home grown players in their side. But Leeds Wigan and Saints are fairly wealthy clubs with a decent pool of youngsters playing in their locality and a tradition of winning. So I don't think there is a direct argument for saying you need at least 7 players to have a chance of winning the trophy, but it must surely be a major factor. And you can list possible reasons for recruiting 'from within';

Youngsters grow up playing the clubs style of rugby and can easily slot into the team.
Club loyalty is higher, particularly if they are 'home town' players.
Effort and determination to win is likely to be higher.
They are willing to sit in the squad filling in for injured 1st team players whilst gaining experience.
Cost to the club is less than an expensive overseas import and they get a dispensation from the salary cap.
More local players making the first team probably encourages more local school age players to play the game.

Unfortunately whilst we as a club have spent plenty of time and money on an academy, we have simply not produced sufficient SL standard players that we need. The most promising young players we have produced all seem to end up in lower leagues, with less than a handful in other SL clubs (3 ?). If we are to succeed then this needs to be turned around, and certainly in the years when we do produce a group of genuinely promising kids, we need to be playing them in the team or at another club rather than letting them fester on the sideline.

Here is an interesting article from Love Rugby League;

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/ed ... r-success/

They say that you have to go back to 2006 to find a SL winner that fielded less than 7 home grown players in their side. But Leeds Wigan and Saints are fairly wealthy clubs with a decent pool of youngsters playing in their locality and a tradition of winning. So I don't think there is a direct argument for saying you need at least 7 players to have a chance of winning the trophy, but it must surely be a major factor. And you can list possible reasons for recruiting 'from within';

Youngsters grow up playing the clubs style of rugby and can easily slot into the team.
Club loyalty is higher, particularly if they are 'home town' players.
Effort and determination to win is likely to be higher.
They are willing to sit in the squad filling in for injured 1st team players whilst gaining experience.
Cost to the club is less than an expensive overseas import and they get a dispensation from the salary cap.
More local players making the first team probably encourages more local school age players to play the game.

Unfortunately whilst we as a club have spent plenty of time and money on an academy, we have simply not produced sufficient SL standard players that we need. The most promising young players we have produced all seem to end up in lower leagues, with less than a handful in other SL clubs (3 ?). If we are to succeed then this needs to be turned around, and certainly in the years when we do produce a group of genuinely promising kids, we need to be playing them in the team or at another club rather than letting them fester on the sideline.