Bringing your own players through has never been more important than now.

We can no longer compete with Rugby Union or the NRL and a club like Wakefield can't compete with other Rugby League clubs, so where do we get our players and future stars from.

A sustainable youth programme is essential to us, we need to underwrite it and invest in it every year, it can't be the first overhead that we cut every time we need to trim our spending. To do so is tantamount to strangling our future teams at birth and so short sighted it borders on incompetent.

Trevor Baileys team produced Spencer, Conway, Price etc but many more from that team were let down by the lack of funds and development available at the club. Then Harbins team produced Feather, Brough, Ellis, Westwood followed by Tony Drury and Richard Hampshires team which produced Wildey, Walshaw, Cowling, Anakin etc who should be the core of our 1st team but were again let down by lack of funds to keep them developing after their GF winning season.

We need to provide a consistent high quality, cutting edge and efficient youth programme full of excellence and we need to do it year in, year out. Once players reach the age where they leave the youth system we need to continue to invest in them until they either make it or it becomes apparent they won't.

In doing this we eventually, through time, will become recognised as somewhere that players get a great Rugby League education and are developed in all aspects of the game physical, mental, tactics, tech etc. if that were achieved long term we would attract better juniors even if we aren't the most glamourous club offering the most money.
I'm not saying we'll get them all but the odd one or two that we wouldn't normally have a chance with just might opt for us.

We've let so so many potentially good players down by short sighted lack of investment in youth programmes it's frightening, maddening and frustrating and you have to feel for the lads who've strived to make a career and haven't reached their potential through no fault of their own.

That said, 1873 Club has helped us make a start and things are looking bright, let's just hope we sustain it.

How many from the Grand Final winning squad a few years back made it?

I absolutely agree with everything you say there Clan, but it is only half the story.
If we invest in the youth we could have the best young players in the game.

However, if we don't invest in the top team, we will not be able to either keep them from a money point of view, or a career development point of view.
We'll just be a really good feeder club to Huddersfield.

Money is key in all this unfortunately, and the balance between current success and future success is a difficult job.
I hope we get our optimum point out of our money but we will not have an academy like Leeds or Wigan without investment at both top and bottom......imho.

quite a few have played first team, quite a few were let go. when we talk of players making it they made it at wtw level. they won the grand final but we as a club shunted there further development, we signed products from other clubs accdemies who wernt as good as ours. we want players coming through at the highest level who can quite easily fit into a leeds or sts or wire team, then were producing good players. in the run in when we won the grand final we played leeds at stanningley. tom harrington smashed watkins to bits that night, watkins now an international, harrington dont no to be honest. we have got to be smarter, was grayson better than mathers, cowling better than mellers, annekin better than howarth, imo yes. we need a mixture in our club but we need players back at the club like rich slater, nigel bell, johnny t. billy conway. they were wakefield lads and they sweated blood for the club. we cant give local kids hope then take it away.

I agree with everything you say Clan, but have picked out the most important bit IMO.
Not only is it about cost, it's about having a "Feasible Plan". WTW don't spend enough time in schools, Castleford have very strong links with a number of schools in the town, this gives the kids the feeling that RL is the best sporting option in Castleford, in Wakefield we have lots of amateur RL teams but some of them are really struggling for players to have teams at all age groups, which is paramount for bringing through as many kids as possible, there just doesn't seem to be the same interest from kids in Wakefield as there is in Castleford,. Take the High school teams, Cas High have a number of teams for boys "and" girls and are regularly seeing success on the highest stage from these teams, the cas amateur teams don't struggle for numbers at all age groups anywhere near as much as in Wakefied as there is a lot of interest in RL in the Town.
The interest needs stimulating and re-enforcing, it stands to reason, the more kids we have involved in RL the more chance of us finding the next Ellis/Brough/Conway/Price etc, make the connections with the schools stronger, get more kids playing RL then reap the rewards, Cas's academy has also produce a good number of current SL players and they also have some very good players now coming through their ranks

Glad you mentioned cas financial the team mopseys talking about gave a cas side that included current super league players Joe Arundel jordan Thompson Adam milner and oliver Holmes a bit of a thrashing

Mitchell Stringer was also with us around that time and he has just been voted the Championship player of the season

This quote is a perfect example of how a club like Wakefield should be using the franchise system to develop their juniors, without the pressure of relegation.
Unfortunately we have chose to ignore our own in favour of players from outside the club, as someone has mentioned, are no better than what we have.
Everyone wants to watch a winning team but you are not going to get that overnight at Trin and if you did we may end up in financial trouble!!
Promotion and relegation is back and it will now be even harder for a club like Wakefield to blood juniors.
When we got our license at the expense of Crusaders, this was the time to start the development as not too much would have been expected from the team.

Thanks for that. I said at the time I was worried that too much emphasis was being put on winning the Grand Final, rather than the real reason for having academies which is producing SL quality players for the club. The trophy is worthless.

Very much this.

youve got to remember that no club is going to get it right on young players all the time. when ryan signed at wigan he was told that point blank that not everyone made it at wigan but if they did leave they would leave a better player than when they came to the club, that for me is how it should be. when i look at players to recommend the first thing i do is look at their leg speed cause if they aint gone none its throwing cash down the bog. this applies to all positions size or ability. in certain cases this should be identied that they have no chance of making it there and well develop him as a hooker say. when lucas walshaw was coming through he was a big raw boned kid, great in his running but when he made a tackle you could turn a boat round quicker. never been worked on reset speed. annekin massive work rate run threw walls but small side, hands hands hands hooker roll. when you watch 19s rugby look at speed and think can they step up 1 out of 10 yes more lucky.

Some will make it some won't.....it's such a crucial period and a period we as a club need to be doing everything we can to nurture their talents....

I've watched quite a lot of the young ones come through.....right back to the ones who have gone on to do great things.....the Westwood's....Ellis's.....Brough's.....etc......you could see in all those three they were going to be very good players......what have they done different to others who did't quite kick on though, and what can our club do?

Two players I could throw in to try and make the point are....

Tommy Haughey...

Probably the player of the season in the team that pushed the great Leeds academy team all the way.....watched about 75% of the game that season i'd say and I never saw another player around as good......was a fantastic runner with the ball....ran all the right angles and used to break the line for fun......from how good he was back then to where he is now must go down as disappointing.....

The 2nd one is Chris Annakin.....

Maybe a bit more time and still the chance to do well, but in that team that won the Grand Final i'd say Chris was the type of player Haughey was previously......looked a stand out week in week out and broke the line for fun....looked an absolute powerhouse at academy level, and if I remember rightly was a year younger than the rest?....

The question is though, what, if anything can the club do with players like this to carry their academy form through the ranks of the first team? Is it just a simple case that some won't make the step up no matter what the club do for them, or are they being failed in some way?

Maybe the likes of Mopsey.....the Clan would have a better idea?

Totally agree. I know that when 1873 Club got announced to fans as one of the most important things in the clubs history, people laughed, some got very offended by the whole thing but as time as passed and we've seen what's happening with the U16's and all the lads that have signed to the 19's this year, it just might turn out to be what was advertised at the time.

I'm talking about now and the future, not living on past memories, maybe a position that could be adopted by others

OK Mr clever clogs one of your quotes mentioned that castlefords academy had produced several current super league players I pointed out some that played that day and my point is we produce players to beat them its how we develop em them counts owt else

Well may I respectfully ask you to go read that post again, then get a dictionary out and look up the word "context" HTH

.I'm saying this not respectfully, why look up context you've never used the word ,the actual sentence my comments was aimed at was, cas s academy has also produced get your dictionary there's a d at the end a good number of current s l players and they also have some very good players now coming through their ranks don't try to be smart with me old lad I promise your picking on the wrong bloke. Memories these players are 21 22young enough still given the right chance to make it at super league level so don't try and make out I'm talking about the distant past

Oh dear

I was at that game that day and the Wakefield team were far too good for cas on the day,one thing that should also be pointed out that the cas team was made up of 16/17 year olds.

Academy's should be all about developing the players not winning every week,cas have produced some good players but they havnt always been the best side.

wish there was a lot more like you

At what age should the game be played competitively , this idea of not playing to win seems strange to me , On the Cas point , they seem to have a different philosophy to Wakefield , Players get a chance to play and show their talent , if good enough they are persisted with , whereas Wakefield (under RFA) don’t , Danny Cowling being the perfect example.

I spoke with Gary Thornton about this when he was at Cas and he was brutally honest about what the junior side is all about and said to look at the first team list of both wakey and cas in 5 years time and that's where the real victory is. He firmly believed he was there to develop players rather than win junior grand finals.

Just because you lost

Ha ha! Yeah, you got me!

Hard to argue against GT's statement, although from a young player's point of view, in the short term at least, the winners medal would be the preference. It may be their only chance of their day in the sun. (Nosey Parker will be using this thread as we speak

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