my lads in yr 9 at Outwood and played today against fryston losing 22-10 which will be most of the players that will be playing this weekend in the Barla quarter final,
They are trained by young Milner from Cas

from what I have heard and seen on one game its far from a good school to bring on talent.

at one stage players picking where they would like to play irrespectable whether they fit the position and teachers swapping players to give game time to all ruining the flow of play

the one game I did see last yr three tries was run in five mins down a very weak side, out of rage I went to the coaching staff (if you can call it) to tell them move a stronger player over in which they did but the damage was done.

so not all is bright within the schools, my faith is with the coaching staff at clubs

Milner was a pupil at Outwood so thats probably why he coaches them. In my experience it the local amateur side that makes and does all the ground work for a good school side. When I was at school the core of our years school team played together at Stanley Rangers and just carried on playing together at school level and even the Wakefield schools team or Wakefield service team what ever it's called now

I can't give you loads of names but I'd have thought Eastmoor would have churned out a few.

Johnny Miller

Would think so. Good lad Jonny. Good player as well, had a half decent chance of making the step up to pro.

jordan thompson-freeston
ben cockayne-freeston
ben westwood-freeston
rob burrow-st wilfreds
oliver holmes-outwood
adam milner-outwood
ryan hudson-royds
joe westerman-airdale
liam watts-airdale
richard owen-airdale
daz clarke-airdale
craig huby-airdale
keal carlisle-airdale
brett ferres-castleford
joe-arundel-castleford
greg eden-castleford
dale ferguson-kings
tom briscoe-featherstone
nathen massey-crofton


im sure others could add to the list but it does go to show the strength in depth in the wakefield schools area,imo the area has even more potential to come through has it has only in the past 5 years been taken seriously by the local super league clubs.

im lucky enough to see what talent their is coming through the junior and schools ranks first hand and i see a very bright future for both castleford and wakefield if the talent is nurtured correctly which i believe to be the case now,i can only vouch for the players i coach and see but the commitment and will to succeed is their to see.

The issue for me is, did the schools develop these players or were they developed at a club and just happened to be at this school.
Rob Burrow as an example......when i was there Wilfs was a Rugby Union School. Has it changed or did he just learn his RL at an amateur club?

Ask Mopsey for his views!

QEGS were an awesome RU school when I was playing Union for Cas Grammar but I only got to play against them in 7's because at 15 a side we were way below them (socio/educationally as well I suspect)....despite the fact our back division included Gary Hetherington,Terry Day, Les Dyl, Derek Parker, John Kear, Terry Richardson and Keith Worsley during the two years I played in the 1st XV.

IIRC the Rayne twins played the season after I left.

Which school did Rocky Turner Attend

Hard Knocks I would imagine and I doubt he felt most of them.

I think Steve Booth (ex Hudds/Leicester Tigers), whose about 4 years older than Burrow and went to St Wilfs, only played union there while learning league at Oulton.

His love child rates him more!

i would say that the biggest majority learn their trade with their amateure sides but it can only help their development playing for the school side.

for example at cas high yr7 they had over 50 kids apply for the schools rugby side this year.they were eventually put into two squads of 20 basically a first and second team, the first team is made up of 10 cas panthers players 8 from lock lane 1 from townville and 1 who has never played before,needless to say despite some indifferent performances they have never looked like losing a game and are getting better has a team by the game,the B team have only 3 players that play for cas panthers and 1 from locklane and the rest arnt at any club they have yet to get close to winning a game and are shipping in points galore.it certainly proves that playing club rugby helps although i wouldnt say you should right anyone off.

Steve Booth there a blast from the past, Steve started at Travs BTW with my Brother moved to Oulton later i believe and is another Airedaler

As as been mentioned Alan Hunte played at Eastmoor and Brian McDermott as well, I played there with Jimmy Leatham & Kieran Allen.

I meant Eastmoor High (as it was) rather than the club.
I know Jim well. Good lad.

Brian was at St. Thomas a Beckett

Alan went to Eastmoor High - I can't imagine that he didn't play for them.

D'oh!

Normanton grammar which is now freeston high

David topliss
Steve Evans
Jason Timmins
Mark Webster
Darren carter
Richard gunn
Richard slater
Martin slater
Dean blankley
Neil Webb
Ben Westwood
Jamie Langley
Ben Cockayne
Oliver Holmes
Jordan Thompson

Super league contracts awarded to
Richard Blakeway
Joe hirst
Tony tonks
Steve Lewis
Adam slater

One to watch Ryan Hampshire at Wigan, 16 and training with the first team with Brett finch as his mentor. Got his head screwed on and is truly a class act.

Sure I'll have missed quite a few off there too

Ryan aka Rocky has the best attitude I have ever seen in a young player. Will go far if he continues like he currently is.

Exactly John. Stays off the sauce and is completely in to his rugby league. Only person I've seen with that same attitude was Jamie Langley, if the bulls hadn't changed his game and used him as a battering ram and tackling machine then I'm pretty certain he could have made the England 13 jumper his own.

dont think for one minute that wakefield didnt try to get ryan. Ryan made his own mind up that he wanted to go to wigan and not even speak to any other clubs. i recieved several calls from the club and even had a meeting with jimmy regarding ryan. Since he went to wigan he has been well looked after, coached well and he has been moved in with a family. even though he had made his mind to go to wigan, wakefield rang me with a massive offer no other player got anywhere or club offered.

Dont think im speaking out of turn here but the club has set aside money for junior development and its now a case of winning the kids over and regaining the trust of the public. wakefield will now in the next few years put structures in place to sign top youngsters and eventually faze the overseas players out.

Things are looking up at the club, its up to the coaches and youth development to deliver and im sure you could see many more come from the wakefield area.

Not sure about the best but defo know the worse, Hemsworth High. If you wanted to play another sport than football you were knackard. Proper lame.

Good to hear and might shut up a few of the moaners on here who expected it all to happen overnight. People need to get back to reality and realise we can't just suddenly go out and attract the best youngsters and also keep all the best ones we currently have. It's a progression thing. What we should be looking at this season is developing the lads we have and this is where the likes of southern ali Morrison smith etc come in, they've all got bags of experience and can help the young guys out both on and off the pitch. When word gets round that at wakey as a youngster you are well looked after and are actively encouraged to interact with the 'stars' of the side then that is when we will be able to attract more of the right calibre of player to the club. We cant be doing that bad at the moment with being able to sign the likes of leering and Anderson to the academy and things in my opinion will only get better