Only three overseas players, and of the other fourteen, seven have come through our academy.

Average age - 24.5

Because of injuries.

Yes we all know that however, I guess the initial post was highlighting the bright future with young local players stepping up and beating super league competition in a competitive game.

No Sherlock.

Great to see the squad depth improving as the quality of the younger talent gradually improves.

But we, as well as the rest of SL, will target average NRL players on large wages.

The thing about Bowden, Green, Crooks, Lineham, Hadley, Shaul is they're not looking out of their depth. My favourite is Lineham, love his attitude.

Absolutely, all have done a fine job. You could imagine all of them in the first choice seventeen in a couple of years time.

It's great to have these youngsters to call on rather than bringing in players on loan.

That team of 'reserves' beat a buoyant Salford team with ease, despite the close score line. This highlights the strength of our academy, despite the supposed gap at the 19's level spoke about numerous times.
In a coupe of years these could be the spine of the team, backed up by a highly talented group currently in the 16's. The future is certainly looking good.

Strange that, because the facts are that signings from the NRL as a percentage of signings has fallen over the last two years.

Yep, nothing to do with the rising Aus Dollar and NRL salary cap.

I've said before we, all SL clubs, don't give our youngsters enough of a chance.

But we are now and that's what this thread is celebrating.

We are because of injuries and the fact we can't afford the required quality from the NRL.

We've been forced into it, if we would have adopted this strategy years ago we'd be in a far better position.