Quote ="Dave K."Quote ="Steve0"The ambitious clubs are held back by the stragglers, the salary cap should be higher than it is to try keep the top talents in SL. They key to being successful is having a top academy, if/when Wigan lose Nsemba to the NRL, there will likely be someone from the academy to take his place'"
100% Steve on the academy, you can have sort term success like we did in 2016/17, or like Leigh and Rovers are right now, but the only way to have long term success is to have a top academy turning out 2/3 players ready for SL every year.
Wigan have lost a whole host of players to the NRL and also lost young players to other clubs because of the cap, but they have a ready made replacements and continued to succeed.
Saints success came from having homegrown players in key positions and adding in quality overseas players to fill the gaps, same with Wigan who have a homegrown 7 and 9, which means they can have a winger a quota player and luxury prop.
If we can get our academy to start producing two players every year, who are good enough for the 17 of top 6 side, if 3 years you should be challenging at the top.'"
Can't argue with either posts, as Steve says the SL Cap should be higher to try and keep the top home grown talent but there just isn't the money in the British game to even try and raise the Cap without bankrupting the game here. Think the vast gulf between SL & NRL whilst earning potential is a factor for players, having a crack at the NRL is the pinnacle of the sport.
As Dave says you look at Wigan & even St's currently (and Leeds previously) in that they produce a lot of talent, granted not all make it at Wigan etc but they produce enough quality in their respective systems that if they lose one there is another that comes in a fills that spot. It's should be no surprise that Wigan, St's and Leeds have been the 3 dominant successful teams due to their investment and success bringing through quality home grown talent, which is then supplemented with quality overseas players.
That's why I feel there should have been more focus on youth development as part of the grading criteria, to ensure clubs started to invest more in to youth rather than neglecting it to spend alomost everything on first team. By tying youth development in to the grading it would have had a similar affect as it has with clubs getting their grounds, social media etc in order.
