Very well put.



This agreeing business is all a bit weird, innit?

He has invested in youth but as they was not in the SL up until 2007 there funds were very low hence why he has had to buy a team rather then grow one but in the next few seasons there will be more home grown talent in there squad.

How many players during his SL tenure have stayed with the club tho pal ? Taylor , Beaumont to name 2 . It's no coincidence that apart from Netherton no player has had a testimonial under the grudge , he likes to harp on at players about loyalty when they jump ship yet doesn't reciprocate the other way round .
Anyway to get Back on topic I'd like to say go feck yourself Grudge

Tbf, given that we've only been in SL 7 seasons, that the squad needed dramatic renovation early in that period, and it takes 10 years to earn a normal testimonial, even just one is good going. Welham should be eligible in a couple of seasons.
Our production line has been indifferent. But then during the same period, yours has dropped away a bit too. A result of the city's talent being divided, I suspect. Then it's hard to retain a Taylor or a Briscoe when the big clubs come calling.

You can hope for loyalty, but to expect it is foolish, I agree. People's first professional responsibility is to themselves and their family. And it is a very short and for most not even brilliantly paid career.

So he's admitted his club runs at a loss. Big deal! There's a thing called annual reports of accounts which will publicise this very fact whether grudge wants to admit it or not. And he hasn't even admitted this in the past particularly well with some of the accounts filed long after their due date. Admitting that he runs at a loss is about as great a confession as saying that he knows the sun rises and sets every day.

And once again, is continually running at a loss a great model for a national competition?

Thing is mate there youth that have come through this far have not been world beaters there best has been welham Taylor was just lucky that wigan wanted him if it was wakey cas or London would he have jumped ship? Rugby is a job 1st to players & to work for a top company in any job is a big yes & for most its about winning/achieving.

try taking off those black n white glasses for once

It's a thread about hudgel and I don't mention hull fc so I haven't got any black n white specs on ( for a change)

2008 called, they want their empty promises back.



Seriously, for all the strides Rovers have made, almost a decade on the academy gets the worst possible independent rating by the RFL whilst they have simultaneously wasted hundreds of thousands on the likes of Joel Clinton, Corey Paterson and Ryan O'Hara. There'll probably be only 2 homegrown players in their starting 13, possibly both debuted under Morgan. And homegrown opportunity-blockers like Maki and Paniu are still being wheeled in. Of all the contrasts between the two clubs at present, our "luck" with 2 young Dream Teamers, plus Shaul and Green, plus 6 England Youth/Academy picks is certainly one we should feel pleased about.

For once I agree with you we haven't spent our money as wisely as you,Will sharp,seymour,mcdonnell,o'carroll,holdsworth,galea all terrific signings.Go on I'll chuck peter gentle in as well.

Peter Gentle who had a 67% win ratio against Sandercock and saw Hull FC finish above you in both years of his tenure, which included 2 play-off wins and a Wembley final? That Peter Gentle?

Yes thats the one, nilled in the worst cup final ever and record playoff defeat,cant remember the score,but how many trombones led the big parade ? How does it go, "In gentle we trust"

The one with superior results to Sandercock, then, in both seasons. If I remember correctly, in 2013 we scored more points than you, conceded fewer, finished higher, had a play-off win, won two out of three derbies (including the hilarious Travis Burns meltdown at your gaff in the most recent one), reached a major final, had two Dream Team players, finished higher in the U19s, and had the SL Young Player of the Year. I honestly don't see what your basis of relative hilarity is given Gentle's indisputable, undeniable supremacy over Sandercock. In much the same way that under Agar the off season was the best time to be a Hull FC fan, now it appears to be the same for your with your 10th/8th placed coach and nodding dog fanbase. You have no grounds for imagined bragging rights at this point. Absolutely none. Apart from the "jam tomorrow" promises by Mike Smith that 2014 is Rovers' year. He has a patchy track record, said you'd finish 4th in 2012, that went well. I'd maybe suggest a bit of assessment of available evidence of the clubs' 2013 delivery before creating delusions of supremacy right now.

And Big Willie Mason trumps all those .

Yeah, but they made a fortune charging £5 to watch him train. At least 4 people turned up.

Come May/June Sean gleeson might be in double figures match appearances I mean....we have both bought players that have not set SL alight so des L your just opening a can of worms. & this'd thread started off so well about your chairman.

I think we're all agreed it's a completely rubbish idea for [uany[/u chairman to be placed in charge of the sport due to the inherent and massive conflict of interest it would create. Considering the development of strong academy systems would be amongst the most vital elements of any sport's strategy, what bank of evidence do you have in this area at Rovers to support Hudgell's appointment?

Michael crocker?

Agree,and then mrs B came along,and you feel obliged to try and put her right,before the samaritans ring her.

We've made some poor signings. But they don't all work out - McKinnon, Holdsworth and Galea, if we're doing that dance.
While the RFL's independent assessments are one of the issues that can be filed under 'lack of trust' in the system (especially if they're bad for your own club

), there's certainly room and need for improvement at Rovers. That's probably been the lesson of the last 2 years, and of giving our kids more of a run - too many weren't quite ready or good enough. The RFL's metrics are neither here nor there, IMO. We need to find more talent - Briscoe, Watts and Lineham are all good adverts for spreading the net a bit wider - and develop it better, no doubt. Even more so with Pearson clearly keen to cut us out of the picture, the dastard!


Bradford got a good rating, I notice, with credit for 'continued' investment and staff supported in their mission by the board of directors. The RFL's own regional academies are all uniformly rated as good by the independent assessor, who I believe is available if the contract is available again in 2014.

Corrected my annoying autocorrect. Twice.

Never came over let but just in the spirit of banter I'll re raise you with Tony Lying Larvin ... Still tickles me does that one . By the way has he left his parents house since his big claims ??

Tony larvin trumps allcomers,what a tool,but at least hudgell had his doubts and in the end handled it pretty well.

Mike Smith personally accompanied him to games around the HDM double page spreads time, right? As well as there being the public shows of palliness with Smith and various Rovers club employees around the dartboard #robinsrevolution. Marvellous.

I never said they all worked out, did I? Nor for that matter denied that Rovers have made some great signings like Dobson, Paea and Blake Green. My point was a relatively simple one. For all the manifold

emoticons by your honourable "friend", we hold all the bragging rights at present. All of them, as detailed in my post about 2013 results, points, players and academy. Expanding on the latter, it cannot be argued there is any evidence that Hudgell has prioritised, at any point in the last 10 years, the development of a robust academy to yield a consistent pipeline of players. Money's been spent on other things, for sure, but the harsh reality is that nearly a decade in, apart from Welham, who's what, 27?, there's only Cox who might get in the first choice 13. In the meantime, the choice continues to be the likes of Langley, Gleeson, Maki over investing enough to make a real step change in academy delivery. No doubt we'll get the jam tomorrow commentary, but 2 years ago, Bell and Heil were the next big things and here we are. Groundhog Day. It's nice for us to be in a position of relative strength in this area, particularly as Hudgell promised on promotion that "Soon all the good Hull lads will want to play for Rovers". If he'd elaborated with"all the good Hull lads called Krissy" he might have been right.

Everybody's favourite hedge-fund manager.



It was such a inept performance that were times I thought he must, counter-intuitively, be for real. Because if you're serving up testes for tea, you'd try to present them nicely at least, surely?

Ahh, but don't the years flick round quickly?