A lot of the cap on very average players. Not to mention quota places.

I think they are there next Sat 14th v Halifax iirc, 2pm

www.hullfc.com/article/43229/u23 ... -confirmed

www.hullfc.com/article/43229/u23 ... -confirmed

Regarding what Peacock has said, he has never said that he wants Rovers to start an U23's team, he said that he wants to start a reserve team .....It's just another term for the old "A" team format.

Do you remember the old "A" team format? .......It was competitive rugby played by youngsters coming through the ranks to play regularly against men instead of just training and then being thrown into first team rugby when the first team were injury ridden ......It was competitive rugby played by all those first team players that had experienced a loss of form and had a chance to prove themselves once again through actual playing time instead of just going through the motions of training ......It was competitive rugby that gave a first team player the chance to ease themselves back into competitive rugby after recovering from an injury .......And, it was competitive rugby that gave a player from the amateur game an opportunity to prove that they have the skills to make it in the professional game (Do you remember "A n other" and "S o else"?).

We all know that "A" team rugby is the right way forward for our game, but, unfortunately, the RFL are too proud and stubborn to admit that they made a mistake abandoning "A" team rugby in favour for the youth academy structure.

And, regarding the "fair pay structure" .......Is it fair to pay an up and coming local talent, say, 16 grand a year when they are performing at the best of their abilities and doing everything right in the academy structure then offer them 14 grand a year at the next contract negotiations?

If your employer did the same with you would you be ok with that? ......This is what I meant by forcing young players out of the game.

Personally, I think that young players shouldn't be paid until they are offered a contract to step up to the first team. They should seek a profession outside of rugby and play rugby for the love of it and aim to be a professional first team player ......Paying youngsters a wage to be a part of the academy structure only makes them vulnerable to feeling unwanted when they are offered less money or told that they are not wanted and makes them make the decision to turn their back on the game completely .......This is what the current academy structure is doing and has done for the previous years ......And we wonder why the game is growing less popular as the years go by!

Hard to say if this is true or not, we all know you have a vested interest and hate hull with a passion, but for me we have to trust the club to know what they are doing, they seem to be getting it right at youth level.

On another note, Abdul seems to be going well at Fev, I read a couple of things to say he has played well in both games, he got the Fev TV MOTM yesterday.

Good point on us getting it right Dave.
We can't contain every player that goes through our academy system, we let some go we keep a few, some get dropped at 18/19 years old & never play again, it's sad when this happens but this is when they think they are no good, the reserve grade will be good for this situation. Imo

Seems a bit bizarre that we feel a young player is worth 14 grand but not 16 and we lose him because someone else coughs up the extra 2 grand. It's chicken feed. I know we have this structure in place but if the kid is worth a contract then surely we shouldn't be losing him over such a small amount. Wasn't that what happened over Josh Hodgson too?

With josh we had berrigan & houghton in front of him, we tried to move him to the back row, kr come along offered him more first team game time in his position, no brainier for him. Sometimes we have a lot of talent in a certain position coming through & sometimes we have very little, we are struggling with hookers atm through the club.

Are we? I thought litten was the next big thing plus houghton isn't on the verge of retiring

Not much cover though is it? If houghton gets injured kitten couldn't step up.

Please tell me that's his nickname.

It never was and the club have gone with it since we binned 2 hookers last year.

Just to make it clear, I am not having a dig at the actions of Hull FC, I am having a dig at all the Super League clubs in general.

All of them give academy players a financial wage that amounts to a wage that many outside the game would dream of regarding the low wage working class society (and at such a tender age), because they are playing in the academy structure in order to keep them at their club just in case that player turns out to be a first team player of the future ......And if a club decides that they are not what they want or are not worth the money that they previously threw at them, that young kid will more than likely take this as a major insult and as a sign that he will not make it in the professional game .......Throwing money at a young rugby player just to make them feel aligned with a club and then taking that money away when that club feels as though that young rugby player is not worth the money thrown at them regarding first team wages is not how a Super League club should behave when trying to promote the game to our youth.

All the Super League clubs are guilty of this, all the Super League clubs have caused young talent to turn their back on the game completely because they paid them a wage (or made them feel as though they have a career in rugby league) and then asked them to take a dramatic wage decrease or just told them they are not wanted and cut their wage completely .......This is not how we should be treating our young and up coming talent!

My family have rugby league running through our blood and our young ones have so much potential to be professional rugby league players (just like many of you who have young ones playing the game today) .......And with that in mind, I will always advise them to forget about the Super League clubs, their dual registrations and their academy structures because the "fall from grace" is not worth the wage and the potential mental affects of deciding to turn their backs on the game completely .......I will always advise them to trial and sign for a Championship club and "rip it up" within the Championship ........Because, if you are focused and good enough to "rip it up" in the Championship, you will have a number of Super League clubs vying to sign you instead of one person at a Super League club deciding that you are not good enough within the current academy structure.

And just to make it clear that I am not having a dig at Hull FC, just like you, we also missed out on signing a great player because of the academy structure and of one man's say so .......You missed out on Josh Hodgson, but we missed out on Jamie Shaul!

If we had the "A" team structure today, Josh Hodgson would be playing for you and Jamie Shaul would be playing for us

The RFL has a lot to answer for regarding how we treat our up and coming talent!

Fair point, well put Mr Tipps .

Very thought provoking submission which makes a lot of sense, I hope that the Clubs adopt the idea of a reserve league next season, because the under 23's seem to be working in that it cant be completely coincidental that 3 of the current top 4 run them while none of the teams in the bottom half of the table do. That might be down to resources of course but none the less its a fact and anyway the games will make for good events for spectators too. Great point about encouraging youngsters to join Championship teams as well.

I went along today and saw an entertaining game. Bit hit and Miss from the Hull lads but held on to win 30-26 in the end against a bigger and more physical fax side. reece dean looked miserable as fook so maybe his move to rovers is back on. HTW showed some decent touches but neither half back really imposed themselves on the game enough for me. Hadley was solid but some of the forwards struggled to make any impact, particularly in the 2nd half.

Good to see the NZ contingent all there. fonua is massive

I also went along yesterday and agree with Jake that Fax were a big, physical side and I think our lads (and the coaches) will learn more from a hard fought win like this than they will from giving someone a hiding. Hope Reece's injury isn't too serious. As Jake says it was great to see our NZ boys there and I'm sure the lads who were playing appreciated first team players coming along to show their support.

I thought exactly the same. The physicality of that game was way above academy level and just what they need

And that is exactly why the game needs to bring back A team rugby

Not only does the game need to bring back A team rugby because of the physicality, but it also needs to abandon the concept of paying youngsters thousands of pounds .......Fair enough, keep paying first team players who are coming back from injury to recover and get competitive game time or first team players who have lost form and are trying to prove themselves within the competitive game of A team rugby, but all youngsters and trialist should be encouraged to find a profession outside of professional rugby league and their chance within the A team structure should be deemed as an opportunity to prove themselves and potentially be a professional rugby league player .......They should be playing the game because they love the game and not because of a wage

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mq59ykPnAE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mq59ykPnAE

What nonsense, it's not 1936!

Players play for money, the option of waorking on a trawler during the week and playing at the weekend is a misty eyed whim.

they must have been super fast trawlers,going to iceland,white sea,bear island and greenland in a week,and back in time to play rugby.

you know full well what I was getting at, the misty eyed nostalgia of times long passed. RL is a career in itself now, has been for a while.

How are players like Lancaster, Logan, Matongo, Turgut doing. They all had 1st team rugby last year and 1 or 2 games this year - but are they knocking on the door or have they fallen back a bit?

Add Fash, Downs and HTW to that list.