Great to read on the the official site that our new coach is telling the squad it's a clean sheet. I really hope he sticks to his guns on this & picks the team on form each week.
How exciting it must be for the young ens right now. They will surely be ripping up trees to impress, & that in turn should keep the pressure on the experienced players.
Can see us needing to buy Brasso in bulk in the future!

Amen to that.
Long overdue that some of these youngsters get their chance, have every confidence that is whats going to happen under Gentle too

As a regular watcher of the junior sides, you must be from the tone of your post, how many are ready for SL,
none are really making headlines in the under 21s are they, afraid =#FF0000Rovers have overtaken us on recruiment

=#FF0000Edited. Not acceptable language on here.

Kosh.

Pleased with his comments today regarding the young players at the club. The fact he makes reference to Saints this season means he has been doing his homework on SL.

Keen watcher ? Despite it the under 20s and it has been for a number of years

I think there are a few who are ready and could step up if needed, including green Kent Cunningham and crooks, I'd also like to see Reece get an extended run in the side far too good for that level. I have watched Pearce develop from a lazy union player who couldn't tackle or do more than twenty minutes into a kid with real potential if he keeps developing at the rate he is, I think we have the makings of a good player.

1 of those 3 should be on the bench every week next season IMO.

Agreed I don't think injuries to Cunningham and Green several times this year helped them they may have got some first team games under their belt, unlikely but it certainly didn't help.

Im just hoping that Green and Pearce are as good as people say they are, as having a few young kids in the team who can help us progress to the next level would be fantastic.

I think some of the prospects we have need to be loaned out to teams in the championship to get first team rugby experience etc at higher level than the under 20's to help bring them on further unless they are going to feature for our first team.

Plus just wonder whether our junior sides are trained in line with the 1st team with regards to systems etc. Saints seem to have it off to perfection with what looks a seamless transisition from their Academy teams to the 1st team.

Crooks is the one that i would like to see come on...just looks a superb prospect.

Hoping that Gentle can have an immediate effect
on the likes of Pearce,Kent & Green & Crooks

Same scenario when Maguire arrived at Wigan,
Who had heard of Farrell,Tuson and Joel Tomkins?

If these young players, have a good pre-season,
these three should be vying for one spot on the bench, also Crooks
could be challenging Martin for a centre slot.

Worst poem I've ever seen. Doesn't even rhyme

My 'Tab'
button is
stuck
Jake !!!!

I will name that tune in 2 make that 1 Butterfingers

Tbh I didn't get to watch many reserve games last season, was more a point that it looked as though there wasn't much chance of any u20 players getting a look in under the old regime.
Would explain why there have been some very lacklustre performances from the 1st team in recent seasons if they know that they would never be replaced regardless of form.

I don't understand the obsession some have with throwing youth players in.

Personally I couldn't care less the age or origins of a player providing we have a winning team.

Its not that long ago there was a clammer for Lee and Washbrook to be promoted to the first team, apparently they were going to beat all comers. In reality the clammer came from them being young lads who were from Hull and they were nothing more than decent, solid players at best.

Clubs need to develop their own players, if everyone decided not to then they game would collapse. So at some point they have to be tried, no one is saying they will be amazing talents but we won't know how good or bad they are until they are given a chance.

"We have new ideas, new faces and when you throw that into the melting pot hopefully we can come up with the recipe that will take us to the top of the table in the next few years." www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... story.html?

"We have new ideas, new faces and when you throw that into the melting pot hopefully we can come up with the recipe that will take us to the top of the table in the next few years." www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... story.html?

I kinda see where your coming from and I also couldnt care less where they come from.

The problem we have had recently though is having 19/20 senior players instead of 16/17 which IMO has lowered the standard of players we are able to attract due to salary cap restraints.

STOP !! THIEF !!!

As stated before,wasn`t one of the reasons behind no relegation a chance to give the youngsters a chance ,without fear of relegation?
I agree with you about age,if the player performs I couldn`t give a monkeys how old he is.

That's not what I was saying, more the point that we haven't promoted the younger squad players when 1st team players are injured. Instead we have shuffled 4 or 5 players around to accommodate 1 injury, unlike Saints for example who have brought in a younger player of the same position as that of the injured.
As you say it doesn't matter their age, if they're good enough they're old enough but we have to have the faith in them when the opportunity comes.

When you don't develop your own players you end up having to pay over the odds to get them from elsewhere and you get a poor squad for your spend like we have in recent years

Spot on. The thing we don't really know is to what extent our poor record in recent years of bringing academy players through is due to underinvestment, and/or not enough quality in the players themselves, and/or Agar's reluctance to give them any gametime unless absolutely forced by injuries. A combination of all three, certainly.