Jessie Joe Parker (6) and Ln Marabe (3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckOY6-ISGrI

Jessie Joe Parker (6) and Ln Marabe (3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckOY6-ISGrI

The problem is that Leeds and Bradford will pick up any talented yooth player in the area. Leeds have far too many youth players for one team which makes their claims to have one of the best youth systems a joke. If we had as many youth players as they did then we'd probably have three or four coming through every so often.

Fev have the same problem, being surrounded by Leeds, Wakefield and Castleford. These young lads want to break into the top sides, which is fair enough, but maybe would be better served playing at championship level then in a youth academy at times.

Once we have the u20s and academy up and running then in a few years we'll be back to where we were. However unless you're in Super League, you have little chance of holding on to the best youth players. That includes Widnes!! The championship has become a fster game from only a few years ago and definitely more skillful. Given a few more years then i think we will see more of these young lads wanting to play in the championship then just walking away to the golden land of super league!

Corrected

Thats fine but you didnt state that in your original post. Like most people who post on this forum i too would love to see a team full of home grown lads but in reality its not possible. Anything we have is picked up by bigger clubs. You cant blame the lads for going. Teams like Fev and Fax will always lose players to the likes of Leeds, Brad etc and are left to recruit where they can. Fortunately for Fax at the moment we are picking up some cracking players. Lets remember Widnes are essentially a very big club that realistically should be in super league ahead of some that are there , which we all know is political. Their fan base alone will go a long way to financially aid recruitment of local players without them all being taken by wire, saints and wigan. Halifax unfortunately cant do that right now!

So getting all those super league players in for the NRC wasn't a short term option

C'mon if you dont offer the facility the decision is short term, Fax have decided how to spend the kitty and it involves lots of overseas against the risk of growing their own.
Every non SL club faces a fight against the odds to attract the best kids, but plenty SL kids are discarded at 18 who could find a home at this level. RL has a duty to grow the player pool, having this amount of loopholers on the books is a joke.