Bradford sign on ten juniors, six of whom play for Halifax amateur sides.

Alex Mellor - King Cross
Josh Casey - Siddal ARLFC
Adam Brook - King Cross
Tom Johnstone - King Cross
Emmerson Whittle - King Cross
Oliver Roberts -Siddal ARLFC

traitors, bet half of them will be calling themselves halifax fans tomorrow!

TBH i cant blame them for signing. Good luck to them and maybe one day very soon we might be able to keep hold of our youth.

or they wiII be here as D/R's or unwanted eg Cherryaide & the prop who is now at Barrow

sorry I can't remenber his name weII it is Iate

Nice sentiments my friend !

How can you blame the lads ? In fact my youngest lad played for the Bradford scholars at that age group for the last 12 months after turning down Hudds, Salford & Wakey offers in september. Unfortunately they released him about a fortnight ago & sent him back to his junior/amateur club with some positive things to work on & improve even further. They asked us to inform them which club he goes to so that they can track his improvement, which we will do. He also has an offer to go and train with a professional club which we will look at a little bit deeper maybe in a year or so's time. He & a lad on that list at the start of the thread were both Halifax scholars until the RFL kindly pulled the plug on the club's growth & development, blame the RFL not the lads. Every one of those lads on that list were invited to the Halifax club three years ago & all but one of them were interested enough to come & have a look around & have a listen to what we had to say, but made different choices along with several others who have just signed at Salford, Warrington, Leeds & Hudds who all progressed through the district side & selection process.

Don't blame Halifax RLFC or the lads & their families, we tried to get these lads on board they made the best decisions for their future careers in the game.
I can assure everyone that if our PPM remains at our club long term, he will be tracking these lads & will be in there like a flash to tempt them back to Halifax if there are posibilities available, just like he's done with sevral of our U23's that left to try their hands at other local pro clubs but when things didn't work out for them he's brought them back & from what i've seen of them, they're working very hard at their game & the club will benefit from their progression given time.
Most of hese lads are regular supporters of Halifax RLFC at the Shay just for the record.

TotaIIy agree with u MM

This is why we need to be in SL, these lads would then be coming to us.

And they might still. I can assure followers of Halifax RLFC that a lot of the top local talent do actually want to play for our club, they & their parents have told me. The problem is, some of the other clubs have promised a lot of things, all allegedly of course. Never give up hope on these lads, they're still very young & things might not work out for them elsewhere, they're only just starting out on their journeys. I have the faith.

My concern is that these young players have all been told how they will make it and will have had a bit of a false promise of super league riches. But when some (most) haven’t made it by the time they reach 20/21 they then get disillusioned and we lose them from the game. Lets face it players develop differently especially in physique and strength and some won’t hit their peak until well into their 20’s. Instead, a progression through lower leagues playing a higher standard of rugby than academy or reserves could be a better development for some of these guys. It seems that the attitude of the big SL clubs is to sign all the best juniors and if just 1 in 10 make it, they’re happy and who cares about the rest!!

Would they?

Well you would hope so but can't promise anything. The young kids all want to play SL so if they can do it at their home town club then so much the better. Hopefully the likes of Ellis and Hill at Leigh and Shad going to SL after starting in the Champs will help a few of them come to us in the first place.

Shad is Australian ! No offence meant to anyone here, but that is all part of the problem I.M.O. If clubs and the governing bodies didn't bend the rules to suit themselves and allow greed to interfere, the domestic & international game would be far healthier. AND we'd be watching far more home grown talent blossom at all levels, starting with coaching and working it's way down through the playing staff.

Just for the record, I reckon Halifax/Calderdale isn't much different from many other heartland club missing out on local lads. Think of any club outside SL and look around the playing rosters and you'll see Leigh lads playing at other clubs, Fev lads, Cumbrian lads etc etc.

good luck to the lads i hope they do well and grab this opertunity with both hands and do the town proud. Just like luke robinson and scott grix just to name a few...