www.therhinos.co.uk/news/rhinos- ... 09n09R4WrU One of 5 clubs to receive outstanding status along with Warrington, Wigan, Saints and Widnes.

www.therhinos.co.uk/news/rhinos- ... 09n09R4WrU One of 5 clubs to receive outstanding status along with Warrington, Wigan, Saints and Widnes.

Those rankings are OK, but all that matters is developing players for the First Team - the more and higher quality the better. Sts can't seem to produce anything other than dwarf slow threequarters and we just aren't producing quality players with any regularity.

Saints have produced Lomax, Makinson, Percival, Savelio, Greenwood and Eastmond over the last five or six years. With the possible exception of the last name on that list, I'd take any of the others at Leeds in a heartbeat.

It's all very well having an outstanding academy but that produces players at the age of 19 but many aren't ready for the first team at that age. There is no compulsory reserve grade to act as a stepping stone for late developers. Instead players are farmed out to championship or lower level SL clubs where they may not get the same level of coaching and development - players get disillusioned and are lost to the game. I wonder how many Jamie Peacocks have been lost in this way?

Still it saves a few quid so that's alright then.

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Ah but occasionally we send someone out to a championship club, they become young player of the year, they come back and play...er, wait...

True that, especially with forwards, that they are probably in the 21-23 year old bracket until they are a fully man mature so to speak. I think backs can adapt pretty quickly but a mans body takes a while to develop to the stage where it's ready to be ran at by 17 stone seasoned pro's. That's just nature even if there is a player with potential a club won't risk over doing it by blooding them too early so that means that a club has to literally hang on to a player through the schools, academy, under 20' (or whatever it is now) reserves (or whatever it is now) first team until they are ready for about 15 years. It's a long time to wait so the financial aspect yes you are right in a way but unfortunately as you say it's easier if say (i am a Wigan fan) we let a player go to Batley knowing full well that if he performs he won't refuse a return. We need to look at Australian training methods a lot closer for me. Their wingers are built like props and are ready to go at 17. Players like David Klemmer have been looked after and readied for action and he is now a seasoned SOO prop and he is 22!!!! but he is just one of many.

AG - Lomax debuted in 2009, Eastmond in 2008. The others are more recent. Hardly a ringing endorsement of another of the top sides in SL either. Only Wigan seem to have produced a lot of quality juniors in the numbers our sport actually needs to thrive.

In any event the Leeds Academy has been pretty poor on the one metric that counts, which is developing juniors for the first team, certainly over the last few years.

As stated above the Academy can only go so far – up to the age of 19. There’s a need for another tier to enable players to be ready for the first team since many aren’t ready at 19.

Looking back very few players are the finished article at 19. Only the very best fit in seamlessly at that age and they’re very rare. It’s a bit harsh to criticise the Academy set up when it’s the system itself that is at fault.

Ditto

I have watched every game this season on Rhinos TV and have been impressed with Joe Sanderson, does anyone think he could become a good SL player in the future ?

Not at start of season, didn't think he had a chance. Now wondering how we have gone through all the problems we have, and they haven't given him a chance to see if things change.

Jack Walker, Oledski and Smith are obvious standouts of the first year players but I hope Jack Norfolk gets to stay on at the club even though he will be too old for Academy footy next year.

Oledski needs to get some aggression in him. Hes a gentle giant. Physically he is going to be immense but he looks like he would help an attacker to ground rather than hurting them when tackling.

Cam Smith is Delaney mark 2. Looks like him, walks like him, plays like him lets hope he doesnt get injured like him. Good prospect. Tough and hard as nails.