We all know we have a team what is not getting any younger

St Helens have the new batch of talent and even Wigan but where is the next generation of the Rhinos ????

What Youth system have we got, who is knocking at the First team door and where have they being last 3 yrs ???

Yes we need to spend money to bring in qualilty in to the first team but also need youth and engery... is the acadamy poor or we just not giving them any game time, with the performances this yr and injuries we should have tried a few, after all this yr is a write off !!!

some good players coming through. some great ones in the u16's until warrington pinched them and paid them massive 'petrol money' allowences

The last 3 years?

What about McShane, BJB, Watkins and Clarkson in the team now plus Amor and Ambler both playing well at 1st grade elsewhere? Add Hardaker to that list even though he was signed from Fev and I thing we have done OK. For me its not the kids who have let us down. It's the experienced players like Webb and Burrow (Before his move to Dummy half) to name a couple that havent been up to scratch.

Warrngton haven't pinched anybody. If you wanted to sign them badly enough i'm sure you could have signed them. You could say you "pinched" Hardaker, Peacock, Senior etc.

I think you'll find that the Bulls gave Peacock to us on a plate when they couldn't offer him a new and improved contract due to financial constraints

But then went ahead and committed financial suicide by pinching Harris from under our noses

A masterstroke if there ever was one from Mr Caisley

Jog on clever cloggs

If you're think that there should be a crop like the one we had ten years or so ago, then you're going to be disappointed. It's very rare that any club gets a crop of quality youngsters mature at the same time as we did with this current side.

All the Academy should be there for is to drill players in the skills and moves that the first team employ, and to produce one or two first team squad players per year. If you get one top SL level player from the Academy every three or four years, you are doing well.

It is not about winning silverware.

Leeds will have no trouble attracting quality players but it must be a worry with the lack of young talent at the club. Just look at their recent academy record etc.

You can spend to the cap all you want but without quality young players bulking your squad out and adding quality you just can't compete.

Look at us before IL took over us.

This thread is about young players under 19s etc, Peacock and senior were the finished product.

We are still looking

There's talent in our Acadamy and i'm sure there will be break throughs and more than enough quality to gel into the 1st team.

You moron - we paid a significant fee for Hardaker and the other two weren't signed as youth players

And Leeds can't compete with Simon Moran's deep pockets if he wants to splash the cash on plucking the best kids from other clubs scholarship programmes

The academy results shouldn't really be taken at face value.

Yes, we used to spank everyone when the likes of McGuire, Sinfield, Burrow, Diskin, JJB, Calderwood and Mathers were in the U21s but more recently, the club has rather academy players play in other club's first teams (BJB at Quins, Amor at Wakefield, McShane at Hull, etc)

I'm sorry, but people convince themselves of things and believe it to be true, despite how very wrong they are.

There is a reason it does not happen, but that is by choice rather than potential. When you have a crop of younsters come through at the same time that are at the level required then you don't push for immediate replacements. That's why it doesn't happen, and the next batch are to a degree ignored.

On the contrary to what you believe, there is always another batch.

If however you are saying you are not likely to see a McGuire, Sinfield, Tomkins, every year, then on that basis you would be entirely correct. But let's not confuse that with a batch of youngsters. A Mathers, Diskin, Bailey, Ward, JJB, Scruton, etc, are available every year if you plan their development properly.

The benefit those players had is given first team rugby at an early age, which allowed them to develop much quicker.

The benefit those

We have had a strange sort of problem for a while, where the path to the first team for a lot of players in a few positions, most notably the halves, was blocked by previous academy alumni. In 2006, for instance, there was hardly any point producing a pair of new halves for the first team, because there was no vacancy.

The golden generation is now knocking on a bit, and succession planning should be happening.