Another awful performance from the academy tonight, going down to Bradford

Really poor

Were you at the game Matt? Was it really as poor as that?

A must win game, too. Surely Grix has to go. Are the players really that average, or just really poorly coached? How can we ever be confident of moving forward at 1st team level when the pipeline just seems so mediocre?

Bradford weren’t even at full strength, that’s a real bad loss that one.

Bradford's first win this season

I thought it was Tony Smith coached the academy?

Yep, think you are correct. Anyway, off with his head!!!!

Blease said in the pod interview that increasing the quality and the number of coaches at all junior levels is one of his top priorities. About time.

Something's gone desperately wrong somewhere. At half back we've got Sinfield, who debuted in 2022. Before that the last Academy halfback to play first team was Lilley way back in 2015. Compare that to players who have come through almost every other club in the same time and its embarrassing. A club with our resources can only produce two halfbacks in ten years, one of whom was never good enough and the other yet to really look like the real deal?

It does look finally as though we're starting to see progress with the lads breaking into the first team this year. But if there's one lesson it surely has to be you cannot stop prioritising juniors. There is no harm in finding a Luke Gale even while you have Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire ahead of them. There definitely is harm in good players retiring and not even a glimmer of a replacement coming through.

Thing is, if you have the wrong people in the wrong positions then your going to run into self made problems down the line.

We went away from a winning formula, appointing the best we could find regardless of club affiliation etc into a "Jobs for the boys" mentality, now were having our backsides tickled due to this. It been a sword of Damocles problem for many a year as many with greater expertise and insight have constantly maligned and opined.

No disrespect / arrogance implied but we are supposed to be one of the biggest teams in the country, if we want to get to the top consistently and dare I say "cost effectively" then this will only occur (with current salary cap rules etc) with a strong academy pipeline and excellent coaching / scouting respectively.
If this means we have to go to another team and poach / entice them then so be it, we should always be looking to surpass our rivals not catch up / draw level. The coaching side is where the real bang for the buck is, there's no salary cap and we shouldn't scrimp on this side. Go out and get the best we possibly can.

Nail on the head

https://www.therhinos.co.uk/article/210 ... e-for-2025 Can anyone offer some insight into the players in this intake?

https://www.therhinos.co.uk/article/210 ... e-for-2025 Can anyone offer some insight into the players in this intake?

2nd year U16's are strong, 9 players from Kippax and 5 from Lock Lane, all the best players from the best 2 teams in Yorkshire, players to look out for:

Robin Smith - Prop
Jack Mears - 13/6
Brennen Townend - Back Row
Jacob Tooala -
Sonny Hetherington - /Fullback


With quite a few more good prospects

1st year U15's, really strange intake, with just 6 of the 20 actually playing in the top division of the Yorkshire League, the other 14 scattered between divisions 2 and 4 and RU. Quite a few of the obvious better players in the Yorkshire league are crossing the penines to Wigan/Warrington etc, on the surface, it looks like we've missed on quite a few. Some could be decisions on what the club think they can become, rather than what they are now, but know we missed on one with big potential who chose Huddersfield over us.

The best U14 team in this age group are West Hull, but we dont seem to look anywhere other than our doorstep these days, which is really dissapointing, Kells U14 in Cumbria are a great team, with lads going to Wigan/Warrington, who recruit from all the hotbeds, but we dont bother. On a side note, the Scholarship players of the year at Saints and Warrington were lads from Siddal

But yeah, apologies for waffling on, strange, but interesting, intake of first years this year

Blease has mentioned that targeting juniors from Yorkshire based RU clubs is going to be something they're going to try and do more of.

Think Matts is spot on with his assessment of scouting.