Nowhere for them at Leeds from next season under the new structure. Best they have time to find a club for next year.

The current 18s side will make up the 19s next year, most of the current 20s are on the way out.

A victory for the badly run clubs who bleated about having to run a reserve side.

Not seen alot of this to be honest and I am not involved in junior rugby, however to me the new structure seems bizzare to me. I thought with the current exchange rate, Bigger NRL cap, continued falling standard of SL and quota players. Falling further and further behind in international rugby.

I thought we would be paying more attention to junior development and getting rid of one of the teams junior clubs doesn't seem to assist

Many SL sides reckon they can't afford to run a reserve side - which is what the 20s effectively were - and wanted to cut costs by combining the two grades. There will be no overage players allowed in the 19s next year.

I think the new junior structure stinks and an U20/reserve team should be a standard requirement for all SL clubs.

Isn't this guy supposed to be as quick as the London lad? If so may be worth giving him a go pre season to see how he fairs.

I think the new structure is great. So long as the clubs go back to what they were doing a few years back, and promoting players at an early age. There has been two much reliance on holding players back to go through systems and introducing too late. Leeds been one of the major issues with that. Leeds success came from promoting young.

There is not many players who have gone on to be stars who did not make their debuts until after 21. The best players started at 16-18, and that's the way it should be.

The problem for us at Leeds with this new concept, is that we have a coach who has no balls whatsoever, and will continually overlook potential stars, to maintain a same 20 players each week. Hopefully something will change there, otherwise the new structure could see a lot of ready starts, snapped up by others once they reach the age limit.

The problem typically raised was that U20s was too low a standard compared to SL, and wasn't preparing players.
Teams were left with the choice of either keeping players in the U20s to try to raise that standard, or loaning them out to Championship clubs, which gets that player a higher standard of competition, but further weakens the U20s competition. It seems the decision has been made that effectively U20s will all be loaned to Championship clubs.

I agree.

Regards
Zak Hardaker
Stevie Ward
Liam Hood
Jimmy Keinhorst

Yep, young players need to be playing open age, or certainly against a higher proportion of open age players than was in the u20's comp or the jump to SL is too big. The only way of making that happen is to either loan them out to Championship clubs (but they could only have 4 max) or to have an old style 2nd team which I doubt any club could afford to run.

I'm quietly hopeful this new system will pay dividends in the long run, it will all depend on the relationship between the SL and the Championship club though.

Yeah, you obviously fail to read posts properly also.

Hardaker has nothing to do with Leeds youth. He was a transfer signing.

Keinhost is not a youngster, and is every bit the example I gave about over 21.

Hood did not make his debut at the age I put in the post.

Ward is the exeption. And thank you for brigning that up, as it backs up my point exactly regarding giving players their head early.

But all were outside the 20 that you say our coach with no balls is desperate to protect and all were given a shot. Age is irrelevant, it's at what stage the player is at in their development that's important, otherwise you cast aside potential stars like Jamie Peacock simply because they're not quite ready at 17/18.

I think this is correct and can be illustrated by looking at a list of those ex-Academy players at Leeds who have debuted during the SL Era when nearer to 20 (or above) than 19.

Dave Wrench, Andy Speak, Jonny Hepworth, Luke Burgess, Scott Murrell, Ben Jones-Bishop, Jordan Tansey, Joe Chandler, Michael Haley, Dane Manning, Tom Bush, Chris Clarkson, George Elliott, Liam Hood and Jimmy Keinhorst.

That's not to say every player who was introduced at 19 or below made it either but the success rate goes up.

Its a sensible system given financial constraints across the league, and is quite similar to that here in Queensland where the Queensland Cup fills in for reserve grade. Gotcha and tvoc are right about players being more likely to 'make it' if they get a shot before they turn 20, possibly apart from props. There's no point running pseudo reserve grade sides - better go with the youth competition and loan out anyone too old.

I also remember watching the old A Team, where to be frank the standard was poor and the competition was filled with players who were never going to make first grade on a regular basis but were probably happy making the odd appearance here and there.

If SL clubs had the money the reserve teams would be a nice to have, but they were never much more than a place for senior players to get a bit of match fitness and to have a look at young prospects at open age. The standard was so poor though that it could be misleading as there were some kids who looked fantastic in that competition who were in fact duds (I remember Gareth Stephens and Francis Maloney looked potentially great as a halfback pairing when they first hit the A team).

BTW Hetherington's comments would suggest that some of the names being bandied around - Walmsley and Taylor for example - are not on his radar as he's supposedly only going for players who would walk into the first 17.

walmsley has signed for saints by all accounts.

taylor would walk straight into our first team.