bulls have just signed this lad from your academy after he turned down a new contract offer from rhinos. Is he a decent prospect?

rlhttps://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/9244987.Leeds_Rhinos_starlet_opts_for_switch_to_Bradford_Bulls/rl

Definately looks a very good prospect from what ive seen of him, although i only want players who have a hunger to play for leeds, and if he feels going to the bulls as a better move for him, then good luck to him

Thought he looked to be a very good prospect when i've seen him ,plenty of skill pacy and not afraid to try different things a decent signing if he continues to live up to his potential.

This is the major problem with out curret set up at youth level. We have many promising players, and many promising that join. The trouble is keeping them because of the stupid system we have adopted and the man running the show.

At least he will get a contract and regular payments at the Bulls - if rumours are correct that is not something that Leeds are prepared to offer.

Is that specific to marcus or a general thing across your academy?, because article specifically says he turned down a new rhinos contract.

The contracts are only "playing" contracts, not weekly/monthly/yearly contracts. i.e. they get a contract that gives them a payment when they play only.

what is wrong with our academy and who is the man running the show ?

we do seem to get a lot of young players ' jumping ship' usually to the Bulls too

We went down that route towards back end of nobles tenure. quality of our academy dropped off markedly and is only just recovering.

Exactly. But our head of youth is only interested in his media role and not capable of running youth set up at a super league level.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and suggest that had Marcus Elliott been good enough that Leeds were genuinely desperate to keep him they would have offered him a contract similar to those they offered to Kallum Watkins, Ben Jones-Bishop etc at similarly tender ages.

That they didn't would suggest they weren't overly fussed whether he left or not.

Nothing to do with Noble he was totally against the idea.

Never said it was nobles idea red, just using him to give the timeframe.

The bulls offered him double what we did no wonder the lad left are policy is generally pay sa you play £50 a game and maybe £20 bonus for a win
Theres lads in the under 20s that have been offered 1st team contracts and they have turned them down as theyre currently earning double the measly £9k offered doing labouring jobs Im not saying they should be paid fortunes as there still young and its a risk gambling on potential but surely they deserve to earn a basic they can live on not everybody has family they can rely on to support them in todays financial climate