I think the majority of the Bulls lads will get signed at other clubs, still a bitter pill to swallow

Trouble is it costs about a quarter of a million quid a year to run a decent academy set up, thats why many clubs have ditched theres. I can't see how it can be maintained in its current guise given the financial restraints you'll have.

Quite a few of them already have from what I'm told. Even if the academy was salavaged, a lot of the better talent has already moved on (and you can't blame them for doing so).

Been here before in 2014/15 when we lost the previous raft of promising youngsters.

I'd hope that any new club would set up a new academy. Other clubs in the Championship and even League 1 have done it - London and Newcastle for instance.

Agreed. It's gut wrenching with all that hard work. Sad thing is, i think a lot of these would have made a successful RL career with us as we're one of the best clubs at developing young talent. Very few other clubs are as good.

Wigan & Saints although both tend to focus in their area. Leeds but in fairness they've struggled to bring anyone of note in the least few years. Castleford are quite decent but that's about it. Maybe Warrington.

We had some of the best juniors i think we've ever had and to see that taken away again, it will take a lot of effort to get ourselves up off the floor and start again.

But hey, according to some individuals, we've got away scott free.

The RFL, which really should be the body making moves to see the academy stays in place, is the body which is going to kill it.

With an unsustainable place in the championship, just so it doesn't mess their fixture list, we'll start on -12, be hammered most weeks and lose fans rapidly and there will simply be no money for the academy. For god's sake, the rent on Odsal costs half of what we'll get in competition money.

The academy, which by RFL rating was one of the top 8 in the country, and arguably top4, is evaporating. And as it's the tip of the pyramid, the scouting structure underneath for the Bradford service area (10 junior clubs?) will also unravel.
The performance data that Bastian, Dunning & Beattie have on rugby kids aged 13-16 will have value. Who controls that?

ATM the Bulls academy is worthless , if it as good as has been suggested most if not all players and coaches will move on elsewhere

No point growing something of you cannot protect it from the crows , let it go

And be left with ... what?

On a wider issue, one absolute disgrace is the complicity of the clubs and the RFL in not making academy and reserve sides compulsory.

Of course, that's because the clubs with backers don't need them, they just poach players prepared by others, but just losing thereserve competition instantly halved the number of full time jobs available for top level players, and not having your own academy setup is so barking I don't need to even comment. But I will. If it costs £250K to run one, then it should be compulsory that the FIRST 250K of a club's expenditure is ringfenced to pay for its academy. If that means 2 or 3 less expensive first-teamers then so be it.

Let's look at the latest SL club , Leigh , genuinely which pick of players could Leigh have had to get in the last 20 years ? , given with Wigan,Saints and Warrington on our doorstep ? , even if we had uncovered a late starter , we'd get what in return ?

The 1 st ring fenced expenditure of a club should be its non playing wages and functioning costs including playing bills and VAT , last comes playing wages , be they 1 st team or academy

Sorry but that's the way it is

If every club shared that view then the sport in this country would die. I know that's an extreme example and unlikely, but still true.

What [ishould[/i be happening is the RFL should be generating more publicity for rugby league, increasing public awareness and thereby increasing government funding in return. This would then be distributed to all clubs for the sole purpose of running academy setups.