Quote: Bull Mania "Despite all our off-field dramas we certainly do still attract some of the very best young talent in the country thanks to the setup and culture John Bastian has installed at the club. Remember the names Joe Brown, Jake Trueman, Daniel Waite-Pullman, Luke Hooley, Cameron Scott. All those players will be household names in a few years. All began and chose the Bulls academy because of the culture John Bastian created. All flourished under the coaching of Matt Diskin and John. We still attract, produce and develop some of the best in the game. We still managed to keep a few despite the latest off-field farce. Theres a lot of problems with the club but our academy is still draw IMHO
Regarding the catchment area Greg, not sure if this was your point, so apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick, but i don't get that if a player plays/lives in one particular area, then he should have to play for that club E.G. if he plays for Siddal he should play for Fax academy. Matty Storton who is part of our academy played for Keighley Cubs. Should he have to play for Keighley cougars?
I hope the rule where a player under the age of 21 who has come through a clubs academy, is offered a contract by the same club, but decides to go to another club, the the club that developed him through their academy gets compensation. I believe it used to be around £15k.
I think RFL tried to address the issue Of rewarding clubs for developing young talent, but in true RFL style loved it up by bringing in compensation rules for 16 year olds which is too young.'"
Ive no idea how it would work to be honest but at the moment it comes down to who has the biggest cheque book and SL sides signing players on the off chance they might make it. Bradford will find this out to a much greater extent when your academy becomes of less importance than the money it costs to run it which will happen eventually. Maybe Im a little bit bitter because we have the best junior set up in the country at Siddal but do not have a hope in hell of getting any of their players. There has to be a fairer way of doing it for the good of the competition.