According to League Express St Helens are interested in them both and are watching them closely. 7 other clubs interested in Bentley too.

Does anyone expect them to stay with us next season? I for one would be very surprised.

I'd be amazed if they haven't [ialready[/i signed elsewhere

Along with a couple of others.

Yeah think its too optimistic to keep these. Wish them both well. Funny how our best players last couple of years have been U19s breaking through who will be on next to nothing. Imagine if Marc Green had just not wasted £100,000s on people like Mathers etc and being more patient with the 19s. In 3 years time we would have had a home grown team to reckon with, with players of Ryan, Bentley, Oakes, Trueman, Butterworth, Hooley Scott.

Is the rule still in if we at least offer Bentley a contract and he decides to move on we still get a few due to him being U21 and HG? If not then that's a scandal and doesn't give any motivation or reward to those that can be bothered to invest in youth.

Shame other clubs aren't as good at producing young players as us.

Good luck to the lads that get good deals elsewhere, it's a short career and you don't to waste your time in the championship/C1 if you get a better offer elsewhere.

If it hadn't been for the investment in the academy we'd have no players at all. It'll be what makes up the first team for the foreseeable future I reckon.

If not it'd be nice to have first option on them, should any club in a higher league choose to loan them out. At least the producing club get something out of it.

Worst case scenario, if we're going to lose them then I would be pushing for them being immediately loaned back to us for next season.
Being realistic, Bentley and Ryan aren't going to be getting much first team action if they go to Saints. Might as well keep them playing regularly in familiar settings.

Although something similar should have happened with Brown at Wigan and Trueman at Cas and it didn't, so maybe it's not that straightforward.

I guess its all dependant on what sort of contract he is on as if its only a part time one then you have no chance of getting anything if a full time team comes in for him where as if its a full time one you may have a chance albeit a small one.

You're a barrel of laughs aren't you? Every silver lining has a cloud eh?

Posts like these get my goat and its not aimed at you Bullseye or even at Bradford for that matter, its more the system that is in place. Bradford are good at producing young players? Well its easy when you can go in to any catchment area and offer the bright lights of full time rugby isnt it, you are bound to "unearth" one or two gems. Just taking the all conquering Siddal U16 team from this year, how many of them will we see at Fax? Zero, we do not even get a look in, in the past though Bradford would have taken some of these players but as far as I know Bradford now hardly get a look in when it comes to the top young players and none of the players will be heading Bradford's way to produce so although you say its a shame other clubs are not as good as producing it will only be a short time now before the same will be said about Bradford.

Maybe the dig was aimed more at SL teams though and it that sense they will be like vultures knowing full well that if they want one of your players they can simply take them without having to pay a fee. The system is a shambles and until that changes the game as a whole will not improve and we will keep losing players who could have made it because they have nowhere to play.

What? It has nothing to do with that.
It's determined by the age of the player at the point of him leaving his parent club.
Either way, it's a pittance and is in no way any kind of incentive to keep going through this bullsh*t cycle of developing quality players and immediately losing them the instant they show any potential whatsoever.

I think you probably needed to pause for thought before you started this post GFB as that comment seems to be all over the place. So we signed O'Brien and Ollie Roberts from Siddal once. They're gone now. Ryan is a Bradford lad, Bentley from Oulton. Times have changed for Bradford as you acknowledge later. We can't compete on salaries or on SL glory, just having a good setup and track record of improving players.

Big clubs always have trawled catchments outside their area. Twas ever thus. We've been victims and beneficiaries of it over the years. So have Fax albeit more time the victim.

We've done very well taking on players that weren't wanted recently and turned them into decent prospects. Take Reiss Butterworth who made his league debut yesterday. Came through at Sharlston. Taken on by Fev then let go. We gave him a chance and he's taking it.

I guess my frustration is that we take a lot of lads who were initially overlooked by SL clubs, improve them and then those same SL clubs come in for them like vultures as you say. If only we could get our act together off the field we might have hung onto a few. Bradford lads like Whitehead and Bateman are instead in their prime elsewhere

Butterworth played his junior rugby at Stanley Rangers I think. Sharlston have only recently set their junior section up.

I agree entirely with what you say in your post. The long and short of it is that the Bulls aren't as attractive a proposition as they used to be for young lads, so they have to find some rough diamonds from somewhere. The fact that players are getting a chance of first team rugby could see more wanting to join, but I fear that the club will become a stepping stone.

John B told me he was at Sharlston but he could well have been at Stanley too.

Yeah sorry I did notice my post was all over the place half way through typing it but thought what the heck it is Monday afternoon afterall.



Nick Rawsthorne another example in a player disregarded then improved only to go to a SL team and how did Fax do? We got diddly squat because of the old better standard of employment thing that I mentioned in my previous post. The question is firstly is it worth it for teams like us and the 2nd question is can we live without feeding off the scraps that the SL teams give us?

Imagine an ideal world where players from catchment areas got assigned to their local pro clubs with funding from the RFL to improve them and also to pay the amateur club that produced them. Then they stay at that club for a minimum of say a couple of years and if a SL team or anyone wants to take them they have to pay a fee again with a % of that fee going to the amateur club. We can only dream of a system like that which could improve the whole game but the top clubs would never go for it.

Nice idea in theory. Certainly think there's scope for improving the system, at the moment it must be disheartening for coaching staff to work hard to get a kid through to the first team to then seem him depart elsewhere. Community clubs get naff all out of it.

We have to suck it up I'm afraid. It's that or nothing until some madman with pots of money to waste (sorry invest) comes along.

That's fine in principle GFB but, like you earlier post, it misses the point somewhat.

Players don't become good professonals because of the particular blades of grass they train on, but by the quality of the training given. The facilities and coaches are not all equal. The Bulls' academy is rated amongst the best in RL, better than many SL clubs, in fact. It is also very expensive to run and is without doubt, with the possible exception of players wages, probably our biggest expenditure. The RFL were adamant that it should continue when the new guys took over, so they can also see the benefit of it. I'm not knocking what is available at other clubs, they do what they can, but it doesn't mean they offer the same coaching, or chances, as others.

Gregory, John Bastion has openly stated that the club cannot compete with SL clubs for the cream of the countries talent. They have had to cast their net elsewhere and sign players that have previously been overlooked by the top clubs. Cameron Scott all of a sudden became the most sought after player once he'd been in the system 12 months. He was playing 3 division as a Junior.

Corrected for accuracy

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.

Bradford haven't had a large cheque book for a while now so why are they still producing good players??

Whilst I agree with 90% of what has been said on this thread the biggest crime is Pro clubs signing kids in droves, telling them there the next big thing and then discarding them as worthless at an age where they are then lost to the game all together. It is F@@@ing criminal and I'm afraid Bradford have been one of the worst for it over the last 15 years.

The players that Bradford are now seeing are players that were signed when they were still living beyond their means. You will see a distinct drop in quality over the coming years as you go part time and the academy has to take a back seat.