Quote: tigertot "Who takes the credit - McBanana, Potter, Medley, Agar?'"
I was at the game and have direct knowledge of how most of the young players have come to be there.
(I suppose I have to say IMO) the direct "credit" goes to Paul Medley and Stuart Barrow, for being at the forefront of the decision as to who is signed as a Bulls Academy player (with big help from their Scholarship coaches and Scouts) and they are the people directly involved in the players progression from that point, by their coaching along with their assistant coaches.
Maybe the senior coaches can claim an influence over Liam McAvoy's progress,as he is in the full time squad and trains with them when he is able to, but the coaching of the rest of them is down to these two men.
The 18s who played on Saturday (which did not contain the still eligible John Bateman [quite rightly - he is beyond this level] and Connor Spencer), were what I believe is the strongest mix available of U18s and U17s players and it would serve the Bulls well to try to keep them playing together through the season as much as possible, rather than diluting them by taking players into the 20s because of shortages. The 20s have been weakened throughout the season by lack of experienced 1st team squad players dropping down, because of the injury situation, as well as 20s own injuries , resulting in their position in the table being as it is.
I am all for moving up when it is right for the player:- thats the only way you get to be good enough, but it should be when there is a good enough team around you so that you can learn from it, add to it and any minor mistakes are covered by the more experienced players, not a team which is full of other youngsters and thus at an obvious disadvantage to other teams with full squads.
If this set of 18/17s can be kept together, the problem will be sorted in 2 years when they are all 20s, and also the quickest developers will be pushing the fringe of the first team.
