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

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

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.