I didn't read it the way Ewwen did to be honest, but even if he did say that, it's a statement of the flaming obvious. Our academy sides were beating SL teams in their league last year, and seem to have started this season in the same vein. Given the performances of some ( all....)of the youngsters in the first team and you'd need to be a real dimwit not to realise that bigger clubs are going to be slinking around.

How do we manage to keep young players?

Obviously we can't manage to pay them the same as SL sides so what is it that we do that keep them wanting to stay at the club?

Outside of the basics like paying them every month on the agreed date. I'd say regular first team football. Once they are established first teamers they are off to superleague where they belong. That's a fact of life while we are in the championship.

What I find gutting is seeing Adam O'Brien turning out for Halifax. Not because of any rivalry with them (good luck to them) but because he is genuinely superleague class. He's at the wrong superleague club IMO.

If Ethan Ryan were to leave I'd want to see him ripping it up on the wing in Superleague or NRL getting the show biz billing his finishes deserve.

A few years playing regular first team for us and I'm sure he'll be ready to step in to that level and certainly international honours.

There is no way in hell that Ethan Ryan won't be playing Super League eventually. As well as the spectacular finishes, he is one of the best defensive wingers I've seen in a long time. I wouldn't like to try and count the amount of times his read or a great ball and all tackle has saved certain tries down his side.

I just hope we get a good couple of years out of him before he inevitably moves on. And I won't begrudge him that move either.

From reading this and the comment you were replying to, the best way forward is an open and honest approach. Let players like Ryan, Oakes etc know that if someone comes in and it feels like right time and move for them; we'll let them go. But if it doesn't feel right, they're not quite ready for that level it would be better to have one more season at this level, if they go to Club X they're likely to not get a shot and just get shipped out on dual reg at this stage (i.e. O'Brien) etc etc

Would require players to have a lot of respect and trust in whoever was delivering that message as it could sound like you're just trying to keep them but if we're genuinely looking after the players best interest than it could work. May be being a bit naive here

Maybe we should start insisting on transfer fees for our players then in future. If we are to become a feeder club for super leagues then I would hope we get as much money as is possible.

That was my thought too, but I don't have any easy answers..

It just feels really gutting that we are now, in essence, a feeder club for SL teams. I know all the stuff about 'cutting our cloth' etc etc (it's certainly not that people haven't rammed it down our throats enough!).

But, part of being a supporter is to have that hope that one day we'll be at the top table ourselves again - and if all of our best players are 'inevitably' going to be moving on as soon as they develop, well, what's really the point?

I guess one way of attempting to keep the class young lads at the club is the way we managed to convince some of our ex players (Addy, Olbison etc) to stay when we got relegated ... convince them that they don't need to leave Bradford to play SL. Clearly now that will be a much harder sell than it was when we were initially relegated, especially this season with the -12 deficit. But if we managed to stay up and keep a few of them, and get another good crop through, maybe we can start to build that feeling back.

Very much wishful thinking but I think that'd be the only way of keeping hold of anyone.

Curt Naughton in on a season long loan at Super League Leigh. Although admittedly he hasn't played much for them yet.
I assume by the other you mean Jason Crookes, who was never going to do anything. He had one good game for Bradford and everyone screamed him as being amazing. Scored one good try against Hull in a friendly and they signed him. Then ended up at Dewsbury which is about the right level for him.
I'll always remember Crookes for getting absolutely destroyed by Pat Richards at Odsal. One of the most overrated "prospects" I've seen in a while.

Good point regarding Agent's. Always a bit wary of agents due to seeing how they behave in Football, never convinced they're looking out for the players best interests compared to how much they can make out of a transfer; which is clearly going to be far less of a risk in RL. No knowledge of agent's in RL to be honest.

Jason Crookes wasn't it who went over to Hull? Playing for Dewsbury now I believe.

Agreed but we are where we are.

Realistically we're not going to be making a push for promotion until 2019 at the earliest really and that's assuming we keep our best prospects and make several decent permanent signings.

By then we may have gone back to franchises anyway in which case it'll be a different ball game.

If we treat all these young guys right, give them their chance, get them to love the club, then if (when?) we get back to SL, we could sell Bradford to those guys as a kind of "unfinished business at the Bulls" sort of sell. If it's a while until we get back to SL, we may be able to pick some ex-Bradford guys up after they've had a testimonial at their new club, but when they are still good.
Bateman may still want to be Bradford captain when he gets to the back end of his career.

Not convinced we'll go back to franchise but think we'll scrap the super 8s. I reckon 14 teams in SL and maybe a mini version of middle 8s. Bottom 2 of SL and top 2 of championship.

This is the big point for me. The only people who have the power to do this are the owners and Toovey. I cant believe Toovey has come to just try get us out of trouble this season, there must be a vision that has been sold to him in my eyes to get us back to SL. Whether this is achievable or not is down to the owners and what they are or more importantly are not willing or can put into the club in terms of finance.

If the dream can be sold to a legend like Geoff Toovey why not to these young lads with the bulls running through their veins!

Am I being slightly too optimistic?