We can only keep him if financially we can compete and to be honest if we can I would be worried we are overstretch in ourselves

The guy is a roofer playing part time rugby at 21yo, if he goes I see no blame to attach to the club or Scurr. If he signs p/t for another champ club then yes I would be worried but I don’t see this happening.

The broader question here is whether, and how, we are going to ever bridge the gap from where are now (part-time team in the middle of the Champ therefore players will just move on to 'better' teams) to being a SL club ourselves.

For all Nigel Wood's fine sounding talk about aiming for SL it's not going to happen if every decent player we produce is just going to hop off to a SL club as soon as they show promise.

In fact what is even the point of having an Academy if it's just to produce players for SL clubs?

With Wigan, Leeds, Saints and Cas in for him knowing their financial might and simple position above us in the game please propose how we keep him?

As others have said, we are probably not in a position to offer the same financial figures as some of the SL clubs. What does work in our favour is that Scurr has worked his way through our junior system and has just started to break into the first team. I'd imagine he would struggle to hold down a starting place at a Super League side. If he was to leave perhaps a deal similar to the Rowan Milnes deal would cushion the blow of losing another young prospects.

How is Scurr rated compared to the young prop you sold to Huddersfield? Wilson was it?

My simple answer and I’ll admit I haven’t seen much of Wilson since he left and he didn’t play that many games for us but at the moment I’d be happier with Scurr in the side if we were picking a team for a game tomorrow

You never know with Levy out for majority of remaining season and Wilson not quite getting the game time....,,,

My simple answer and I’ll admit I haven’t seen much of Wilson since he left and he didn’t play that many games for us but at the moment I’d be happier with Scurr in the side if we were picking a team for a game tomorrow

You never know with Levy out for majority of remaining season and Wilson not quite getting the game time....,,,

What's been the point of developing him then? It's worse than a waste of money in that we're improving our competitors and further ensuring we can't compete with them. I understand players leaving amid financial chaos - it's gutting but it happens. But if we cannot compete for our youth players at age 20, and who will not be considered first choice 17 at any SL club, then we need to shut the academy now. Were he 22/3 and going into a good side's 21 man squad fair enough - but he isn't.

Give over. We're a part time side, if any player is given the chance to go full time and they want to take it then there is nothing we can do about that. The same goes for any other side in the same situation. It happens in all facets of sport.
That doesn't mean we should just throw the toys out of the pram and 'shut the academy now' as you suggest. One quick glance at all of our homegrown players in our current squad should tell you why that would be a terrible idea.
Some players will leave, that is unavoidable. But not all of them, and it will always be more beneficial to develop your own players rather than pay fees to bring them in from elsewhere.

Some would prefer us to produce garbage players then we can keep them!!!!!!

You look at the likes of Doyle, Scurr, Pickersgill, we've got outstanding players for this level of comp and I'd imagine we're paying a damn sight less for them than some of our rivals spend on players they have to bring in.

How much more would we have to spend to attract players of the calibre of Doyle, Scurr Gallagher from opposition sides.

Scurr aside, they're not outstanding. Pickersgill is much improved and the others have potential to be good players. Oakes and Brown are good championship players but not outstanding by comparison with Lilley, Hallas, Nzoungou, England. Unless we're prepared to invest in a competitive wage up to age 22/3 and we see 2 or 3 full seasons, then the investment to that point is unjustifiable as it only benefits our competitors.

We've had this academy trumpeted since the early days of Mcbanana and whilst it's great to see a Scurr, I'm not sure it's a great deal more than a distraction.