You know what else is very popular?

In this very country?

Football.

And they don't have silly draft systems, they do have promotion and relegation, and they don't spend time wasting about making all clubs the same.

Which is the sane way to do youth development, no question.

Here's my take on a draft;

I lived in North America for a fair few years where a draft system is used in all four of their sports. It's an interesting concept but one I feel is mainly done for two institutions; the Universities (or Colleges as they are so adorably referred to) and the media. Basically if a University can produce a top draft pick the hype going into that athletes final year of Uni is massive, they sell merchandise with that guys name on, they sell out stadiums and arenas. Most importantly the University can place that players name in their portfolio to poach the next high school star.
The media have a field day, there's the pundits blabbering on about the draft prospects, there's the 24hr TV coverage on draft day, there's the combine shows (basic fitness tests).

This whole think is repeated four times a year... American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey.

It is rare for a player to play for their hometown team, ever. To be honest I find that part of the beauty of RL, the fact local lads can go from the terraces to the turf so to speak.

One way it could maybe, possibly work is for each team to take their own top 3 players at the end of the U-19 season. The rest can be placed into a big pot and ranked. With either the bottom team from the previous season (if no relegation) or the newly promoted championship team getting first dibs. But do you really think the likes of Wigan, Saints or Wire are going to actually take London/Wakefield/Widnes (with all due respect) rejects?

Wouldnt that be brilliant for the lower leagues (the parallel to college in this example) and the game in general? The draft process writes a brilliant narrative for the player, something RL fails massively to do.

Good point, if the talent pool was taken from the Championship teams rather than the SL U-19 rejects. How would the Championship teams feel if the big clubs were taking their best players especially if promotion and relegation was on the table?

Completely agree with the narrative though, it's actually something most British sports fail to do consistently.

I just think a carbon copy of the NFL, NBA, NHL etc draft wouldn't fly here

I don’t think a carbon copy would work either, we aren’t set up in that way and American sports seem to take their players a year or two later. Most of the best RL players will be in and around squads at 18/19, in America many are in college at this time, or in baseball in the minor leagues (FWIW I don’t think the MLB type development concept makes a whole lot of sense) and don’t hit the big leagues for a year or two, and in Baseball and Football especially often a bit longer than that.

I think a youngster playing at least 2 years in the lower leagues would be better for their development than in the SL youth leagues, and it would write the first part of their story. When Tomkins came through at Wigan, and Watkins at Leeds there were fans who knew about them and were excited about them, I think if they had come through a higher visibility Championship or C1, the fans of those clubs would be excited about seeing them, the game in general would be excited to see how they step up, and the club who got them would be excited about seeing their highly rated new addition.

It gets people talking, gets the players visibility, and it gives a club something to sell and it perpetuates hope for the entire league, the draft is American sports best sales and marketing tool in my opinion. (aswell as being a good way of distributing talent and developing players)