Joe public would be even harder pressed to name an overseas player I think. If they aren't interested in the domestic game they'll be even less interested in Aussie or NZ games IMO

I thought the rule was that you had to spent 4 years at a club prior to 21st birthday to count as home grown. Anyway this is the RFL and they change the rules more times than Nigel Wood has hot dinners.

The rule was 3 full seasons before ineligible for u21's.

Leeds signed Hardaker in October 2010. So 3 full seasons would be 2011, 2012 & 2013 seasons. Hardaker was still eligible for the u21's in 2013. So he does just sneak in.
To be honest in situations like this (that are admittedly few and far between) I think both Leeds & Fev could claim credit to developing Hardaker.


Yep. It annoys me when rules are changed and they don't tell anyone. The Non-Fed Trained Rules were brought in a few years back with a bit of fanfare as they were going to significantly reduce the amount of overseas players over time as they dealt with the issue of Kolpak's and Aussies with EU passports which made the Overseas Quota a joke.

And to be fair, they have.

But the original plan was that clubs would have 5 Non-Fed trained players and this would reduce over the years to 3. Also there was a stipulation that clubs had to have a certain amount of "Home Grown" or "Club Trained" players in the squad. IIRC it was either 7 or 8. So you could have a max of 5 Aussies, a minimum of 7/8 Homegrown players and then the other 12 or 13 players would be "Federation Trained" ie British or French.

But then a season or so ago that was suddenly changed with no announcement. It was simply changed in the Operational Rules.
Now you can have 7 Aussies (Non-Federation Trained) and the Club Trained part has simply been deleted.
One suspects it was to help out both London & Salford.

But it's annoying because then no-one ever knows.

I also think the number of Non-Federation Trained/Quota players and number of academy products at each club should be publicised each year. So that fans and the RL media can keep track and hold clubs and the RFL to account.

the best thing about it is we don't even have u21's anymore so nobody is eligible for the U21s for three full seasons. No doubt a new definition will be snuck in at some point.

Yep. The club trained rule is mentioned in the rules but not defined. Nor does it apply to the section it is mentioned in anymore as the subsequent paragraph (where it used to detail the amount of "Homegrown" players need in a squad) is now gone.

I had to find an old version of the rules to find the club trained definition.

It also in the definition which does exist specifically mentions that it only applies to SL clubs so championship clubs cannot have any club trained players at all.