Quote: ninearches "The only way forward is a pool of players in local amateur leagues & schools to progress up to professional standards to provide players for all the league clubs ,superleague & below.Alas ,amateur & works clubs aren't as abundant as they used to be & i don't know what is played in schools these days in order to provide the players of the future.
Perhaps there is an algorithm to forecast how the game will pan out in years to come.'"
I think the way it goes now is the RL game is played in Schools across the M62, and that introduces kids to the game. In our local M62 school they only play Union though so that's a problem for us. Local SL clubs through the "foundations" encourage kids to play at school and at local amateur clubs some run kids teams through all the age ranges. Your right there is a massive drop off of kids playing either code of Rugby or Soccer when they start to get some independence in their teenage years and drift off into other things.
For me the one thing is that is essential is freedom of choice, so once you start "drafting" and telling people what to do and where to go and play then I'd be sure they would take great exception to that, and it would be very damaging. I think the issue here is where clubs are close together and parents of talented kids can choose which academy to take their kids to. e.g. If the best kids in the Salford area are off to Wigan Academy what's the point. This I think was Koukash's argument for closing it.
Diversing slightly Superleague were keen for any club wanting a place in the 2022 Superleague to run reserves, with the aim of keeping more academy kids in the game to a later age. Salford AFAIK signed up to that........