Quote: Mild Rover "It’s very hard to prove a causative effect but it is noticeable that the end of Bradford’s successful era coincided with the money running out, and they’ve continued to struggle while poor despite having a pretty productive academy. The couple of times poor relation teams (Cas and Salford) have made a run to the GF it wasn’t based on academy products. Salford didn’t have one and afaik it still isn’t confirmed whether Cas will be allowed to keep theirs in its current form, because it was so unproductive at that time. They got their short-term stuff sorted out and that is the best that can be hoped for without sustained and substantial spending. There just aren’t any counter examples in the SL era.
Incumbency as a top team, and the associated stability/continuity are fair points. I’d say that is second most important after money.'"
There have only been 4 clubs who have been Superleague Champions and all 4 had a good academy product. If their was no money at all to buy overseas players of reasonable quality (which is a distinct possibilty) then Wigan and Saints would still be in the top 2 with Leeds slowly creeping up that particular ladder.
For that reason, its just my opinion the grass roots via the academy pathway is the primary importance above anything else.