No it doesnt, you know it doesnt, everyone can read that it doesnt. Nobody is interested in you pretending you think it does while I prove it doesnt and you try and distract from your nonsense.

It's because it's not Leeds , and if you're not Leeds , then you're just not good enough , and nobody try's harder than Leeds , nobody works harder than Leeds , in fact nobody Is even good enough to play Leeds

Leeds,Leeds,Leeds,Leeds

Have you been drinking ?

Ok.

They don't. No club, even Leeds who do a lot more than most, do anything like enough to increase participation and to increase quality in the amateur game.


Are you serious? Of course you p|ssing carry on. You make your club more attractive to those youngsters by whatever method you can or you improve the quality of your academy coaching or you increase participation so that there are enough quality players available for you as well.


Which is why participation and quality in the amateur game needs increasing and clubs stop being lazy and relying on kids from the same old favoured amateur clubs.


I agree. But that isn't in most of the existing clubs remit. Most of the heartland clubs struggle to find quality players (and to find fans) so they should concentrate on growing the game in the heartland. Most clubs are in a terrible state and need to grow themselves. Expansion can be done by the RFL. Trying to shift player production and pathways to somewhere else is merely an abdication of responsibility from the heartland clubs.

So how exactly do you make your club more attractive ? Easy to say , incredibly difficult to achieve

How do you prove the quality of your Scholarship/academy in the face of other clubs with much higher profiles ?

Again , easy to say , very difficult to achieve

I did mean the RFL , not the clubs

Sorry to interrupt the squabble....

As a Salford fan I'm really disappointed that we've lost our u19s team. I can see the reasons - our primary aim right now has to be getting more people through the turnstiles. Lots of reasons they ain't coming but having a good academy team is not going to get them in now. Having a successful first team will help. Won't cure all but will help more than a u19s team. Koukash may be a rich man but he cannot afford everything. He's chosen to focus his cash on the first team. Short-termism? Definitely. Understandable? In my view yes. The RFL cut Salford's funding after a review downgraded them. Can understand why they'd do that - why waste money on something not delivering - but also wonder whether they could be more creative and rather than cut funding use it to send in people to get the right systems in place?

All the other activity with youth is continuing - still an u16s team, increasing from one college team to two, considering running a reserve team and, if they do, they will invite some of the u19s back. looking at a shared academy with other clubs in the area (believe that when I see it but might work). Most important thing for me is they will continue the work with schools and local amateur clubs. This has been a massively overlooked and under-resourced area in Salford for pretty much ever. The relationship between the old regime and the amateur clubs was poor. Salford now run training sessions for amateur coaches including free level 1 and 2 courses plus loads of development sessions with them, do sky try initiatives, embed the pathway, players at kids sessions, junior tournaments, etc. There are more junior teams in Salford now than there has been for a long time, maybe ever. Most of that is down to the amateur clubs but the links to Salford are definitely helping.

Having an ex-local junior player and coach of open age team as Head Coach and Adrian Morley, another local product from amateur club not the pro-set up, (hopefully still) involved also helps build the community feel.

At the minute, realistically, an under 19s team will have a few Salford/Manchester lads in but will mostly be Wigan, Warrington and Leigh lads. I think the last genuinely Salford born and bred player we produced of any quality was Nathan McAvoy. And we lost him to that hotbed of Academy products, Bradford! We've had a few since but most of our successes in recent years - Evalds, Ratchford, Sneyd, Turner, Fages - and the ones on the fringes of our current team aren't from Salford. There's a few in the lower leagues. Of course I would rather have an u19s team with players from wherever than no team but if we are prioritising spending then so be it

The problem is the pathway from u16s to the first team. That's going to be our problem until the u19s structure is replaced but the work with the most likely chance of success is what's being done with the amateur teams and that's a good few years from bearing any fruit yet

But it is a similar situation in the amateur game , the established clubs attract the best kids , and those that aren't get influenced to move to the more established clubs by the Pro clubs

Genuine question !

How does/did the Hull F.C/K.R joint Academy operate ? By that I mean, shared costs, shared pool of young amateurs, who gets to sign the best, do they gravitate to the most lucrative/successful Club ???

I genuinely don't get how it works as I have very little knowledge of modern Academies but, from the outside looking in it looks like an NFL draft system would be the only fair way to run a combined Academy.

I ask this as today it has been mooted that Salford & Leigh could possibly enter into this type of arrangement.

Genuinely, I welcome any input from those in the know.

Then perhaps super league isn't for these clubs who can't establish themselves

I wondered the same myself Ste, I think they will have a draft system. Not sure what I think of a shared academy. Koukash talked about asking Oldham, Rochdale and Manchester (Rangers amateur club presumably??) too.

If we get it right, and it's big enough (ie doesn't limit potential players from joining because we only want 25 altogether and the areas could produce 10 each or whatever) then it could work. But I can't see how a draft could work if you have some pro and some semi-pro clubs. I guess for the players' sakes the full time clubs would have to take all the ones they think they want on FT contracts and the semi-pro would choose from the rest? Fans from all clubs would soon get fed up if another club ended up with more players that make it

Anyway I suspect it will never happen!

At the minute players are ring fenced by each club in the end I believe it will be a draft system

Have you seriously just stuck you head above the trench, explained some facts and truths about Salford ( and how the 250k a year on an academy could be better spent) and not expect to have you head shot off on this forum?

I think the current statistic is 1 player in 17,actually makes pro status with the current academies.That may change with the FC/KR set up but something like a Super Academy with different outlets can only strenghthen the game and the players.

Maybe academies should be removed from control of clubs and rfl fund them on a regional basis. That way the game has gauranteed quality and systems in place not a the whim of a club end of year financial results. Players from the academy could either be signed as and when by clubs or enter a NFL style draft system each year. Academies in hull, wales, London, Cumbria, couple in Yorkshire, couple in Lancashire, merseyside etc. maybe. 12 elite regional academy league controlled and funded by the rfl is the way to go?