I know what you are saying but, Lads can only ever go to a club that want's to pay for their services, regardless of which academy they are playing at.
The one thing for sure is that the fewer academies that we have, the easier it becomes for everyone to see who the standout players are, at which point, inevitably, it will come down to pound notes and which clubs have the deepest pockets.

Yes but that system stops clubs picking up the lads they want to sign. I honestly think Cumbrian lads in particular would be shafted by that system given that it's all League One or below there now. Also, will the big SL clubs go scouting further afield if they are going to have trouble signing any gems they unearth? May as well not bother and never find the next Lee Mossop. I don't see why they don't make it a prerequisite to run an academy. Even the National Conference League, which is totally amateur, requires teams to have enough players to field an A team in their regional league (I think). If they can manage it on a shoestring, and teams like Bradford can manage an academy from the Championship, I'm sure we can make it an SL pre-requisite to run an academy (one year's exemption for newly promoted teams, fair enough).

Some interesting points but in my opinion every super league club should be running an academy has a bare minimum,I'm not sure regional academies would work within the heartlands. Let's not forget some of these lads have just left school and are playing rugby alongside doing a college course. Has a parent of an u19s player it would be very difficult to travel any distance to a regional academy and continue studies not to mention the cost of running about,after all these lads although paid they arnt earning a super league salary more getting a few quid in there pocket whilst doing something they love.

Not sure how the hull acadamy runs but people from the hull area I know are very negative towards how it's worked,some lads from last years kids just simply walked away whilst 2 of the better 16s left to join West Yorkshire clubs before staying with the hull franchise.

' Just need to step up to the plate and put some time , money and effort '

Seriously ?

Let me guess , you're a Leeds fan

If you want to sit at the big boys table you have to put on your big boy pants because your excuses just don't cut it.

Well when the ' Big ' boys turn up we'll have to leave the table , till then you'll just have to put up with us

Wontcha

Once again people are trying to have a reasoned discussion , then Smokey turns up all aggressive and childish all in one

the big boys are already there, thats why you are wanting to be judged to a lower standard.

Presented without comment.

Yes it certainly needs time and effort. At Wakefield our academy has usually been somewhere between poor and decent and it would have been easy for us to decide to scrap it altogether and spend the money elsewhere, especially as we can't even spend the salary cap as it is. But we actually put time and effort into improving our academy and it's starting to bear fruit, with us having the current SL young player of the year in Tom Johnstone and the Albert Goldthorpe rookie of the year in Max Jowitt plus a few others starting to come through who we have very high hopes for. We've still got a good way to go but the desire is there from everyone at the club to turn our academy into a consistently successful one and everyone is aware it won't happen overnight.

So if we can do it, the poorest club in Super League, then the likes of Salford should easily be able to better anything we do if they put in the same amount of effort considering the much larger funds they have access to. But the likes of Marwan just want a quick fix and thinks "Wahhh, I've been funding our academy for a few years now and we're still not as good as Wigan or Leeds. What's the point, lets just scrap it."

It's embarrassing to read some posters trying to justify their teams not running an academy when the reality is that they're just lazy short termists who would rather let other teams do the work for them so that they can sign another 30 year old Australian.

In an ideal world we would all receive the rewards for our effort and investment , but as we all know that isn't always the case , it's great to see you having some success , and I hope that it continues , but as we are all aware as well , there are only so many sows ears you can turn into silk purses , you need to get your fair share of quality juniors to work with , and then you need to retain them

It's easy and simple to just say ' work harder ' , ' invest more ' , be better ' , but sometimes no matter how attractive you make yourself , or what resources you throw at it , if the raw talent isn't available to you , you will struggle to produce enough quality players

Now it seems that Leigh and Salford are considering a joint initiative , perhaps this isn't perfect and no doubt there are probably financial savings but hopefully it will be a success , as you state only time will tell

You do realise the argument you are making here is that your club is not, and cannot ever be, a functioning, contributing member of Super League dont you? That your argument is that your club isnt big enough, rich enough, or innovative enough to pay its own way? Your entire argument is predicated on the idea that your club has been promoted in to a league it cannot even hope to properly function in.