national leagues?
lunt,raleigh,kirmond,kyle wood,greg mcnally were all signed from national league clubs by us,fair enough mcnally hasn't played in super league but he's a decent player.

surplus to requirements at other clubs?
not mentoning the first team regulars at the giants but good british players come off contract all the time,im sure hull kr would be aware of which players they were?

exactly, 60 million people have an automatic affiliation with our national team, right there we have easiest hook we are ever, ever going to have to get people involved in the game.

But not only that, we arent signing the best players, we are signing at best 2nd tier antipodeans, mostly third tier antipodeans, and rarely formerly top class antipodeans who are now pretty old. The argument may hold water if SL was like a premier league with most of the best players in the world of rugby playing in our league, but it isnt, we dont have most of the best players in the world, the SC and general financial constraints will stop that ever happening. The only way we can improve the standard of SL to the level of the NRL is to create more of our own world class players, relying on NRL cast offs simply makes ours a 2 class product

nooo, dont be silly, the Hull KR fans have told us that it would be totally unreasonable to expect them to find some diamonds in the rough. Apparently the only option is to have an academy set up the quality of Leeds or buy lots and lots of overseas players. There are no players in the national leagues and no english players off-contract as good as Ben Fisher, or Rhys Lovegrove apparently

name ours then

Now then, I got a little bored, my boss is not happy in the slightest.

Bradford 25 man squad
Academy - 12
UK - 7
Overseas - 6

Castleford
Academy - 12
UK - 8
Overseas - 5

Catalans
Academy - 10
French - 8
Overseas - 7

Crusaders
Academy - 4
UK - 5
Overseas - 16

Harlequins
Academy - 9
UK - 11
Overseas - 5

Huddersfield
Academy - 3
UK - 15
Overseas - 7

Hull FC
Academy - 11
UK - 7
Overseas - 7

Hull KR
Academy - 4
UK - 13
Overseas - 8

Leeds
Academy - 12
UK - 6
Overseas - 7

Salford
Academy - 7
UK - 11
Overseas - 7

St Helens
Academy - 14
UK - 5
Overseas - 6

Wakefield
Academy - 10
UK - 7
Overseas - 8

Warrington
Academy - 8
UK - 11
Overseas - 6

Wigan
Academy - 12
UK - 5
Overseas - 8

Now I'm sure I've probably got a couple wrong slightly here and there but you get the gist. However, simply looking at the figures it looks like, for instance, Warrington, Wakey and Bradford are doing ok. But when you look at what would be their first 17 squad theres usually only 3 or 4 academy products in their respective squads. Whilst they may well be good for the future, most of their academy products in their 25 man squads are simply young lads, most of whom won't make it in the future and will drop down into the Championship.

On the flip side, teams like Saints & Leeds have 1st 17 squads with a large number of academy products, usually around 8 or 9 and then topped up with quality UK and overseas players.

The most worrying are Huddersfield & Hull KR in my opinion.

Does that overseas total include our England international?

So youve named 3 players there. Hardly a pool of talent.

You do know you signed Raleigh from us dont you? Dont let Smokey know that though...

its three fewer overseas players that Hull KR would have if they did something similar
not sure quite what your point is?

3 players over the course of 3 seasons is hardly enough to run a squad from is it?



My point is Andy Raleigh was a player we unearthed and moulded into a SL player for Hudds.

Something you seem to think HKR have been incapable of.

yes,when you were an average national league club
my point was that if you want the lower talent it's there if you look hard enough for it.

or signed from sheffield??, he was a good prospect at hull kr which is why we signed him because we saw the potential there,we didn't have to, we could have gone out and signed a 2nd rate aussie,which is what the point of this thread is about.

Uneartherd/signed from Sheff. Hadnt he just been playing at Uni the season before that?

You could of gone out and signed a 2nd rate Aussie but when you signed Raleigh you werent a newly promoted SL side, which is what my point is about.. Had it been your debut SL season and with barely no academy to choose players from, i think you would of done things pretty similar to us.