Quite possibly......

“Many of the clubs have a great track record of consistently developing senior elite players for England and yet their commitment to iterate and develop their programmes in order to continue to optimally attract, retain and progress players really shone through.

Seems it is supposed to be...

How many players in your first team squad came through your academy? How many in the last five years have become regular first teamers?

I'm yet to find a single person (particularly player or coach) who thinks this is a good thing.

Really think this could set the sport back years.

To be fair, each club has been given feedback as to why they have been denied a licence, and each club has had their application rejected for different reasons.
ONE of the reasons Cas were knocked back, is that they have produced the least amount of players in their squads since 2014.

And argued about the few players that came through almost a decade ago as the reason why they should get one

Cas fan on the nut job forum following today’s news.

Superb

Seems strange how West Yorkshire’s top SL side haven’t been awarded one whilst strugglers Wakey, Leeds and Hudds have.

You've barely produced any players since 2014 anyway.

It seems to me they want to reduce the numbers because so many lads don't make it, and they want to keep a wide spread to make sure kids in London and Newcastle retain a pathway.

I would guess if there's no Bradford Academy and quality Bradford lads want to play for Bradford then won't they just go through Huddersfield or Leeds academies anyway and then sign for Bulls?

I note Les Catalans are bowing to the Academy requirement as they did for Licensing 2009. This may just save their Superleague skins

Anyway as long as all the top lads still find an academy to go to this may mean a lot of young lads staying in the community game, and I mean a lot because don't only one or two lads in a hundred make it through the academies to pro clubs and those that don't tend to call it a day...

If there's only room for one academy around Wakey way why not just call it "Calder" and play at each of the three grounds

I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Both Jake Trueman and John Bateman had offers from better clubs than Bradford but chose to sign for their home town club.

Then there’s the likes of James Bentley who signed scholarship terms with Featherstone after failing to impress super league scouts when he was at Outlton Raiders. Never had a game for Featherstone and looked like he would fall through the net - as again none of the super league academies wanted him - but thankfully got picked up by Bradford’s academy thats been staffed by dedicated people that sweat blood for it. Now (before injury) he’s been turning out regularly for Saints. As a young lad at six form college would he really traipse up to Newcastle to train with their academy?