Mate I cant be bothered to research that one.

Junior Footy in Australia at lower levels is popular with a lot of islanders (because they are big b astards even aged 14) And a lot of islanders are Aussie born anyway.

Consequently a lot of them carry on and make it into grown up footy.


But in the same breath I would wager that the standard of true blue dinki di Aussie kids playing footy every Saturday is probably higher than their English equivalents over here in the UK

Not entirely evident over the last few years when touring sides have met. There are good results for our youth (at least a few years back anyway) at representative level - but like you, I can't be bothered researching that .

whats a matter arent the crusaders turning up and getting rolled over every week does that not suit some of you,christ they been going since january in a place who 99 per cent of population have never seen a game and certainly couldnt tell you the rules.give it chance the wxm council the owners and the locals in what is a massive catchment area could make it work but its gna take a while .i believe we will average 7 thou plus this yr which wont be bad ,if we were getting battered every week because it was full of welsh youngsters this would be the last time we got a franchise .give it time fellas

Gotta love that bit aint ya .

If they have only been going since January how come they have a SL licence ?

Oh yes ! They stole it .
Boot 'em out now . Let one of the other applicants have their place , and make Crusaders RL apply for a SL licence next time they are up for renewal .

I was all for the expansion idea when it first happened , but this is a farce .Didn't I read somewhere that seeing as they are a new team they are allowed more overseas players than the rest of the SL teams ? So they have nicked a licence , and are cheating , and all with the blessing of the RFL .

It really is an embarrassment .

That's not the point he's making. the new quota/federation rules were only brought in in the last few years.

SL Licences in 2009 included points for youth development. Since the 14 clubs have been granted a licence, Quins have stuck with a youth policy. Yes, it's not making massive gains on the field at present, but as pointed out, 2/17 against Saints is a great thing to see.

We've been making massive strides in this area; Sykes, Melling, LMS, Clubb and Purdham all given international honours whilst being Quins players.

This season we've brought in Wilkes, Ellis, Jones & Esders whilst loaning Jones-Bishop & Penny.

For so long, we've been branded as a team full of Aussies, and that's all changed now. Bulls bring in Orford, Kearney, L'Estrange and Hall all in one off-season; we've gone for Brits.

Harlequins - damned if you do, damned if you don't.

with no money, a state dominated by AFL and no NRL team to raise RL's profile, WA still produces players that go on to be 1st teamers in the NRL. Good structure, good coaching and a decent scouting system is what is needed in every part of the UK.

The Crusaders are coached by Noble who has a history of using large numbers of overseas players.

At Bradford he regularly had 8/9/10 non GB qualified players. At Wigan; who along with Leeds have the best junior set up in RL he would often play an entire backline with not one GB qualified player plus forwards.

Noble isn't interested in developing young players-too much like hard work- he would rather let the NRL clubs do that for him.

If you look through all the side in SL you could take out 3 overseas players out of each side and replace them with younger UK players and the standard would remain the same.

If you took Obst, Korkedas and Demitriou out of the Wakey side and put some of their excellent youngsters in would they be any worse - no. If Cas took out Sherwin, Evans and McGoldrick would it have a negative effect on another club that produce a lot of very good junior players - no.

That is the problem with SL - far too many very average Aussie players.

Nope, there are a few threads on the Wakey and Crusaders forums clearly stating the best team won and
wishing the Crusaders and thier fans all the best.

It will be the same 23 of 34 when they play the midgets also, dont suppose that will matter though eh I'm sure you will have some excuse, plaster for every sore comes to mind

well done crusaders!

just saw the result.

brilliant

The same old arguments keep croping up, League has had 115 years to develop up North, Crusaders after nearly going bust have had less than 100 days. All clubs bring in overseas players my own club uses Aussies who have come in on European passports we have an Aussie coach we have been in super league for 3 years & have only 1 or two local lads from our own set up who are anywhere near Superleague at the moment. We have relied on cast off,s from Leeds.
Although clubs get a 3 year licence it is not long enough it has taken London 30 years to get any sort of youth development to produce (& people want to abandon it now) it is a long term thing For Wales to get any sort of home grown production line of players will take another 20 years (even with union players of good standard that are available) & will need all the support we can give.
As for the Australian experts posting on here if league had the input into its coffers that the Australian state puts in through the education system that TV pays for rights & no competition from soccer us Brits might do a bit better. At least we compete at the top of a sport that everyone plays (football) not minority sports that only a few ex British colonies play.