Cas and Wakey both have excellent youth development schemes not sure which Cas and Wakey youngsters you are talking about TBH? Clubs like Saints and Wigan have the pick of the best youngsters in their area so its unlikely that the likes of Leeds/Warrington etc will release their best players to the likes of St Helens and Wigan as they can - unlike London - afford to keep their best and those they release will be of no interest to the likes of Saints and Wigan.

Melbourne is completely different city to London, outsides of sport Melbourne is limited in what it culturally has to offer. London is a huge city comparable to any major city in the world. Sport is huge in Melbourne, soccer is massive in London and no other sport has a chance. RL is a regional sport in the UK, RL is the second biggest sport in Australia so the chances of there being interest in RL in Melbourne is high, the chances of there being interest in RL in London nil. Of the 8m that live in London the demographic is very diverse, 200k Americans for a start - also how many Londoners follow clubs like Man Utd and Liverpool!! you see comparing the population of London to Melbourne is crazy.

Even after all that investment and nearly twenty years and a very successful side in Melbourne the crowds are still poor and youth development virtually nil - how many Victorians are playing for Melbourne or any other NRL club for that matter? Is that your idea of understanding marketing? You think employing a RU executive is going to help Melbourne - the team is in decline its key players are nearing the end of their careers and they have a coach who appears to have been figured out - good look to him

The TV revenues in Australia for RL are much bigger so the sport can afford to invest significant sums in a project to prove a point and not bankrupt the sport. The investment required to develop London would bankrupt the RFL. If it were such a great thing somebody would have come in and bought it the owner is desperate to sell.

So extended marketing yielded 8k to a game and you still consider that there is a viable option in London!!

People talk about Wigan as the sports leading area for producing players and it may well be but it'd be a very very close run thing between them and the Wakefield/Castleford area.

Wigans and Warringtons and Leeds Academy and Scholarships all have a large contingent of players who are from the Wakefield/Castleford area, at last count Wigan had 7 in their Scolarship alone though this may have changed in the last few months.

The RFL have even changed the qualifying rules for the Carnegie Schools Cup because of the dominance of Wakefield/Castleford schools. Just a few years ago there were 11 Wakefield/Castleford schools out of 16 finalists. Now the Wakefield schools knock each other out in a regional competition meaning not all of them can get through, this allows for other regions to have some success even though it's a bit manufactured in their favour.

As things stand Castleford Academy are THE stand out Rugby League school in the country but St Wilfred's of Wakefield, Outwood Acadmey and Ossett Academy are all really strong.

It's a shame that these lads don't all stay with Trinity or the Tigers but money and the lure of the badge often wins

To give them the deserved credit, St Wilfrids is Featherstone really, but all in the Wakefield Met area you refer to. Great area for rugby league

I was really happy with Sargisons contribution, has great footwork, strong defense, made lots of good decision in attack,

I wasn't expecting him to go so well but I am pleased he did, hopefully he will have a great England career ahead of him

Congratulations on McNamara picking him and showing us we were all wrong

Sarginson has been the one real and genuine positive of this tournament and a welcome international class discovery.

I've always preferred substance over hype anyhow.

For instance...
Sarginson = Substance
Watkins = Hype

Interesting that. Its a shame decent posts like this one get swallowed up due to the same half a dozen tools arguing the toss over and over again about the same things.

All??

To be fair Daniel Sarginson has come on in leaps and bounds under the coaching of Shaun Wane at Wigan. Unfortunately he had failed to blossom fully under the coaching of Anthony Rea (aka "Tony Ray") at London. I believe that in the next two years Daniel will cement his position in the England centres, and the defensively challenged show pony Kallum Watkins will only get a run when Jack Reed is injured.