And when you were ' one of the best ' you signed the best juniors , will you still be producing similar quality and numbers if you're still in the Championship in 7/8 years ?

Wigan,Leeds and Saints stockpile the best juniors , other clubs have to put squads together with players they know will never make it , not surprising they produce less quality and numbers

10 years a go we probably didn't concentrate on the juniors. One good thing McNamara did while coach of us was a shift in effort on signing junior players.

We're in our third year in the championship, have £250k central funding and have just signed 14 players from our scholarship. Some of the best juniors in the game have signed on with us (remember The name Cameron Scott) The staff have worked extensively hard to sign them up. If we can do it, there's no reason why Salford can't.

You say Wigan Leeds etc stockpile players. I think you're doing a disservice to those clubs. They work damn hard and provide investment in their junior department for those junior players. If they are stock piling the juniors, then it's because other clubs aren't working hard enough on their junior development programs.

Do Wigan and Leeds deserve the right to see if a player they have brought through since being a teenager can fully mature under their tutelage?

The SC restrictions, along with the amateurish way the youth structure has been messed around means that often the clubs that put in all the work get little to no benefit from the work they put in. I am sure there are players on that list, and beyond, that were let go due to SC restrictions, who the coach would have liked to have around for a couple more years to see what they become.

But hey, that goes along with the general ethos of our sport.

Some clubs would probably be more succesful scrapping their academies and then throwing big bucks at these talented kids when they reach a certain age or before they commit to a longer contract.

Explain exactly how you want them to ' work harder ' ?

From the changes I've seen at Bradford. Invest in the youth setups. Coaching, facilties, kit etc

Working more with community clubs. Not just sending a scout there. Engage with them. This has been one of the biggest changes at Bradford in that we work much more closely with the local amateur and junior teams. Also work harder in the local schools.

Create a culture and a pathway in the club from U16s, 19s to the first team.

You can do ALL of that , but if Wigan offer a kid from Eccles a scholarship , he'll be at Orrell for training , it is that simple

And what ' investment ' do you mean ? , money ?

'Engage ' , what exactly does that mean ?

Exactly how do you ' Work harder ' in a School ?

Explain ' Create a culture and a pathway ' ?

All nice clever sounding words usually used by people trying to sound intellectual , but actually just ' BULL '

A return to P+R and clubs are over-spending, bringing in more overseas players, and giving up on youth development. Surely nobody could have foreseen this.



Oh.....

Why is that? What natural advantage do Wigan have? There is absolutely no reason to suggest that this is true, if everyone put the same work into the youth categories as Wigan.

Ceteris paribus the youth will pick based on proximity to home.

By definition you are pointing out that there is something extra you can do to make the young players join your club.

Unlike that time when we had licensing and we dissolved much of the youth leagues...

when all clubs had academies, the number of overseas players went down and the number of british players went up?

Reputation , for being essentially the biggest but certainly the most famous RL club in the country if not the World

So all things will not be equal

I've seen it so many times , the tap room snobbery of a Dad , bragging to all and sundry that his lad was at Wigan Scholarship , despite the fact there were 20odd others within his age group and Wigan were only supposed to have 10