Unfortunatley no it isn't , just as in football I'm sure the Arsenal fans will be more than happy if their ' foreign legion ' win the premiership this year and in the future , eventually premier football could quite easilly become a completely non british competition , will it affect the fans going through the doors or the sponsors contributions ? , no

Quite simply the Bosman ruling has removed all need for any proffessional sports clubs to produce it's own players , for many many years big rich clubs like Leeds and W1g4n in RL and many others in football profited from buying in the best players produced by smaller poorer ' selling ' clubs , this made it important for all clubs to try to produce juniors , as they actually had assets that then could be sold

Now that incentive has gone , in fact it has reveresed , the big clubs have the profile and the money to attract all the best juniors from much further affield , but they quite simply dont have room for them all , so many end up moving on to other clubs ,

The poorer lower profile clubs get the 2nd even 3 rd level of juniors , making the process of producing top quality even harder , and therefore not financially viable

If you want to even out the production of juniors , cap the numbers each club is allowed , but you will not agree with that

in ten years time imagine where the game will be with every club spending the full cap and it being sustainable

the days of two or three clubs dominating the league are boring and bad for the game.

share the love around

bradford have had their go, so has saints and leeds

next i want hudds, wire and wigan to win it.

how good would les cats winning it be for the game?

For the bank books probably not very.
Old Trafford would be empty

wembley final a few years back, st helens vs les cats mate.

i was there too.

leeds vs saints GF aint selling out anywhere. neutrals arent interested in either team any more. we need some fresh blood, maybe your mob can lose the chokers tag finally.

you guys are the parramatta eels of SL. same colours too

Pathways are there. Probably more so than for any other pro sport. They just shouldn't be the responsibility of a pro club.


A contribution in interest, spectators and financially. Running a school should not be a prime requirement for them.


Well, in the absence of specififcs, I'll say: All clubs are ambitious.


The pathways are there. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because there are other pathways with different starting points that the pathways aren't there.

By the way, why are you linking an improved international side with a more stable footing for the league? Surely increased club revenues (which will not come from an international side) and decreased running costs will be the key to that.

No it isn't.
What keeps the league going is revenue. Revenue that comes from fans, both fans attending games and fans via TV. The top ties teams producing players is not a factor at all.

The real employees of the club in this respect are the first team players. That's why teams put their best coaching resources into that area of the club.
Academy players are like students on work experience. It's nice thing to do for the community, and you might find some talent, but it's far from vital to the business.

So where do these "finished" products come from?

If no one is training them then...........................

The shortage of trained personnel in my industry is causing real problems as more and more are chasing fewer and fewer but will not pay for training!!!

So where do they come from?

It was the first ever new wembley final, it was going to be well attended regardless of who played.
hudds and Wire was fresh blood this year at wembley and it was half empty, I was there...

so the crowd for the CC final was 45,000 then?

No but there was a hell of a lot of empty sections of seats. it was probably the lowest attended final in a while, I haven't looked.
Some teams are better supported than others, fact of life