This bit is a tad unfair & overly simplistic .....

Derek Beaumont hasn't ruled out any future Academy set up at Leigh, he simply favours establishing the Club at SL level/retaining SL status firstly, to revisit Academy status at a later time.

Leigh are not the only SL Club without an Academy but its 2 amateur town clubs Miners & East have supplied a good number of SL players over the decades.

Tin pot ? Or [iSilverware Club ?[/i the facts speak for themselves.

I would love a bigger SL (up to 16 Clubs) & hope that your academy can help bring you back to SL, with better overall Club financing & management, as I hope KR can do likewise.

No need for petty name calling.

Bradford fans calling other clubs "tinpot". You couldn't make it up

Regards

King James

I wasn't referring to Leigh who haven't had the luxury of years of superleague funding and crowds.

Salford on the other hand have no excuse.

Btw if you want a cock measuring contest comparing trophies I'd pick someone other than Bradford. We might be in the division below Leigh for the first time in living memory but the facts speak for themselves.

Yeah all those trophies, superleague beating crowds, successful academy. Even most of the points in England women's game with France were scored by Bradford players today. Versus a few sound bites from Ming the merciless, an empty trophy cabinet and a car load of pitch invading chavs rattling round a sewage works under Barton bridge.

I assume you are running a Scholarship ? , if so your current crop of 20 yr olds have been with you since 2007/8 , at that time you were still at the top just a couple of years from dominating SL

' Kids choose the Bulls because they have a genuine pathway ' ? , well yes I suppose they could see that given the numbers of high quality you have managed to develop in the recent past , but then again , those players would have been attracted to the Bulls 15/16 years ago , again on the back of your success

So there we have it , the 4 winners of SL produce the most players , or because those clubs produce the players they win SL ? , a chicken and egg scenario

But let's look at your squad back in your heyday , a lot of Kiwi's as I remember it , so buying and bringing in Star quality gave you success and profile , that has resulted in you getting the best juniors and producing quality SL players

Will it continue ? Who knows , only time will tell

bless

You are more bitter than a Lemon, enjoy another year in oblivion.

You sign with a scholarship at u15s, which would have been 5 years ago for the oldest of Bradford's u19s. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, Bradford finished 9th, 10th and 10th. The youngest of those u19s will have signed for a scholarship 2/3 years ago, when Bradford were already struggling massively.

If that's the case then things have changed , it used to be U 12 s

one of the reasons we can't have a 16 team league is clubs making the decision to ignore youth development in favour of short term success. This is clearly exacerbated by this system.

If you want to see the damage it does, none of the club which was relegated, the club which was promoted, or the one which survived the million pound nonsense will be running their own academy next year.

Of the three only one was running one this season , and in 2018 the promoted club this season intend on running one

So essentially one seasons loss

Again I'd suggest reading the similar thread on Total RL to see some of the issues with the academies and the amateur clubs they draw from