That's alright if you play for a good community club. Some talented players are at community clubs were the coach isn't that skilled, the opposition aren't that good, maybe they can't even raise a team every week. There are quite a few lads at community level who developed earlier than their peers and have never had the experience of not being the fastest/strongest lad on the pitch. That's a massive jump to expect those players to go into Super League with no step in between.

However, I do think they need to find a way to encourage the players who don't make it to go back to their amateur clubs afterwards, and I do think there are a lot of lads at academy level (particularly cat 3 academies) who are clearly just making up the numbers and will never play pro or semi-pro rugby.

Leigh willing & able to put £250,000 per year into Elite Academy with many business sponsors on board & also develop womens R.L in the area but refused.

The most galling aspect, there were potentially 12 Licences but the RFL chose to issue only 10 !!!

I get the geographical areas, not sure about the Wakey/Cas one and how they came to that decision.

Our bid was supposed to have been one of the best

If every club in SL and all aspiring championship clubs had academies what would be the cost of this and how many players would make it to regular Superleague first team.

If the number of clubs were just 10 in total how many of the cream of the young talent in the community game would not bother to follow their ambition if they had to sign for Wakey because Cas didn't have an academy or Wigan because Leigh didn't have an academy.

I've read of many top young players whose dads will drive them miles to go to a top academy rather than the local one. They even cross the M62 to be at the top academies.

Look at the SL squads, they are full of Antipodeans because there are so few quality English lads coming through.

Even academies don't just sign "local" lads they sign the best they can and often dad drives these kids miles to play at the elite academies.

What is the point of having so many lads "making up the numbers"?? If there are less academies but much stronger teams then the lads development will be better.

If everyone had an academy the number of failures would be enormous, if only a small well chose academies were in place the standard would be much higher.

Like it or not it makes sense. Oldham didn't have an academy but Sinfield travelled to Leeds. Didn't the Burgess lads travel to Bradford from Dewsbury?

If your going the be an RL professional you travel to be one, many great young lads will travel to Australia to further their careers John Bateman didn't stick to Bradford all his career because he was born there. Young Aussies have also travelled here to try to get into the game.

Wood has to disagree with the decision or he'd be lambasted by the Bulls fans......But he may secretly he happy that's one less cost blocking Bulls getting back in SL.

Genuine question.
What will the choice be for youngsters who dont come through the new academies.
Must they come either from these "new" academies or direct from the amateur game or, will clubs still be permitted to run "academy" sides ?

Looks on the surface decision for keeping the status quo. With top teams getting first pick on young players. With a couple of expansion areas added on. Always the same in RL. So what is the path for teams without Elite Academies are they just going to be picking up the academy players that the Elite clubs don't want. One of RLs problems is we have not real upsets or challenges to the status quo because of the structures in place. So we don't get stories like Leicester in football and why so few teams have won the grand final.

I haven't really read the pros and cons but will this do anything to increase player participation?

Some one on Facebook has set up a petition and upto now nearly 5000 people have signed I have

Absolute nonsense.

Salford could have challenged the status quo but instead Marwan just decided to keep arguing with the RFL. Then again.....they've made 2 of the last 3 finals.

You could argue that Warrington (no league title since 1955) have challenged the status quo by winning the cup and making grand finals. Their owner is spending money.

Castleford came close in 2017 and are one of the top 6 clubs.

As usual, the fans and owners of the "lesser clubs" whinge and moan about everything rather than doing anything about it with their clubs.

If Wakefield and Castleford are kicked out of SL because they still haven't built the stadiums they promised in 2010 or whatever it was, will they go out to build one and improve both themselves and the game? No, they'll moan about how the RFL is inept. Top level of the game showcased on tv played at a stadium that would look a dump in non league football.

Too many clubs in rugby league happy to tread water and take from the tv money but then cba to do anything to promote themselves or the game.

Can’t speak for Castleford, but Trinity are already in the process of redevelopment of Belle Vue,. The club house has been considerably upgraded ready for the upper floor being made into a community gym and coffee house, lower floor, into community changing rooms, showers, and office space. This week has seen the replacement of the first of the four Floodlights with up to date technology. The planning application for the new East Stand is due to be heard shortly. Small steps that’s taken years, but at the end of this season, we should see the demolition of the old East stand, and upgrade to the North stand. Only fly in the ointment at the moment is the possibility of relegation from SL.

Hopefully it continues

Castleford have NOT been allowed to have an ' elite ' Academy.
Neither have HULL KR who are improving their stadium.

It is my opinion that all clubs playing in Super League should have academies and so should those in the championship who aspire to play in Super League. I can't comment on why certain clubs bids were rejected for academies as i don't know what all the criteria was, but perhaps it's a money issue. Perhaps the RFL thought they would go for quality over quantity, but i don't know. Personally i think the more academies we have the better as it increases out playing base.
On a positive note i do see that all Super League teams must have reserve sides next season which a agree with.