Quote Red John="Red John"And another point regarding this 'ability to tap into the Manchester area' argument. This 'Manchester area' ignores the fact that the sport is all but non existent in Manchester and only exists in some of the towns and cities around it, where there is a bit of competition from the likes of Wigan, Warrington, Leigh, Rochdale, Oldham, etc. for that talent. I suspect Saints face less competition for talent in the Liverpool area.'"
Indeed, didn't Saints also have a dual reg/tie-in to Rochdale in the last couple of years too?
The truth is that all the scouts for Wigan, Warrington and Saints are regularly seen at amateur grounds certainly around the Oldham/Rochdale/Salford area where there are a number of amateur teams. On top of that, Leeds, Bradford and Hudds scouts plunder the area too, especially in Oldham and Rochdale. So, we have actually have quite a small amount of talent in the Manchester area where half of the SL teams, including Salford, are operating to try and pick up the best talent for their Academies.
