I heard infrastructure, player pool in regards to youth development, Sheens assessment was maybe 2, 3 out of every 100 end up making 1st team nrl and having to look further afield for potential.here.and keeping kids interested in the game long enough to realise that potential, when there is a dominant sport, soccer on the doorstep.
Sheens would have had the 4 suburbs clubs and around 15 junior clubs with teams aged from 4 - 17 to draw from.
This is the enormity of his task ..

No one should begrudge money being diverted to developing our youth recruitment as this will be a far greater legacy, than a aged forward chasing 1 last paycheck .
More Ratchford, less Chase....

Do Folly, Langworthy, Eccles and Cadishead all have U16 teams? If so, assuming each has a squad of 17 players that's 68 kids. I imagine it will be easy enough to halve that number instantly and more to leave yourself with a 25 man squad. I would be very surprised if one, or two lads from that number couldn't develop into Super League players.

I just hope that these days we've got the appropriate personnel scouting and working on behalf of the club, rather than it all being about picking from certain clubs only etc.

All that said, we should also keep up the excellent work we've been doing outside the Salford area which has served us so well in recent times. The likes of Marc Sneyd, Jordan Turner, Stefan Ratchford, Theo Fages, Jordan Walne, Adam Walne, Niall Evalds, Ryan Lannon, Jake Bibby etc.

A club like Salford if anything needs scouts who work more out of area trying to identify youngsters the other SL teams might be looking at and trying to gazump any moves they make.

The club should be inviting the head coaches from all the local teams to become closely involved with the club and have them the second they spot someone local who has talent to bring it to the clubs attention.

The benefit of this would be that that the local clubs all are being coached in a manner that any youngster coming to the club would be instantly familiar with, also think that in this day of Friday night KO's that the club should have players not so much at local club training sessions but actually on game day, can you imagine the boost youngsters would get if they were playing in front of their favourite Salford player.

The player could also (with the coaches permission) help give a team talk before the game for that added motivation. It certainly wouldn't hurt and there is also the chance that if a talented kid does turn up and had the option of various SL clubs that they would think of Salford first because of this.

can only speak for cadishead, they do have under 16 team but salford arent interested.
last years under 18s had a superb hooker, salford were told and never bothered, he is in the under 18 lancashire squad now and i believe a few clubs are looking at him, warrington being one.

I'm sure they had a good loose forward as well but he's on Warrington books,

There is a young lad playing 2nd row an Salford roosters he gets man of the match every week an was talking to Luke gale after a match down there who couldn't believe Salford hadn't looked at him

This is the problem, how many lads before them have been allowed to progress through the amateur ranks to U18’s then become disinterested in the sport and give it up.

Isn’t there a talented centre at Folly who Wigan have signed up recently? Also a lad from Cadishead who Warrington have also either signed or shown interest in. Given the tiny numbers we have in Salford of kids playing RL, it really is scandalous that we allow this to happen.

MR I agree we should be working more closely with head coaches of local junior teams, in return the players should be going down and taking sessions, or even better our head coach (every now and again). We should be supporting all local amateur teams as much as possible and ensuring relations are watertight. At least that way, if we do overlook a player that Wigan, Warrington etc are sniffing around at they can give the club a call and alert them to it.

If it was up to me, I’d be setting up an U16’s Salford Red Devils team, that would compete in the North West Counties Premiership against the best local teams. The basis of this team would come from cherry picking the best players at the end of the season from local U15’s teams and if not already, signing them on a scholarship with a view to playing them in the SRD U16’s team on a weekly basis. Rather than waiting until U15’s, you could also sign players from any age to join the scholarship programme with the ultimate goal being to inviting them for training sessions with the U16’s, giving them the appropriate nutrition advice etc and then once they finish their U15’s season with their local team joining the SRD U16’s team.

Following a season at U16’s, any player showing signs, we keep and promote to our U19’s.

The lad who signed for warrington from cadishead, is george. I told the story in the alan hunte thread, i mentioned him to hunte who wasnt interetsed as soon as i mentioned cadishead.
I hoped it would change as soon when he was sacked, but nothing so far to suggest this.

Yeah Jack Wells, he's actually a back rower. He got Wigan U19's player of the year and is very much on the verge of the first team from all accounts.

Only Langworthy and Cadishead have teams at U16's and Cadishead and Bury at U18's from the local area. The amateur game from U16's is really a mess at the moment and has been for a few years. Locally a lot of teams have struggled but it is not all bad as each club has been really working hard below this age group with most local teams having teams at each age group down to U7's.

I know Salford are looking how to improve the local links with clubs and have run a few community club meetings which have been designed to look at how the club can better link with the local teams. In the summer on the back of this, saw an U12's festival and an U8's festival take place with just local teams. I also know from conversations that the club are really keen to get away from the previous way, where local lads have been overlooked and I know they have been visiting local clubs to look at lads at U16's and U15's teams with a view to inviting them to the scholarship. I know a few lads have been recently receiving letters with invites so things do seem to be changing.

The foundation have also been running the new Embed the Pathway program designed to coach any child, either currently playing in the area or not and open to other areas to come down and be involved. This is for school kids Y7-Y9 and has been well attended and very beneficial, with lots of local kids now on the pathway. They have also just completed the first Embed the Pathway coaching seminar where coaches from Cadishead, Folly, Langworthy and Salford were in attendance and each club will in due course become England Rugby League ETP accredited clubs which is a step over a lot of other amateur clubs in the game so in that regard the club are in fact ahead over other areas.

Staff involved at the club do seem to be aware of the stigma that the club has not had good local links for many years but seem keen to work to change this and want to work to better improve the standard and participation in the area. Time will tell of course but the noises coming out of there presently are encouraging.

I think it's easy for us to point the finger continuously at the areas where the Club falls down. It's helpful in keeping issues fresh and in the minds of the Club as something that the fans would like addressing.

It's also nice to hear that those problems are being addressed at some level for the long term survival of the Club.

Let's be real local amateur clubs haven't exactly been a breeding ground for producing the best young talent over the years have they? OK there's been the odd player every few years but it's nothing compared to what other stronger rugby towns have produced.

Personally I can't fault the club for generally looking beyond just Salford for emerging young talent.

all of us can probably quote decades where recruitment haven't been logical .
At present the RFL assessed the academy structure as ' basket case ' sorry mis-prunt 'not category 1 status' meaning we won't even be included in the SL reserve/ U19's fixtures. so even if Sheens/Carvell / Gleeson manage to attract talent , they won't be matched against the right opposition to develop and would probably have to be loaned out to get any experience ,
Every other SL club can walk into our local teams and show the parents of these kids glowing reports of the wonderful academy structures.

Other SL clubs are building links with clubs all over the UK, rlSt Helens

we'll have to judge the current coaching staff on how they progress from now , but they should be tapping every resource & link possible for undiscovered talent uk & abroad :-
France
Italy
eastern seaboard USA
Russia
Serbia
Lebanon / Palestine

Sad as it sounds i'm desperate to hear news about who we are potentially gonna sign guys, so any genuine news would be great. Ta guys

Well I did see Sam Burgess at the Marriott earlier today so you never know

That's where England are staying I seen Owen Farrell there