Quote: Wildcat26 "Genuine question as I am wondering if I am missing something here- How do you guys rate your academy system in terms of recruitment of local talent and bringing them through? Obviously I don't follow Wire as close to see your academy products on a regular basis, but there seems to be a lot of touting of academy players from other clubs - Morgan Smith, Dagger, Currie and a few attempts knocked back to sign our other young FB in Max Jowitt and heard from a lad you was trying to take from Hudds academy not so long back. Do you think this is a case of the club been smart and picking from the best talent pool or do you think this highlights a lack of success in your own academy?'"
I should hope the club are looking to target the best young players from around the country irrespective of what club they are at or how old they are, that should just be a given regardless of the success of your own academy.
Warrington are hamstrung somewhat in the fact that the amateur game in Warrington historically isn't particularly strong - it's a football town, so we have always looked at surrounding town teams to attract young players (especially Wigan). That said there are FAR more amateur clubs playing the game in Warrington now than when I was playing amateur RL 20 years ago. When I was growing up there was one team (Woolston Rovers) who had a team at every age group, now there are 5 or 6. So things are improving and there are far more Warringtonians in this squad than I have seen in my lifetime.
So IMO things are improving but still aren't good enough, but even if we had the best youth set up in the country, I'd still be wanting us to target the likes of Walker, if we saw him as a standout player for the future.