Jack Walker is a classy fullback, hes picked up man of the match on 2 of the last 3 Leeds televised games, he is determined to be a fullback and doesn't see that opportunity at Leeds due to Ash Goulding signing a new 4 year deal.
If Warrington sign him it would be a fantastic for the team, in my opinion.

Why would his attitude be questioned for having his head turned by a club offering twice as much money, a longer contract, and reassurances about playing time.

If another company doubled your wages for doing the same job would you not take it?

Fair play to the lad.

In his statement the main reason for not committing his future was because of Ash Golding signing a long term contract & he hadn't been given reassurances of playing at FB

If he thinks he is that good and loves the club as he also puts in his statement then he should back himself to learn his trade and displace as i put a very average FB and earn the No 1 shirt

think this kid is being ill advised, so what if he thinks his best position is fullback. no way is Gary Hetherington and Brian Mac going to be dictated to by a 17 year old.
and lets face it he does go to you lot, does anyone think Tony Smith is going to bow down to him either, its highly likely if he does go to you he will have to bide is time and will have to play in other positions and be expected to earn the full back shirt. he's a good player and cracking prospect but clearly thinks he is the main man already, i suspect that this will tarnish him a bit were ever he ends up. if he does end up at warrington or wherever i suspect he will be easily swayed by union dollar very soon.

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?

It's funny you should mention Scott Grix because apart from a couple of indifferent games he's been wakey's best player this season, I mention this because apart from our game at your place where he did not a play his place was taken by Max Jowitt who tbf did not play too well.
Grix has kept Jowitt out of the side all season, thing is your club has tried all season to sign young Max without success and it now could be that they're after Walker instead.

I'd spend the money we'd lavish on young walker on a few barrels of Guinness and a couple of hundred steaks for Dagger. Once he's bulked up he'll be fine.

I can think of lots of positions (about 12 in fact) we need to strengthen before full-back, starting with two fit for purpose half-backs, money no object.

For me, there's no difference between picking up my eggs direct from the farmer, vs buying them from a shop. Neither are usable in their current state. I've still got to cook and eat them in either case.

What's the (hypothetical) difference between spotting and signing up a 15yr old from a local amateur side vs signing a 16yr old from another club's academy?

The scouts have identified someone of potential, and we still coach and mould their talents, then manage their transition into the first team.

Couldn't care less whether we get our kids from a WA, LS, HD or Mongolian postcode.

So to answer your question, I wouldn't say where we source the talent from has any baring on the success (or lack of) of the academy.

The output rather than the input is what I'd measure success on.

Our success at bringing them through though is another matter...

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.

Football town?
The strongest amateur clubs around our town are rugby league based.

If we did a count of the number of amateur football players vs number of amateur RL players, id be amazed if football didn't dwarf RL.

ok.... name an amateur football club that regularly provides players to the professional football ranks....

you cant......we are not a football Town, anymore than we are a basketball town or a netball town....

my son plays basketball there are hundreds of kids playing it .........not one single player will end up in the NBA.......

we are a rugby town like it or not....

... Mainly because the football club takes the children because that's what they are at the time from 7+ into their own academies. But I understand your point.

Not sure how many Warrington born players are in the Warrington Town ranks.

I can't because I have zero interest in football and where the player base comes from. There are also I'd guess 80 teams in the top 4 leagues in English football, and countless semi professional clubs I dare say there are as many warringtonians in that structure as there are in the SL and Championship - but obviously I could never prove that.

I'd love it if we were a rugby town, I just don't believe we are. There are far more people playing and watching football in Warrington than they are playing RL. There are probably different ways of classifying whether we are a rugby town or a football town (or indeed a basketball town). But on the subject of developing players through our youth system (which my comment was based upon) from the local player base, that primarily has to be measured against the number of kids playing the game in the town. I have no interest in football and no knowledge of junior football clubs in the area, but I'd say there were probably at least twice as many football clubs as RL clubs.

These are not the the acid tests of whether we're a football or ruby town. It's far easier to make it as a professional RL player than a professional fooball player based purely on the numbers of kids competing for professional contracts - plus the football and RL youth->pro routes are completely different. Also, rating the "strength" of a club is entirely subjective, especially rating the strength between two completely different sports. In each case you're comparing apples with oranges.

Neither of these are a reasonable measure of the statement "we are a football/rugby town" - and considering the original statement was relating to the number of kids we have playing the sport in the town - by simply counting the number of junior clubs playing league fooball/rugby, we get an idea of the number of kids playing the sports - and ultimately the interest:

Football - Appleton AFC, Birchwood JFC, Bruche Athletic, Cromwell Athletic, Crosfields JFC, Culcheth JFC, Eagle JFC, Eagle Sports F.C., Lymm Piranhas, Matthiola, Monk JFC, Orford, Rylands FC, Sandymoor JFC, Sankey Strikers, Warrington Town FC, Whittle Hall, Winwick Athletic, Woolston Rovers

RL - Woolston, Crossfields, Latchford, Rylands, Culcheth, Bank Quay, Burtonwood, Lymm RL

(Happy to be called out on any of the above - I just did a cursory search online for junior football teams and junior RL teams)