Just spoken to a mate of a mate who told me Warrington only offered him the chance to train once a week for his age, whereas Saints offered him training twice a week. Can't really argue with that. Still a scumbag

SENSATIONAL

That'll explain why Latchy isn't on the forum tonight then.

but panties is.

The whole scholarship/service area system is a farce, not just Warrington's. The fact you can only bring together your top [itwelve[/i players in the town from each age group on a weekly basis throughout the year challenges no one and doesn't develop an individual player's talent.

Service area would be worthwhile if it ran for more than the current six to eight weeks at the end of the BARLA season. Without prolonged exposure playing against the best in the country on a regular basis from a young age, we're not going to develop enough talent to improve the standards of Super League and become a competitive nation against Australia and New Zealand.

Nothing to do with it at all pal.I also coach Dougie and since the coach you have mentioned who is at Saints as not once tried to persuade him at all.
At training last night talking to is dad he just said "Saints attitude and training set up just blew him away."
With coachin Dougie for the last five years his style of rugby is that of saints play.Good strong running losse forward and also can kick goals from anywere on the field, he is a good lad and will go a long way at saints. BIG BIG LOSS FOR WARRINGTON.

Were not a successfull club. We arent going to keep all the players we want until we are the type of club where young lads aspire to play in order to be part of something successfull and not just because its their local side.

Unfortunately in order to be successfull we need these young players so theres almost a chicken and egg situation there.

If true about the club having an emergency meeting then Im glad this issue is being taking seriously.

We are still a long way behind the top sides in our academy set up but we are defintely making progress. We have a huge amount of catching up to do. Bastian and the rest of youth development at the club and around the town need time.

The point that jumped out at me in Boyd's post was "attitude." Its there in the Saints first team and obviously part of the culture of the club. That cant be developed over night.

On a sidenote, does anybody else not feel this is a little unfair on us as a club? I mean, we've invested time and money training these lads for years, we've improved them as players had them on scholarships, only for them to just shift clubs and that's the end of it?

I just think it's a little unfair that we're bringing these lads through, only for them to F us off and move to our rivals. We obviously can't force them into things, but do we gain any kind of compensation or anything for this?

It is disappointing when good prospects are signed by other clubs. But don't forget we've had Academy players leave us and go to other clubs, just as we have signed players from other clubs Academies.

Without mentioning any names, as that would be unfair, I spoke to a relative of a lad who left Warrington for AN Other Super League club a couple of years ago and he said that he chose said club as their first team coach actually met them, sat down in conference with them, outlining where the club aims to go, where they expect the player to go and how they will go about getting the player to develop and realise his potential.
Warrington, apparently, just wanted to talk terms of a deal.

Let's not forget, though, either, that some young lads do get disillusioned with the way Service Area and Scholarship squads have been ran in the past. A bit like the thread about talents and attitudes, a lot of players were signed from junior clubs based upon their performances at club level, especially those who were physically superior in size to other kids. How many have come through to a regular first team place, though?
There is either a problem with recruitment or the coaching they recieved, as they haven't been developed into first team players. Perhaps these young players don't want to be part of a scheme that they don't believe will develop them for whatever reason.

Spot on.

Aaaa

dougie who?
we are talking promise not the finished article,there have been plenty of young 16yr olds in the past who were going to be the next big thing,they flit usually under peer pressure from club to club and amount to nothing.
if you are good enough you are old enough, but the ones that prove to be are usually at their chosen club and stick with it through their formative years.

the thing is these boys should be free to play for whom they choose.and they should go to the best possible club to help their development.i know one of the boys who have been discussed and i know for a fact he did not leave the warrington scholarship without a lot of thought,he was nott influenced by anyone in any way and made his own decisions.maybe in the future IF he makes the grade he may play for his home town team.

It's fair enough that these lads have their choice of where to go. They are making choices about their education, in rugby terms, which is going to influence their careers, so they have to judge what place feels right for them.

Most SL academies have a good track record of bringing through SL standard players, but if you're talking about bringing through top standard British players then over the last ten years or so they have basically come through three SL academies: Leeds, Saints and Bradford. These are the big three in terms of junior development and any lad going there knows he's going to get the best grounding he can get.

There's also an element I think for a players long term career, that if he comes through the ranks at one of those clubs it will do his CV no harm in the long run. It's like when graduates looking for finance jobs get on the grad schemes of big firms like KPMG, Deloitte etc, even if they leave afterwards, their CV is always impressive because employers see them as having had their formal training in a top professional environment. Clubs will always see lads who have been through Saints academy as lads who have had a good education in the game and they will have something about them.

Like wires09 says, it doesn't mean that players who leave Warrington's books to join another clubs academy, are turning their backs on Warrington for life. I bet people weren't happy when Richie Mathers left Warrington for Leeds Academy in 1998 or whenever, cursing that we'd let a real talent slip through our fingers. That fact is completely irrelevant now although it's done us no harm that Mathers has had his education at Leeds.