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)

The great publicity machine that gives football so much oxygen ensures that football is the number one game in the country no matter what game your strongest local professional club plays. Every tv news bulletin has football involved somewhere & the FA looks after its game & its sponsors by giving maximum exposure & virtually every school in Britain teaches football as sport helped by grants from the FA.

I wouldn't question the number of people playing the game the point I wanted to make was not regarding numbers of participants, I just don't like the phrase "we are a Football Town"...maybe I dived in a bit to quick...!!

However we are clearly not a "Football Town", we have No professional football Club, We have no affinity with a professional club, our biggest football club is watched by a few hundred fans. I've seen Amateur Rugby games have bigger crowds.

the Towns amateur Rugby Teams are Well established, well run and well known. I played football before I played rugby and I could name you one open age Saturday league football team without going to google.

anyway don't more people participate in Fishing than any other sport? maybe we are a fishing town.

Yep, completely agree. I think the discussion went slightly off-piste with the football town vs rugby town point, which has detracted from what was actually a very good post from Alffi (I've just re-read it). Both sports are probably in a stronger position at jr level than they were a few years back, which is only a good thing.

As an aside - if we win the Bev Risman Trophy in the middle 8's, will that make it to your signature biscuit?

The Walker situation reminds me a little of Iestyn Harris. Wanted away from the club, probably had his head turned by money, press and agents, and has a ready made excuse to want out.

Leeds didn't look the gift horse in the mouth, and neither should we. Whether we like the way a move comes about or not, he is a talented boy and has potential to be one of the best in the country. Get him signed.

How many schools in Warrington play rugby league?