Suprised, I thought a lot was expected from him (and Broughton for that matter). Good luck to them both.

Yeah this surprised me too, although don't we only have so much room for paying players outside of the first 25? Maybe Smith wants to move some of the other players into the first team for positions we are more short of, and we just don't have room to pay them all. Good luck to them, anyway, and hopefully they will get another chance at the Super League in a few years time.

Disappointing because he was meant to be the next big thing, and we could do with an up and coming full back to replace Hodgson soon.

I never saw him play, was he any good? I seem to remember we paid a transfer fee for him although this could be wrong.

As long as the youngsters don't play in a SL game, pay is not really an issue.
As soon as they play, their total pay must stay under a salary cap of 75k.

I think we will have 2 slots to fill in the first 25 next year, and I would imagine they would be filled by two of; Dwyer, Currie, Laithwaite.

I think you a right about the signing fee, but I have not seen anything official.

I saw him play a few games this year. He looks the part, good speed, backs up well and scores tries. I don't really know why he left, perhaps a personal choice as he came from Bradford I think ?

Didnt we sign him after missing out on Zak Hardaker?

Assuming it's those first two, we still have 7 more young players in the first team outside of the 25, even after Broughton and Hellewell have left. Hellewell is currently 4th choice full back at best, so extremely unlikely to get a game given that we want to be bringing more youth forwards to the fore (where does Broughton play?). I would guess that Laithwaite, Ben Evans and some of the other forwards like Glenn Riley or Danny Bridge will be getting game time next season if they aren't loaned/DRed out, not leaving much room in that £75k for anyone else.

No, you are right to point out that we have a lot of talent 'knocking at the door' and only 2/3 max will get a run after the first 25 is decided.

Brooke is a prop by the way.

That's exactly the kind of player we needed to be keeping and giving some game time!

Still, I guess these are the problems we face as a club with excellent youth development, we don't have the room to play them all.

Exactly the kind of player we need to keep and give game-time? When do they get this game-time exactly? We can't continue with a playing roster and youth development the size we have and expect them all to get a game, let alone make it into the first team, not if you want to win stuff along the way.

The sad fact is that if he was good enough he'd have broken through. Good luck to the lads as they find new clubs but it seems some fans want to have their cake, eat it, then roll around in the crumbs and get a wipe down from a maid.

Makes you wonder if he'd have been better off staying at Bradford.

The new academy system means that all under 20s players apart from those who fork part of our plans for the future will be let go. Well done Ben on signing for a great club on the up.

I would be surprised if we signed him so recently from Bradford and he wasn't good enough. I know we can't play them all - that's exactly what I said about half a dozen posts ago - but of the youth we have, it's the forwards and the props in particular we need to develop over the next few years. We have 4 young first team centres, at least 4 young first team second rows, and only 2 young props, so why are we putting the U20s centres and second row ahead of the props?

Hellewell's had a good couple of seasons to make an impression and clearly hasn't done enough to get into the 1st team, especially with other young FBs ahead of him in the pecking order now. As for who the club are developing, there's no doubt that they've been pushing that in recent years, alongside Saints the best in the business, but there's only so many lads the team can blood.

If it happens that there's great centres and SRs coming through ahead of front rowers, they're going to naturally get their chance ahead of them. Can't imagine anyone in the coaching staff at Wire from Smith through Marshall to Chambers would want to put a young prop in who isn't ready yet. Glen Riley will be the prop to step up to the plate from the youth system, as and when the opportunity arises. And in the meantime I wouldn't be surprised to see an already established SL prop with us by the end of next season.

After watching the u20s a few times this season i think the form of jordan burke has sealed the fate of ben helliwell, and i agree, i think glenn riley will
get his chance next year