I was having a conversation on Sunday trying to work out whether or not the performances of the professionals has an impact on the performances of the junior amateur game in Warrington.

I have heard that the likes of Tony Smith has a concern of kids copying their favourite players but what are people's thought on this?

If the youngsters copy our players they will all be in rehab by the time they are 18

You actually believe everything you hear don't you.

I bet you believe 9/11 was committed by pixies working on behalf of the CIA

Has very little effect.

What is noticable is when Warrington are playing well and attracting fans then player number at amatuer clubs swell.

Listen pal, ive spoken to very reliable people who have seen it with their own eyes.

I know who/what I believe.

If you wanna believe the contary then so be it

When I was at Woolston years ago, we did go from one of the best junior sides in the region to bottom of the league after Warrington's poor 2002 season. Stuff like that is purely coincidental, which is why a school in Castleford is always in the Champions Schools final at Wembley.

I bump into many of my U11s at the HJ on matchday, our defences are similar (and we find many positives too)!



Depending on who their favourite player is you will see a rash of head guards, coloured gum shields or fore arm pads - and they'll copy their boots too.

The state of the junior and youth game in Warringotn is generally healthy and there is a lot of ability and talent. We do wonder sometimes what happens to them in the ages 16 -18 though which is a subject that I think John Bastian is now looking at.

At the age most of the junior players are, they are generally quite impressionable and many mannerisms they see players on the tele or live in person do will always be noticeable on training pitches as they see how they work for them. It wasn't uncommon a few years ago to see 12-14 year olds slowly counting four steps back, two across and crouching, almost squatting, slightly, with their fore fingers and thumbs almost touching in front of them in preperation to attempt a kick at goal. (That was often how I did it anyway, untill someone had a word in my ear and I reduced it to three back and shorterned the steps across.)
Nor is it uncommon to see a sharp upturn in numbers attracted when Warrington are playing well and getting positive results. There will always be a high number of kids who stop playing the game, for all number of reasons, but I've never yet heard of anyone stopping playing the game because Warrington aren't doing well; it does sort of dry up the number of new players who begin to take an interest at local clubs, though.