We all do Keith , but realistically could we ever emulate it ?

Personally I don't believe we can

If we stay up then the academy starts..Pretty simple to me.So who's backing who?

I disagree.

It might be many eons away but, survive a couple of Q8's, get established & build from the core up (includes developing an academy in next 2 seasons) & the World *or rather the M62 corridor* is our oyster.

Wigan have decades of development behind them, however many of their 'academy products' have been Leigh lads &/or products of Leigh Amateur RL Clubs & schools.
Not even the most one eyed Wigan fan could deny that.

Wigan & Leeds however are the model to emulate, so should Leigh RLFC get established then a 10 year Academy plan should be a priority.

Oh & good luck Josh.

We can set up and run an academy till the cows come home , but we still won't be getting anywhere near our fair share of the quality that you need to produce significant numbers of SL standard players , imo

I'll bookmark that,to be read in 5 years time..

Why not? We have the facilities, what we need to offer is good coaching and a realistic pathway into first team rugby, even if it is as a stepping stone. Not going to happen overnight, but need to aim for it.

Didn't he have a job at Rangers before he was even announced as coming to Leigh? Fail to see the relevance. There has been talk of issues between professional and amateur clubs in Leigh working together for as long as I remember. As an outsider looking in, I can only assume that it's a two way street.

Looking at the playing register, I am more than confident we will.

I can not see a championship team replicating what we did and even if we found ourselves in the MPG, it would more than likely be at Leigh. It would be an enormous challenge for any of the current championship teams to prevail at LSV in such a huge huge game. I am so glad we avoided the MPG.

For a championship team to go 6/6 wins in the middle 8's with 4 SL teams is probably a once in every decade probability ( or longer)

That's not the point Harold , he wasn't referring to just this year

His point being fine we can set up an academy , but if after 2/3/4/5 years we return to the Championship ( be that via the 8s or another structure ) will we be able to retain and finance it , and also my point that as a 2 nd tier club ( or a SL club for that matter ) can we attract enough basic talent to bring through SL or even top Championship calibre players ?

That analogy can apply to anyone of 12 Super League teams.

The obvious answer Steve is , we try. Reading what you are writing almost suggests we don't bother and I am sure you are not inferring that.

That's the problem I find with young people these days, it is far easier to say it can not be done and not bother than to roll your sleeves up, knuckle down and try and achieve something in life.

[iIf you aim for the stars, than you may just at least reach the moon.
[/i

Can see Leigh looking to Golborne as the main partner in developing academy structures. East seem to have chosen the Swinton direction and Miners have gone to Wire. Lots of politics and history it seems, less committee resistance from Golborne maybe?

Thanks for calling me a youngster Harold you old git , look my opinion is something is only worth doing if it is done right and achieves results , setting up an academy to supply Championship1 players or for them to return to the amateur game is pointless , as previous posters have suggested for various reasons over the years the best local talent has gone elsewhere , now unless you can provide me with a cast iron way of us getting our fair share of that talent , then we have to question the value of running an academy , simple as

Ditto my above post , guarantee we can get our fair share of talent and fine , do it

Funnily enough when we moved to the LSV I suggested we should run a part time team , and a full time academy ( Fred Parkinson would back me up on this ) , my plan was that the players would train from the morning , take studies in the afternoon and even potentially work part time at businesses on the LSV site , giving them primarily a RL apprentaship , backed by academic tuition and potential to earn while they learned as well

IMO 5/6 years later we would have been in a position to then go full time completely , this to me could have attracted enough quality , but it would have required a long term investment , not something our club was or is in a position to do , it requires funding outside of the clubs operating budget

If that can be sourced then fine , let's do it

I don't think that is necessary - Rangers u16's have 11 players signed on scholarships for this coming season at Wigan, St Helens, Warrington and Salford. If there had been a scholarship programme at Leigh I know a good percentage of them would have opted to go there. The "arrangement" with Warrington does not give them any priority to pick our players for their scholarship - it may give them first glimpse of the potential but I'm sure of Leigh offered any coaching clinics they would have the same benefit.