The few home-growns that are potentially SL standard will not ripen for a few seasons. It's great that the RFL have finally granted a license but the fruit cannot be harvested straightaway. We need these box-office signings for now, not only to maintain our status as an established top flight club but, thereby, to prevent promising colts from being lured elsewhere.

The Academy is crucial because it puts us in the mix.

Up to now homegrown talent have not had a choice to come to the club to start their development. They have had to chose other club's academies. Now with our own academy we can fight for that talent in the hope of retaining homegrown players.

I will add, of course, that there is absolutely no guarantee that a Leigh lad who is the next star in the making will chose our club over one of our close rivals. We all need to be realistic here but at least now they have a choice.

The existence of our own academy at last now puts us in with a good shout of retaining, at least for a while, that homegrown goldmine of young talent.

can anyone tell us say in last 20 years how many leigh born lads have gone on to play international rl at senior level

The following players who were born within 5 miles of Leigh Sports Village have played for the England International rugby league team in the last 25 years. I used 25 years so I could include Paul Rowley.
Oliver Gildart, Dom Manfredi, Andy Ackers, Tom Makinson, Ben Currie, Chris Hill, born Wigan (included because he progressed through Leigh's service area and youth ranks) Danny Tickle, Rob Parker, Paul Rowley and Steve Blakeley,
Mickey Higham was born in Billinge.

thanks.i count 5 who would llikely willingly identify themselves as leythers repeated would that be a good return on investment
been interesting debate over the years

With the facilities at LSV and the potential to compete for a future academy trained Marquee contract, Leigh Leopards will have the opportunity to attract academy recruits from further afield including some of the most outstanding talent.