What is the current situation?

2017- Minimum requirements 6,500 average attendance. Debatable as 5,500 would suffice by the accountant. Either way no investment required as the average was met.

Some porkies being sold here. We are where we are because someone gave up investing,because they didn't need to.

I'm talking about our current situation , which is, to put it mildly, uncertain. We cannot surely afford an academy set up in the near future?

With respect Alan. Without knowing whats on the table at present, you can't make any call to the future of the club.

Edit: That also goes for the sport as a whole.

Interestingly new head honcho Elstone has stated that ALL Super League Clubs will have to run an Academy/A Team as a prerequisite to inclusion in SL, if Fax & CH1 Clubs can manage it then I am sure Leigh can ! Bradford run an Academy despite going into receivership & not having a pot to P in !

Yes we can run an academy , not a problem at all

But what do you want to achieve with this academy ? , that is the point

Also & to go with my above statement, Gary Hetherington the head honcho at one of the richest Clubs in RL has stated his dislike of the idea, I suppose he already has an Academy/A Team in Featherstone ! Says it will cost money *they have plenty* & take away from the community game !

Looks like their wont be a choice in future if Elstone gets his way, personally I agree.
All those currently taking their £1.8M *as we did* without having an Academy/A Team set up will now be forced to dip into that pot to run one !

Must be an answer. Acadamies/Reserves..Where are all these players coming from?

The question was what do you want it to achieve ?

World domination .... World peace !
*Halifax & Bradford along with others are starting to bare fruit* even if many are poached by SL Clubs especially top 4 to 6*

Examples?

An academy is all well and good but we’re going to second picks for Miners East St Pats Jude’s. Even Westhoughton. Wire and Wigan will continue getting the best players for their established academies. Even though good talent comes out we aren’t an attractive prospect. As a full time SL club we would have been. Not for years now.

Nick Rawsthorne.

But, the quality of player pushing for 1st team has improved, DR has been very limited, team spirit never been higher. Top 4 achieved, not cost a fortune.
It's a reasonable route forward as a club

What do we want to achieve?

Lots of advantages to reserve grade. If you want to give your 19s a chance versus men but not risk them in first team or fob them off to another club it’s ideal. It maintains a pathway for late developers. Not every kid is ready for first team at 19. Keeps the whole squad match fit. Allows you to give trials to players without risking them in the first team. Allows coaching staff to influence all the players and monitor performance equally – impossible if players are farmed out to other clubs. Gives continuity to players that don’t get it if they’re dual reg at one club, then loan at another and brought back for the odd game then left out. In short if you want to develop your 19s better having a reserves is beneficial. More so than dual reg IMO. It also doesn’t devalue other competitions and shut out players at lower tier clubs.

As for academies. We run ours because it makes financial sense. If you have 5 or 6 lads coming in from the academy they cost less in salary than a fully formed player. They tend to have more loyalty to their parent club too. They’ve been our better performers than many we’ve brought in from outside. Young players can add plenty of enthusiasm to a side sometimes when it’s in a lull. It’s better for the game as a whole if you’re developing youth players.

Bullseye , I commend your clubs continuing funding and running academy and reserve , but it is a continuance of your SL era , one where you were the biggest draw to the best juniors , that continuity makes a massive difference , we however would be again starting from scratch , IMO it would take 6/7 to 10 years before we would see a single player of quality , so going off mr Briers maths that's half a million quid before we see a tangible return

It isn't that simple