At last another club making sense- We should be ahead of them regarding development of home grown-Just need a coach to bring it all together

Hull KR chairman Neil Hudgell says the days of his club chasing big-name signings from Australia are over.

Although, Hudgell expects "a couple" of new additions from the NRL next season, he insists there will be no repeat of the Willie Mason saga.

The Robins last year paraded the former Australian Test forward as one of the biggest signings in their history but Mason played only six matches before the club cut their losses and released him.

"We aren't in the market for big names," Hudgell told the Hull Daily Mail. "We can't afford them, given how the market is.

"They don't necessarily bring you what you expect and don't always deliver value for money.

"We tried hard to retain Shannon McDonnell for next season but we couldn't get anywhere near the terms he was offered elsewhere.

"We also expressed our interest in St Helens centre Michael Shenton but the numbers involved again were beyond what we were prepared to pay.

"We are now at a point in the development of our club where we need to flip strategy and look to build more from the bottom upwards.

"I think our fans recognise and understand that and would look to support the principles behind it.

"At the end of the day we are a community club and to have a core of local players at the heart of that is ideally where we would like to be."

Hull KR are currently attempting to tie down Hull-born England Knights duo Scott Taylor and Josh Hodgson long-term despite both players having another year on their contracts beyond this season.

I think you will find in statistics the amateur development of the game in the South and London is way ahead many famous rugby league areas of the North! there are some good players being developed & being signed by our club, then problem though is with the way they are then being brought on when they join the first team squad?

Yes it would be great if all clubs didn't any longer need players from outside of the UK, but is it ever going to be a reality, clubs do anything to prove they are not in the quota, we are doing as well as many clubs again in the North.

We just need to get our first team coaching right! the mentality needs to change, players are saying that is a problem, you need to have done it played at the top and had many years training as an assistant to be a first team coach and still many will not be good enough, we need to find the right person Now! and not just sit out the season and write it off, though I doubt we will.

By the way how many English coaches are there in Super League? wonder why Hull KR does not have one after all there many years of rugby league History! No for me Neil Hudgell like a few chairmen more likes rhetoric!

No for me Neil Hudgell like a few chairmen are skint

Are these young players you refer to the ones who played against the Catalans on Sunday or others in the pipeline? as many fans are not entirely convinced that most of those on the pitch on Sat have what it takes to become good SL standard players - let alone star players. Rob Thomas was touted as a future Prop for us and he has been shunted out to Skolars even though we have been in dire need of a good prop.

Both! I'm sorry if people think that both Sargenson & Dixon do not have some talent! I know it looks as if I am always talking about St Helens but their fans are complaining their youth are not really good enough and that their chairman has lead them on with a youth policy and weak international signings (that sounds familiar) and from Under 20's and Academy games I have seen we have some other talent coming through, not everyone in any team even if you have played the game since a youngster is going to be a Super Star players like Sam Tomkins are few and far between!

IF only we had the money to tempt Andy Farrell to join us on the coaching staff, now he has resigned from Saracens, but I presume he is lined up for an England RU job!

We've got England Int youth players coming through.

Just takes time

Thing is about St Helen's youths that I find funny then is that I've seen them come over here twice now and beat most of their NRL equivalents.

Aren't we meant to be shıt in England? Everyone tells us that. Remember the superior aussie coaches, conditioners, trainers, tactics, skills, players etc.

I think it would be very harsh to dismiss our young players before we've had the chance to see them work under a good coach - and hopefully it will happen in London rather than if they move up North!

give the youngsters a chance under a new coach,new leadership and then see how they get on. And even if the majority of this generation dont prove themselves as SL worthy then let's not forget that this is the first one through - there'll be plenty more to come (with the usual caveat of the club still existing/being in SL!)

Putting our youngsters out won't help, but then neither is putting them in this team with a losing mentality.
I hope the review is taking it's time so it has found the problem (shouldn't be hard) and is putting together a good solution to it. I haven't seen anything convincing on the pitch yet so they players aren't playing for their contracts.
I don't blame Gus, trying to Market this shower atm is a pointless exercise, anyone coming to watch us won't want to come back and see us play again even if they like rugby. Results will bring people in/ get newspaper inches/ Radio airtime etc, regardless of where we play, who plays for us, who coaches us people want a winning team. Rant over, good luck with the review.

Well said, Sogs. I also think its a waste of time trying to get a sponsor atm. We are not reaching our potential and we get the lowest airtime on Sky of all the SL teams.

Re the review, hope it's an independant review as surely, a review by anyone in the club will be useless. We need a fresh pair of eyes to see how things are.

Quite right Rooster, but what I observe is they are ahead against their peers, but then develop no further with many still looking like school boys in their 20's? and people praise Mike Rush for the great work he does with these youngsters, but before he was made temporary first team coach no one had ever heard of Mike in the town or around RL really, again similar to another coach!

Think the review is being done by DH, Gus Mackay and someone else of the board whose name I can't remember

If you are going to talk about RU please do it in an OT thread