I often wonder why parents of young players with promise allow their children to become involved with an agent. Often boys as young as 15 / 16 are ` represnted ` by an agent and there seems to be not one ounce of loyalty shown by some young players towards our club. The players are used by the agents and one would think that a parent would not want this to happen. It seems to me, all be it looking in from the outside that some agents just want to scavenge our talent pool and move the boys on as quickly as possible. Young lads who have been watched by our scouts, invited to our scholarship, trained, looked after, educated, skills honed etc seem not to appreciate the opportunity given them. We all, I think have the impression that Phil Clarks brother never does us any favours and that Shuttleworth takes all his lads from Wakefield to his best friends at Huddersfield. Now I hear that Mick Robinson is joining in the act with young 15 year old Will Gledhill leaving us to join Huddrsfield under 16`s next season, why do we even bother looking after the Gledhills as there agent moves them on, they must be listening to their agent. It was just the same with the Griffins. I now understand that Jordan Grayson is looking elsewhere, another lad ` looked after`by Robbo I beleive. My question is why do parents allow this to happen, surely a young player would be better looked after by a parent rather than an oily agent, as I presume that a parent would want to ensure that some core values of loyalty, honesty, appreciation etc are passed on to and understood by their children as one thing is for sure is that agents don`t give a toss about these values.

Not all parents will know their way around a contract or the rugby/sporting world.
To get help with the management of their kid is a sensible idea in my opinion.
.........However, you have to choose the right one.

Same story for musicians with management. They appear to pimp you out but equally you won't get the gigs if you don't follow their lead.

Agents are there to make money for themselves. The best way to do that is to get the best deal with their "product". The problem is this might not be the best deal 'FOR' their product.

Players leaving Wakefield isn't an issue with the agents though. We hvae to offer something worth staying for. Primarily, as a parent of a future Olympian, Genious, Virtuoso......he's 5 by the way.....I would want to send him somewhere he will develop as both a sportsman and a person. If Wakefield isn't seen as that then we won't keep the elite players.

Parents have a resposibility to look after the well being of their child. But unfortunately, if you want them to make it in sport, or any other entertainment area, you need outside help.

Its simple, its fear of the unknown + a few scare stories + a promise of wealth = a job for an agent.
Most parents would feel overwhelmed at the thought of having to negotiate with a big club. the agent throws in a scare story or two and promises money they just wouldn't be able to get independently: et voi la!!!
On the flip side i know a lad who played a couple of seasons down at BV showed a bit of promise but was let go, directly because of his interfering dad, so maybe it can be a negative too.
In a perfect world players wouldn't need agents, but we all know it isn't for players or the clubs, only for agents who have made a career out of nothing.

It's a very poorly regulated area of the game IMO.

At Sandal Spartans one of our aims is to become registered Agents so that we can represent the players we put so much time, money, resources and emotion into developing.

At the very least their parents will have somewhere to turn to for advice when they come under pressure from pro clubs and predatory Agents.

Mick "Robbo" Robinson is not a registered agent.

Thought he works for Elite Star Management which is headed up by Richard Cramer. So he may not be registered as an agent but he works for an agent. Still think agent are a plague.

If it's any consolation Belly,my son his mum and myself had a meeting with RA,JE and coaches at the end of the 15 s scholorship season just gone as regards a contract with wakey at the end of next year,so when the letter from RFL came stating which clubs wanted my son for the 16 s Wigan and Leeds were with Wakey,it obviously made him sit up and myself very proud that two big clubs were also interested in his talents,but because we had spoken to RA previously my son ,fortunately ,choose to stay at Wakey where he is happy and made to feel wanted.As regards Will Gledhill,I know him and his family very well,and I know it was a hard decision for him to choose between Wakey or Hudds and a decision he made on his own and I wish him all the best in his new venture.

If it's any consolation Belly,my son his mum and myself had a meeting with RA,JE and coaches at the end of the 15 s scholorship season just gone as regards a contract with wakey at the end of next year,so when the letter from RFL came stating which clubs wanted my son for the 16 s Wigan and Leeds were with Wakey,it obviously made him sit up and myself very proud that two big clubs were also interested in his talents,but because we had spoken to RA previously my son ,fortunately ,choose to stay at Wakey where he is happy and made to feel wanted.As regards Will Gledhill,I know him and his family very well,and I know it was a hard decision for him to choose between Wakey or Hudds and a decision he made on his own and I wish him all the best in his new venture.

Great to hear that that Big Lads mate, I think you add strength to my argument : who needs agents . Also great to hear that RA is getting involved with the 15 / 16 age group. Personaly I hope it all goes wrong at Huddersfield. one day they might locate a young player from a Huddersfield side and develope him rather that Pete Riding just taking players from other clubs scholarship teams. The changes made to age group Rugby for next season should have included that players should not be able to move clubs untill they have completed the under 16 age group. I would also make it so clubs are compensated if a junior player ( up to under 19 ) moves to another club. If you look at the Gledhill situation, we put years into the eldest boy who Robbo then moved to Salford, Rumour has it that Robbo is trying to get the middle lad to a club in Aus, again we have put years into his development, and now Robbo moves Will to Huddersfield. All that time effort and money invested in young players and nothing to show for it. What incentive is there for clubs to keep trying to do the correct thing for these boys if they bugger off when Pete Riding comes sniffing round.

There isn't many rugby league clubs in Huddersfield thats why they poach other teams players. It's a football and union town, not a league town.

Actually if I am honest I hope every player who leaves our club ( unless they leave with our consent ) is unhappy at their new club and wish they had never left Trinity. I hope they lay awake at night weeping wishing they could be back at Trinity. I hope they play poorly and are discarded by the new club and come back to us with their tails between their legs begging to play for us. I understand that says more about me been a sad, bitter so and so than anything else. You see as a fan I expect players to want to play for Trinity. I know a Trinity fan who lets his lad play for Cas , how the hell does that work I ask you, the worlds gone mad.

Charlie what about St Josephs, Slaithwaite, Emley, Newsome, Moldgreen, Underbank, Lindley. Meltham to name just a few. Whats wrong with the wage nicker Riding encouraging some of the Union boys to have a go. ( We had four Qegs boys in our under 18`s last year and understand that two have contracts for next seasons under 19`s ) . Instead of Ken Davey throwing his money overpaying senior players why doesn`t he try and leave a legacy by investing in the local junior Rugby clubs. When you think of the millions he has wasted at Huddersfield you know that the club will just crumble when he goes to meet his maker. He could create a vibrant local amateur junior Rugby scene that could supply local players to their local pro club. What a legacy that would be.

It's funny but even though I would never support another team, no matter ho wlow things got at Wakefield

BUT if my son could play and was looking like he could be a professional at late teens, I'd quite happily send him to Wigan if they wanted him. Probably Leeds maybe St Helens. And I'd probably move house to make sure he could do it. (Like Tompkins parents did!)
I wouldn't send him to Cas though because I don't think he would be better off there than Wakefield but there are some clubs that would be better for him than others and as a parent rather than an agent you have to do the best for your son.
I don't know enough about Huddersfield to know but they seem to have a good rep. I can see why it wouldbe a hard choice.

I look forward to the day when we are that club.

id just like to throw this idea out there.... maybe some kids dont want to play for wakefield? Perhaps they play for us because they dont have another professional option? i know we all like to think that everyone wants to play for us, but consider that some of our youngsters grow up in leeds, supporting leeds. then when leeds say 'we want you', they go running off and rightly so.

We need to be realistic, clubs arent doing anything wrong here. With gledhill for example, all Hudds (and probably others) have done is declare their interest. Something im sure we have done with other players, as the regulations allow. People need to stop thinking with rose tinted specs so much and be less bitter when people choose other options than Wakefield.

Also, regarding the compensation issue, this already exists. If you sign a home grown, club developed player (think matty wildie for us) from a club who wishes to keep the fore mentioned player, then the club signing the player has to pay something like £100 for every week that they have been in the selling clubs' system, or looking at it another way £5K for every year.

This only happens if the original club wishes to keep the player. If they dont want the player and release them, then this is a different matter.