Exactly that - whilst people praise Wigan for developing youth, let's not forget this is the same Wigan who were fined earlier this year for illegal approaches to academy players at other clubs.

Wakefield will always get raided - we always have - Shudds have done it again recently and when Wigan or Leeds come knocking, it's hard to hang on to a kid with stars in his eyes; it's such a regular occurrence now, that we must over-recruit to compensate for the ones who'll be lured away by the childcatchers from the bigger clubs.

True, not only that but to be fair when you look at our track record (of recent) of bringing academy lads through and then you look at Wigan, Leeds etc..

Where would you want to go if you had the choice?

I suppose Teams like Wigan and Leeds can afford to take risks when it comes to giving there young lads chances as there isn't really much risk there of relegation... I would also argue that the young lads (In the backs more so) are surrounded by great players, put young Tom Johnstone in the Wigan team and he would likely be up there with the top try scorers.

Yep, the top teams blood their young uns against the likes of us, but these are the teams we need to beat and cannot risk inexperience. We end up putting youngsters in against teams we are unlikely to beat, which can have a negative psychological and physical effect on the players.
There are very few positives for the youngsters when the team in general, which by definition is weaker, is getting bossed.

I here what you are saying but if the Hull scheme means they stop in the Hull area rather than disappearing elsewhere then half is better than nothing

We've had the choice and not only from Wigan,like I said earlier,loyalty is a massive thing in all sports.

Looking at our squad so far for next season I could put forward the names of a couple of shirt fillers who would not be missed and I am sure their wages would be more than enough to replace them with a couple of promising youngsters of the quality
we all want.

I don't think we're in a bad position regarding home grown players considering the state of the club for the last few years. We currently have Johnstone, Crowther, Jowitt, Annakin and Shulver in or around the first team squad. That's five academy products. Let's say we introduce 1 more next season and a couple more the season after that gives us a core of 8 home grown players brought through our own system within the next two years. With the exception of the Leeds side 15 years ago, clubs rarely bring through a batch of players at the same time. If we can keep doing for the next few years what we appearing to be doing now we could end up with the nucleus of side which we've developed ourselves. Keeping them is a different story.

He's a product of Wakefield, he was one of the most talented young players in the Wakefield catchment area but like many others each year he was snaffled away to a bigger club leaving Trinity to develop players who are 2nd, 3rd or even 4th in the draft.

It's OK praising the Wigan and Leeds youth system but they get the cream of the potential young players with whom the task of developing them is easier and less likely to fail hence they produce more.

I would argue that with the talent having being picked over by Leeds, Wigan and Warrington then for Wakefield to produce 1 SL player per year from what's left is far harder than Wigan producing 5!

Wigan signed 16 Year 10 (U15s) to their scholarship this year and only 4 are from the Wigan area, Leeds signed 19 and only 4 are from Leeds so you go figure out where the other 27 young players that joined these two clubs came from and that's just Wigan and Leeds, Warrington are just as bad for raiding other catchment areas.

Clueless as usual, Ryan went from Wakefield to Hull and then to Wigin. HTH

Don't believe you. Proof ?

Ryan was on a scholarship at Wakefield for 12 month, he then left us as a 14 year old and went to Hull FC on a two year scholarship, at the end of his final year at Hull he signed for Wigin. As you guessed his home town club was Normanton Knights where all the Hampshire lads played, and where you are confused is because he was on a scholarship when he signed for Wigin which mean't technically his club was Normanton and not Hull which is probably where you've read it. A little tip for you tigerpops do your homework properly if your gonna get involved in things you know sod all about, it's less embarrassing

That will do for me Chiss - I bow to your supreme knowledge. Why didn't you say that in the first place ? - it would have saved me a hour trawling through google. Got my answer in the end. RH never played for WTW (or Hull for that matter). Signed for Wigan Academy at 16.

And yet you still don't get it???

Wakey & Cas continue to lose the best players out of the district before we even get a chance with them.

I'm not suggesting Wigan have done anything wrong - but I am suggesting that the rules want reviewing if we are ever to achieve a level playing field - or even a Calder dominance, given all the players from the 3 clubs areas.

Because when I posted this morning I was sat opposite his dad having breakfast in a cafe in Bridlington

that is a shame, had all the attributes to be a rugby league star but not the confidence to follow in through in my mind bit like my lad, who would stand in front of a giant running at speed with aggression