I agree totally. You have to weigh up what kind of career your kid is heading for, before he really knows himself.
Tough choices.

Clearly the kid has a choice too. If he wants to play for Cas or Wakefield above all other clubs then of course he should do it. Enjoying your job is an important thing in life.

But with that example in mind, in my mind Billy Conway was a better player than Martin Dermott when they played under 19s. They each went to their home town clubs. Would Billy have played for England if he'd been able to go to Wigan? Who knows. I'm sure he enjoyed playing at Wakefield and was paid to do so but the money I assume would have been better at Wigan and more importantly he'd have been running out at Wembley and the possibly Sydney Cricket Ground.
It's impossible to say and many factors change your career trajectory after 19 but when you have a direct comparison like that it makes you wonder.

Of course you could also ask did Ellis learn the skills that took him to the top at Leeds or in Oz or actually at Wakefield. He clearly wasn't the finished article at Wakefield but he got a chance to learn his game at Wakefield and develop skills that he may not have had chance to do had he gone to Leeds as a young kid. He played multiple roles at Wakefield which widened his skill set and probably as you say, improved his character and made him a man.

Not the best example to use vasty Ellis was no standout player at academy level ,with due respect to Kevin he was certainly behind king as centres went so don't think it was ever on the cards for him to join the top clubs but as we know the rest is history

The whole loan system is outdated and needs to be altered. As it is, it just allows the so called bigger clubs to monopolise talent. If clubs like Cas and wakey stopped taking young lads on season long loans from other clubs then their parent club has to play them or lose them. It's a joke.

If it's right that we tried to get him but for reasons outside our control we couldn't have him, then fair enough I can live with that.
I will now blank him out and concentrate on the players we have got, who I have to say I am pretty pleased with.
He's not the first Wakefield lad to play elsewhere for whatever reason but the club is bigger than any of them so we move on positively with the players who are at the club!

Pop Tart,I know one player who chose Wakey over ,Wigan,Leeds and Cas and gone on to play Super league and represented England at two age groups.We try to keep our young kids then on here we say,don't blame em for choosing else where, talk about upside down

When I said he could play for wakefield if he wanted, I wasn't refering to his loan spell. The fact remains he signed for wigan and not wakefield, his choice. I am not critizing him, frankly I don't care who he plays for if he hasn't chose wakefield.I wish every youngster in our game goodluck, what between agents and parents they often don't know which way to turn for the best. And no I do not know what I would do in his position, however I did turn down a job offer that would have paid me substantially more, but then again I am far older and hopefully wiser.

It highlights a flaw in the system, when a young lad (or his Dad, or his jr coach) are lured by the bright lights of a bigger club, but then he can't get a game due to the surfeit of talent they already have and as a result, he doesn't develop. The loan rules simply prop up that flawed system - in that it allows clubs like Wigan to hoover up young players from wherever they please, then stockpile them; as far as I can see, that's bad for the clubs who develop them, bad for the player in question and bad for the game at large.

Agreed. Would RH have signed a new deal at Wigan if he thought he was going to be in and out of the squad for the next 12 months+ there? Better distribution of talent will make the league more competitive and I can't see any reason why the RFL don't do anything to curb what's happening.

I actually said something along the lines of this a while ago.

There are young academy players that gets snapped up by the like of Leeds and Wigan, who will never play for their clubs, and who in turn, have moved on elsewhere, and prospered.

Also, it is usually the bigger clubs that are always moaning regarding too many games, abandon easter programme etc.

At the end of the day, a squad has around 30 players, some of which dont get any game time. I feel, that as a duty of care to the players, and the development of them, that the team should play everybody at some point of the season.

What are you doing then if not criticising him as your top post seems to conflict with the bottom one, if as you say you are not really interested where he plays then why not keep your comments to yourself instead of laying the blame unfairly at his feet despite having the situation explained to you, oh and before you say it is all about opinions and I've just had mine

Here's a couple of telling statistics for you:
From their U15 intake last year Wigan took the least amount from their own area with only 22% (take note Phill Clarke)

Leeds were marginally better on 28%
Huddersfield were at 50%
Widnes and Warrington above them on 68% each
St Helens at 72%
Hull on top with 100%