I fully understand that and you are of course correct, i just wanted to point out thats its not always black and white and the players failings are not always down the them alone.

I hope he kicks on and we can sign him on but thats out of my hands but thankfully due to you're insight on here we all have a clearer understanding.

Ta.

It strikes me that the current lack of juniors coming through the system is a case of reaping what we didn't sow; the previous regime, for whatever reason, mishandled the situation and as a result, the conveyor belt that the likes of Leeds and Wigan have is, in our case, broken down; hopefully the breakdown is temporary.

I'm not very close to the situation but over the past couple of seasons, I've been around the fringes a bit; what I've seen reassures me that there's been some fairly significant restructuring of the youth development programme and that it is now much more closely allied to the first team set-up; that can only be a good thing in terms of succession planning and having kids who are ready to step-up when required. I'm also close to a couple of youngsters who've been earmarked as having potential (one who is quite simply an astounding young athlete) and both sets of parents have been extremely impressed by their dealings with the club so far.

In summary, I think it's short-sighted and a bit churlish to say that if we don't sign Anakin, 1873 has failed and a mass cancellation of direct debits will follow; I do however agree with the poster who has suggested that an annual report from the club on how it's going, what the money is being used for and what the future plans are would be very welcome - that way, people don't have to rely on anecdotal information from here, or Vasty's 'hunches' in forming their opinions.

I'd also agree that the ST would be an ideal vehicle to get that information out of the club and into the public domain - an evening of celebration would be quite spiffy, with representatives of the youth coaching and development staff, some young players who've benefited from it and maybe even an exhibition match or open training session viewable from the balcony of the hospitality block.

No doubt about it at all, we can blame the previous coaches or the previous regime at the club but they have been let down.
I don't hold with cancelling from 1873 its hardly any fault of theirs but sadly i don't think we much coming through so the gap is huge from the like of Cowling/Anakin to the next bunch.

I totally agree - there will be a gap in service whilst the next generation of youngsters is recruited, developed and they start to feed through into the 1st team set-up; I'm reasonably certain that the funding from 1873 has been used to support some significant changes to the system that will enable that to happen, but it was never going to happen overnight - it will take 2 or 3 years before the benefits become apparent.

In the meantime, as I say, the club could do a better job of communicating this stuff to those of us who continue to pay into the scheme; I know what I know through a bit of luck and our involvement with a research project around junior players that involved the RFL & WTW, but it would be handy if all 1873 members had the same information.

Amen to that. Hopefully the appointment of the new scheme manger will improve thing all round.

Hold on this is the new regimes 3rd season at what point do they take some responsibility.

Come on you can't use that excuse forever - the new lot have had two full years to sort it out with Anakin and others and they seem much better at it to me not so far anyways.

Doesn't wash for me I'm afraid.

Cue the club groupies....

Sadly the state of the club prior to AG meant a reliance on cheap journeymen because they didn't have the cash or the vision to see the future and indeed cheaper long term option is to bring through your own.
It will be a long time until we start to reap the benefits of good quality well funded youth development, and equally a long time until we become the first choice in the area for juniors to chose after the years of neglect and the running down of the club name.
I do agree that at sometime the old has to be forgotten and the new has to shoulder it's responsibilities.
I think three years is a bit optimistic though.

Why do you have to make childish digs? You've got some intelligent things to say, no doubt, but you degrade your position when you resort to the playground stuff.

Back on topic - I don't know much, but I do know that RA inherited a youth set-up that was in disarray and was operating almost totally independently of the club; it takes several years to bring about the changes required to turn that ship around but from the evidence I've seen, the direction of travel is positive.

I'm also told that the current scholarship squad looks very promising and I know for certain that the one following that will contain at least 3 or 4 genuinely exciting prospects; I also know that the youth coaches have massively strengthened their links with community clubs, because I help to run one of them and we've been involved.

The rest is for the club to communicate - I'm not a cheerleader, despite volunteering on a weekly basis to join the Wildcat Dolls for a good hard (training) session.

As I understand it we also missed out on a complete scholarship team to fev a couple of years back when the players club coach supplied the club wrong contact details for the players as he was off to join the fev scholarship training team and he wanted them all.

It wouldn't surprise me; some of the things I've seen and heard about the skullduggery that goes in jr rugby as the kids approach scholarship age has been a real eye-opener, and I'm sure I've only just scratched the surface.

I think his main point was they only had 2 overseas players in the 17 for the Hull game..

Why do you assume it was a dig at you, it wasn't. It's called a bit of cut and thrust rather than the sterile one sided back slapping it sometimes becomes on here. Most people don't want a forum where people relentlessly abuse each other but there has to be some edge to it.

Think yourself lucky I have to put up with digs from posters who are frankly idiots but I don't complain as they tend to make me look good anyway - don't be so sensitive.