Quote: jehull "Our 18/19/20 year olds were the best players in Hull, if not Yorkshire at Under 16's level and were promising players, now some people criticise them so don't get too carried away. As soon as the players hit 16+ we done seem to progress as much as other SL teams. Don't know if it's down to coaching, drink culture or what. Probably lack of investment at youth levels. AP has invested on youth and hopefully we will see the youngsters maintain and improve like Wigan, Warrington, Leeds etc because the talent is here in Hull.'"
I consider one of the factors to be lack of actual game time/experience, once they hit 17s the academy players in Hull can no longer play for their amateur club yet when you travel around Yorkshire all the other clubs allow their young 17s to play for their amateur clubs right up to the Christmas so they actually get 6 months extra game time. A bulk of the academy lads from Hull at 18s have played approx 12 games in a year I actually know a couple who have only managed 6 games in a year., kids are not going to progress with that amount of game time.