Was talking to someone last night whos friends son plays for coha and didn't sound good at all. Seem to be focusing on the size over skill of a player and olso not playing them in their prepared position even though they have had representive honours through the age groups up to this point in that position

Time for a rethink.
Especially as we won't have the expense of running an under 23s next year. Don't have confidence in the people running it.

I doubt it's as simple as us removing ourselves from the joint academy and picking up central funding and playing games next year. Whether the RFL would sanction it is one thing, us affording our own coaching set up etc. another, finding enough players yet another, the contractual situation at bishop burton yet another.

pearson has made some good decisions and some poor ones in his time with us and this has to rank with some of his poorer ones IMO. From what I've been told, most of the best youngsters seem to be contracted to rovers and get the favourable treatment

RBA knows about these things for sure, I bet that's true!

I have never been a fan of this whole idea, but accepted Adams reasons for doing it. But I think our owner was a bit too trusting of our partners in this and more to the point who was put in charge of the academy. That amount of young players turning down a channel to eventually play for their local Clubs and the honour of their home city and instead opting to go to Castleford is diabolical. Its unheard of in Hull where the tradition of aspiring to play for the team you support whichever side of the City you come from is so strong! In the past aspiring youngsters have been kicking and screaming when they are not selected and certainly not instead actively pursuing a career away from either of the two Hull teams as fast as they can get one. It just reflects what parents of kids in the academy are telling me all the time and why am I not surprised when you look at who is in charge. I wondered why the academy was being bulled up of late but now this news breaks I can see why.

Danny Wilson is in charge of COHA.

Never liked the idea from the start, hopefully this kind of thing will send alarm bells ringing and Pearson will use some of the wemb money to go back to our own academy.

Was told there isn't enough talent for two academies, well there certainly isn't now with8 top young players going to Cas, all of these players will be Hull or Rovers fans, but the academy has no identity.

Agree about the Wembley money needing to be reinvested. Periods of success like we seem to be in now need to have a legacy to them. If we can sustain a top 4 place and very good cup runs for the next few years, we need to be looking back at this period as one that helped to set the club up for long term successes, including building an appeal for young players in the city to be Hull FC players of the future. Having a shared academy absolutely opposes this idea.

Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's.

Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced?

Quote Dave K.="Dave K."Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's. Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced?'" According to this www.rugby-league.com/article/326 ... nity_board Pearson said that "we've ring fenced our players for the next four years" - not sure what age-range that covered though.

Quote Dave K.="Dave K."Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's. Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced?'" According to this www.rugby-league.com/article/326 ... nity_board Pearson said that "we've ring fenced our players for the next four years" - not sure what age-range that covered though.

I can't say I'm surprised. Who wants to play for a joint academy if you support one of the clubs?

Just to put the record straight I wasn't referring to Danny Wilson who is a good and conscientious bloke with whom I have no problems at all he's just doing his job but for whatever reasons most folks I speak to seem to have serious concerns about the coach. Fact is that so many kids [upreferring[/u to go to Castleford is a massive issue for me!

Putting a coach in charge who had previously criticised Hull FC on social media was a dumb move.
AP is a sharp operator. I'd like to hear his view on his decision to run a merged academy now.