Really impressed with the work Michael Shenton's doing with the young players. It's like a breath of fresh air and i think his appointment and the work put into the academy/reserves should be commended and hopefully in 2 or 3 years we'll reap the benefit at 1st team level.

Fingers crossed we do

Cause our youngsters that have come through last 10 years have been bang average really

For a city our size and rugby a massive part of our city the standard of our youngsters coming through has been poor and is the reason why we have been average for alot of last 10 years

Saints wigan and Leeds have them off rolling off the belt

Yeah, I watch the academy alot and we always seem to match Leeds and Wigan, get plenty of academy players to play rep rugby, but they then don't make it, you have to wonder why?

Rovers last night playing Batley, apart from Lewis not one other player in the 17 to come though the academy and that's will a few out.

and even he didn’t come through theirs

PLT looked like a make a wish kid playing for them last night, just don’t get what anyone has ever seen in him

Careful now, those sort of questions might lead to people thinking there could be another approach and trying something different.

Just because Hull and Rovers have been trying to emulate Leeds/Wigan/Saints and it has been unsuccessful for 15 or so years, that is no reason to give up now. Leeds/Wigan/Saints say it is the only way and I’m pretty sure they only have the best interests of the wider game in mind. Exploring other options is clearly a waste of time and energy when we can just accept what we’re told stands to reason and carry on as we are.

Hull and Rovers might say they have been trying to emulate the sides mentioned but in reality they haven't, academy merger, can you imagine any of these clubs doing this. Not trusting in young players is also a big issue.

Impossible to challenge long term without a top academy in place, this has been proven time after time, teams might win the odd cup but won't have long term success without this in place in a salary capped sport, success means players want higher satires, so you have to balance the books now and again and bring thought academy players, just like Wigan and Saints do.

Great result .

18 year old six foot five second row played for Wigan today against Leeds and was outstanding
we play 21 year old Gardiner off the bench and he is like a fish out of water

Sarcasm aside, it isn’t the desirable outcome I’m questioning. But as you said yourself, you have to wonder why the systems are not as productive as we’d like. Answer that, and there’s the option to do something about it. The return on investment has not been good… maybe there’s a better way to achieve what we want.

Fans just need patience with academy players we have invested and Shenton and Riding driving us forward just need time for it to come to fruition

Watched us play and beat Wigan reserves last year, one thing the difference is size of the two sets of players was massive.