England Academy vs Australia

Quote: Mild Rover "I was checking back on Rovers consistent failure to get to ever get any players in the England academy squads (never mind teams) over the years. I'd rather lost track. Somewhat deliberately. It wasn't the most thorough search, but I got back to an announcement from 5 years ago for the 2010 season and one-time great Rovers hope Kristian Bell.

Anyway, Hull had Jack Briscoe, Reece Lyne and Ben Crooks in that initial squad of 29. Since then I only noticed Cunningham and Bobby Tyson-Wilson.
It's interesting to see how some have really flourished from that 2010 team - George Burgess and Tommy Makinson for example. There's a fair few who are still seen as promising - Sam Powelll, Matty Russell and Brad Singleton. There's a good proportion playing in the lower leagues (Ryan King at Rochdale, Cain Southernwood at Whitehaven, to name a couple) or on the outer fringes of SL squads (Fullback Jack Murphy was still number 39 at Wigan last year), and a fair few seemingly out the game altogether, like Bell.'"

The Relative Age Effect and how players mature into adulthood have a major bearing on this. You will find the majority who make the rep teams and Academy teams are quartile one but this doesnt always make them the SL stars of the future. i think the studies prove that the quartile 4 players are the ones who have more success at elite level.

Hull is a major hotbed of talent and we do produce many champion teams accross the age groups, the recent BARLA Yorkshire Cup proved this with a Hull finalist at every age group from U14 to U18 with 2 of them winning the trophies (2 finals stillto be played) on top of outstanding success in the National Cups this year with 3 teams all winning one at Youth level plus West Hull in the Conference.

The problem we have is FC and Rovers have to scrap over the same pool of talent and at this moment in time FC do seem to win the battle and secure the young players they want. Rovers then have to work with whats left but seem to produce good sides who have a point to prove. Having seen both clubs at work and how they go about things i will say they are improving in many ways and thye have some very good staff and coaches at each club, will be interesting to see how things change even more over the next couple of years with them working down the ETP pathways that the RFL have developed.