Complete waste of time comparing ourselves with each other.

How do we both compare with Wigan and Saints. That's who we both should be chasing and we are a million miles away. That's the reality of the situation despite Mrs B's little point scoring excercise.

I can see why those investing time and energy into Rovers youth over a number of years would choose to turn away at irritating comparative facts, but it's not a wasted exercise. In the context of a lot of chat that Rovers have had the better academy in their SL tenure before COHA, and the best talent from it, I’m just trying to look at the evidence of what each club has produced in terms of players and appearances and retention over the course of recent years as we probably go into another round of hinting that Rovers have come off best from the separation. People can say what they want, obviously. This is about track record of delivery over a decade or more.

What you see at Hull is interesting. The dominating black slice of the pie is not limited to a particular age of player – rather there are probably 4 rough categories within it – Stalwart (e.g. Houghton, Washbrook), Mid career (such Shaul, Bowden, Hadley), Breakthrough (like Matongo, Fash, Logan, Litten), and Newbie (Wynne, Buchanan etc – don’t worry you have credit for Rooks, Bardle to balance this, although the number of games both sides is in the roundings). This implies consistent commitment to a homegrown core. It’s also of note that Hull have produced players “for” Rovers (E.g. Hall, Lee) in the grey slice to a greater extent than the other way round (basically Taylor). Rovers home produced and retained is minimal, isn’t it? There will be some chat about mitigating circumstances of course, but this is my point. The “jam tomorrow” promises going unfulfilled followed by more jam tomorrow promises cycle is all well and good in this regard but the data here is the reality over an extended period.

Of course other questions can be asked. What about looking beyond this time period, ie further back? OK then, we’ll add back Kirk Yeaman and Richard Horne with 375 and 387 appearances respectively, maybe Paul Cooke, Paul King, Tom Briscoe, Lee Radford. What about players produced and going outside the city? Well, we can count a few I suppose – Abdull, Cunningham, Lyne, Briscoe spring to mind and I guess Josh Hodgson was our academy POTY. I think Watts was one of yours and Jon Wilkin obviously, Kris Welham. None of this changes the picture much. If you’re a young player and looking at the evidence, you’d have to say FC are the more credible model for production and retention of Hull talent. If you can demonstrate otherwise, then fine.

As for the comparisons with Wigan and Saints, I'd agree we fall short of them in this and other areas as they are bigger, richer clubs, but tbh I feel we have a decent homegrown core at Hull now and am satisfied it's a blend of experience, quality and potential. I'd feel less comfortable if I were a Rovers fan.

Your attempt to look at the evidence is an abomination. A fun abomination, but still. Also for any budding statisticians (or pedantic ****s), where Mrs B has written that the ‘the data here is the reality’, she means the ‘the data here are the reality’.

I agree though that Hull have a better recent track record, and that we need to look at why we struggled even compared with you (never mind Saints or Wigan) and at what should be done differently from now on. One thing though, there’s either not as much local talent nowadays as people like to think, or both clubs were doing a pretty mediocre job earlier in the decade (Rovers more so, admittedly). When you’re illustrating points about youth development with players who have retired, it’s not a great sign.

A homegrown core has value, I fully accept. However, it is overstated by people associated with successful clubs because it makes them feel warm and fuzzy, whereas believing that the success they enjoyed relied more heavily on simply having more money than the opposition would perhaps be too bleak for them.

In contrast we had five make their debuts, the most for us in the period I looked at, and got relegated.

Now, it could be coincidence - but it’s interesting imo.

Quote: Mild Rover "Your attempt to look at the evidence is an abomination. A fun abomination, but still. https://www.theguardian.com/news/databl ... l-singular And a little homegrown jam tomorrow on top. How very Rovers

Quote: Mild Rover "Your attempt to look at the evidence is an abomination. A fun abomination, but still. https://www.theguardian.com/news/databl ... l-singular And a little homegrown jam tomorrow on top. How very Rovers

On a related topic, Hull beat Wakefield reserves 48-16 away. Cameron Scott hat trick.