I think you mis-understood Muddy boots comment....correct me if i'm wrong but what he was saying was that they only look at 3 or 4 clubs as just because who they are, that they are the only ones producing players of a certain standard....what i think he was getting at is that if they looked at some of the other clubs around the area they would find there are many more players, but because of who they play for are overlooked....and he is right as i've experienced this situation several times over the last 15 years of coaching.

I've had lads who play for me and heard of lads at other clubs being told that if they didn't move clubs they would be overlooked....some have moved, but in 15 years I know of 1 that stands out and just could make it, as long as the baying pack keep off his back.

Correct Ian, there are players that are better than service area/scholarship/academy ones who do not get the chance or the credit due to them sticking with the clubs they have grown up at

How young do we identify talent? I'm a primary teacher and I could point out lads who are going to be serious sportsmen at nine or ten; we get inundated with City and Local FA scouts looking for the next footy star; FC don't do the same thing. 15 is too late to get hold of someone in my opinion.

perhaps the main amateur teams are more interested in outdoing each other??.it does seem there is a link between fc and west hull,but that's just one club!

I know a couple of players that where on Hull's books at 11, (first year of secondary).

As other have said, maybe Crooks and Harman leaving will imrprove the ammount of players who make it.

We should like Leeds, Wigan and Saints be getting one player a season to make it as a top SL player, in the last 10 years I can think of only Houghton and Briscoe who have come through our system to really make it, this isn't good enough.

Some very good talent comign through at under 16 and 15 level, lets see what they can do.

Apart from the players signed on look out for Lee Williams (SH) and Josh Bowden(prop) making big impacts in the next couple of years.

I did here a rumour that we have juts lost one of best players in the under 15's called Ryan Hampshire (from wakey area) to Wigan, tipped to be one of the best players in country, not sure how true it is.

I don't know how we compare to other clubs but Lee Richardson's point is a really good one in the context of SL as a whole. In Oz the feeder clubs are not loking to emmulate those in the NRL competition , they know that theirs is a distinctly separate competition. They look to achieve success in winning their leagues and cups but probably the most kudos comes from creating NRL players. I noticed that a feeder club has just switched allegiance from Brisbane to the Storm and have signed a "new 3 year deal". I don't know exactly how it works but it seems to make sense to me and means that there is a decent competition for young players to play in , time for them to develop after age 20 and a mutual benefit for both the feeder and recipient club. We have loose arrangements but as long as clubs have ambition to get into the next bracket whatever that may be they're bound to try to hang on to thier talent and perhaps bring in journeymen to bolster their position which if there are too many reduces the places for developing players. It would be easier to get the young kids on board if there was somehwhere for them to play even if they hadn't quite made it by age 20. Currently a lot of those discarded I think probably leave the game.

Yes I was going of on a tangent regards the previous poster comments!

The top 3 or 4 teams dominating player selection etc has been going on locally for donkeys years in fact I witnessed it first hand playing junior football over 20 years ago and know of it happening in junior rugby league now. Selectors encouraging players to leave a 'lesser' team is not new and probably not unique to our city either. I can imagine the frustration of coaches who are seeing their better players been poached after investing alot of time and effort into developing them.

My angle was more on how the 'big' clubs develop these players and what their goals are or the future. Is it solely to be the best amateur team in the city and win trophies or do they regard a player making it in Super League as the ultimate achievement?

Which may then be one of the biggest problems in young player development.

If the top clubs in Hull stock pile the best players then I assume most of their league games are non events?

Does winning most weeks by 50 plus points help develop the players? It will certainly help develop a young kids ego when he keeps scoring 5 or 6 tries a game against 'lesser' opposition but what happens when his team come up against a West Yorkshire side who have players of his same level who are able to defend well and ask questions in attack? I am sure some players rise to the challenge but maybe the lack of an intense week on week league competition breeds a soft underbelly with certain players?

Is it the same in the West Riding and Lancashire, do they have a small number of dominant teams or is the talent more equally spread therefore creating a more intense competition?

For open age it should be about winning - these are independent amateur clubs. If you want feeder clubs for young pros, you need semi-independent pro clubs. For younger players I agree, it should be about developing and having fun.
Rovers signed 9 players to '1st pro deals' earlier in the year - 2 from East Hull, but 3 from Holderness Vikings and 4 from West Yorkshire, so maybe things are changing.

Off on a bit of a tangent, I read an interview with Jodie Broughton and Ben Jones-Bishop, who were at Queens together when they were 14. Chucked out of their League for building a super team, apparently, they played in the East Riding League for a bit, which they described as 'a bit poor'. They had to move to the Lancashire league to get some competition. Not that surprising - W. Yorks and Lancs are much more populous. But when you see the best young players at Hull and Rovers are probably T. Briscoe and Watts respectively, then the value in looking beyond Hull (as well, not instead of!) is clear to see.

Rocky has left for Wigan.

who is taking over from crooks and harman??? hope it's someone a bit younger,along the Webster type of coach??someone to encourage them instead of hurling abuse at them might help(i saw and heard crooks do this a cpl of times at west hull when the academy played there last season).just thought the kids were a bit nervy of him at times.

Crooks and Harman

Damn, we got none left now then

Mel is still doing it until the New Year.

So how do we make the East Riding competition stronger?

Queens ARLFC have been chucked out of a number of competitions but that's the first time I've heard it was because they were too good.