Fans say its a lack of a quality HB, which is our failing.

When our 19's get steam-rollered 38-0 with a quality HB of Tyson-Wilson in our side,
this is a major major worry - these kids are /will be the future of Hull FC.

We need quality coaches in our set-up ASAP AP.

One of the main problems we seem to have is that when we axe a coach we also axe whatever our current club philosophy is at the time. This latest philosophy is a good one that I think we need to stick to. That doesn't mean that we should necessarily stick with the coaching staff though. If they aren't good enough then we'll never achieve our aims no matter how much time they are given. Hopefully AP is keeping a good eye on all areas of the club and will make changes wherever he feels they are needed. It can't just be more unproven coaches/ex players though.

This is exactly what i have been asking for for ages - when a new coach comes in he brings his own staff with him or recruits who he desires. If you promote people from within the club with the wrong ideas or bad habits they will simply pass these on to the young players, believing they are coaching the right things. Its the same with the core skills, the older senior players won't think they need to develop these any more as they (often mistakenly) think they alreadyhave all the skills necessary to succeed. Thus if any of them become coaches they fail to pass on the crucial skills to their charges as they simply have not enough knowledge of what they should be teaching. The aussie coaches are exactly right when they critisise our lack of these skills. This is just another one of the reasons why we never get close to beating them in a meaningful international

you get what you pay for - most of the time unproven coaches are a cheap option and its a gamble. you have to pay good money for the best. always amazes me how we pay a lot for players but install coaching staff on the cheap (other clubs are just as guilty of this as well)

Quality HB's make the difference when the pack takes control.
A good pack with poor HB's doesn't have the same success.

Our U19s are 7th so at they are doing better than our first team. Take the quality half-backs away and they'd probably be 12th too.

If that's the case though, why aren't there Hull lads flooding through at other clubs?

There's no doubt we could/should be doing better at bringing players through, but 'best in the country' must be over-egging it somewhat. Top talent shines through, and if so many scouts were aware of it in this area we'd be seeing more playing in SL, whether for Hull or not.

And good half backs can't do much behind a poor pack.

Not many can afford to travel a few days/nights a week at the age of 14/16 as most parents don't push or back there own kids, if they are any good FC & kr already have them to play at 16s & 19s but then when they hit the first team level we have either over the hill Aussies or Aussies who can't get a game in their own back yard, last season we had 5 teams with youth structures in the top conference, but we have as SL clubs always gone for quick fix foreigners, there is supposed to be a rule now set by the RFL to not poach youth from other towns/ counties so grass roots shine through in all areas of the RL chosen playing towns/areas.

I think you're right. Can't really comment on KR but we have certainly seen evidence at FC that youngsters paths can sometimes be blocked when trying to break through into the first team. The club seems to have been trying to address this in more recent years but every now and again someone still finds their path blocked such as James Cunningham this year who we had to loan out due to having Houghton and Azza on the books.

This is true, & they want to be playing rugby it's what they've loved doing since the age of 5, so after the 19s it's either break into the 1st team or dual reg, or lower division or even amateur because some lads don't have the privilege of good home life so they have to find jobs also, or good support.

Thinking of the Cunningham situation has posed an interesting question for me regarding player development. In Cunningham we had a player that had reached as far as he could go in the academy but was deemed not ready to challenge Houghton and Azza for first team action (hence the loan). Is this good enough or should we be looking to push the academy development further so that when a player's time there is over that they are ready for the first team? Should the A-Team be brought back to help continue development maybe?