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?

Some good points raised in this thread and good discussion.

For me Peter Gentle seemed to be moving us in the right direction in regards the whole set up and philosophy of the club from Juniors through to Seniors. If I remember correctly it was all part of a 5 year plan which was unable to see out. Under Gentle we had even started loaning players out to gain greater experience than at academy level and rather than us bringing loans in or swapping and changing 1st team player positions we used players in our system in the relevant positions.

So we are now faced with a Coaching set up with little experience at this level. This for me is the killer for us and will only see us fall further behind the other clubs. What we needed and still need is a Head Coach who is experienced at developing young talent and is able to impart this knowledge onto the coaches within the club or bring in suitable persons in the current coaches are not up to the task. The Head Coach must also be experienced at 1st team level and take on the full responsibility of the 1st team. This I believe was met by PG's credentials and had we been patient and sacked off McRae who is the one who brokered all deals and financials then I believe we would have been very close to achieving the long term goal set out.

How we can be expected to move forward with a Coach who is very green at this level and no real experience at senior level who everyone including himself admits is learning as he goes along and this not be a detriment to the club at the same time is beyond me.

The problem with Aussie Coaches is that they do not usually stay in the British game long enough to see out such tasks but in PG he seemed very determined to see out the task.

I think the likes of Leeds, Wigan, Huddersfield, St's & Warrington are all benefiting from the structures put in place by the likes of Smith, Brown, Maquire, D. Anderson, McClennan. Wane, Anderson, McDermott are benefitting by the ground work already done and success being brought in plus they have served their apprenticeships and have the experience to carry on the development of their respective clubs and continue to move them forward.

I would even look at the possibility of sending Radford &/or Last over to Australia for a season long work experience to achieve the success we all strive for at Hull FC.

Radford may well prove at some point to be a good coach but he is currently far too inexperienced to under take the role at Hull and he should of been honest with himself and pride to one side and say its comes too soon and said NO.

I fully believe there are some good players who fall through the cracks for the reasons you state. What I struggle to buy into, however, is that this is the best area in the country for rugby league talent, it's well known across the country, yet all these scouts and coaches who know it aren't signing any of them up.

Even in the recent years of youth being stifled at Hull, we've seen us bring a batch of Fev lads (the Briscoes), someone from the Leeds area (Lineham), and Crooks from Cas through our academy. If the local talent pool is so good, why isn't this kind of thing reflected by some Hull kids coming through at Leeds/Cas/Wakey etc?

I'm not saying there aren't talented kids here, or that we shouldn't be doing better with them, I just think 'best in the country' is overdoing it and symptomatic of how much we hype up young kids and place too much pressure and expectation on them. It's possibly as harmful as the coaching. Tommy Lee and Craig Hall were internationals in waiting, Anthony Thackeray and Reece Lyne were going to take SL by storm, whilst Liam Kent was going to be a first team regular for years, the list goes on a long way.

We're definitely doing the right thing in aiming to get this aspect of the club right, I just think that with this as much as anything we need to address that same problem of managing expectation. Again, Pearson didn't really help with his bullishness about how 'special' the group of players at 16s level are/were, but it's not healthy for us fans to keep building things up to unrealistic levels as we don't then deal with it when we fail to reach them.

Definitely should have an A-team set up as you see lads develop at ages over 19 but have already been pushed out of full time environment, Cunningham has been lucky in a way as London have been desperate to take players from anywhere, so every one has benefited imo

Agreed. Look at the hype surrounding HTW. If he has anything other than a sensational debut there will be a lot of disappointment due to all the talk about him. Not fair on the lad.

How has he played this season for the 19's? Not really heard much about his progress

I was only going on what scouts have said from further afield, there is 2 brothers 1 at wire 1s at fax, they have said the same when they've been at our lads game, our 14s & wests are into their 1st season in the top yorkshire league & are running away with it, where as East Leeds dominated it till we joined, & them lads are at Leeds academy & Leeds scouts are well impressed with ours.

Excellent post Chris.

I like the suggestion you have on sending Radders and/or Last out to Oz for a year to get some experience out there. How is Mcnamara getting on out there?

Exactly. It's bordering on him needing to be the next Darren Lockyer (and instantly) to live up to his billing. He's 17 and there were calls for him to be in the team to try and solve our halfback situation by May.

I'm keen to see him in action and may have even been one of the ones calling for his inclusion. Not as a permanent player. I think I maybe suggested trying him out against London for a bit of a run out.

But being honest, would you expect them to tell you they're rhubarb? I'm not saying they are, but they're bound to be polite to you aren't they? And a few lads at one age group impressing a bit doesn't make our area the best hotbed of RL talent in the country. If it truly was and there were many top talents there to be developed, the law of averages says that we would be seeing Hull lads getting snapped up by other clubs and coming through their academies in greater numbers. They can't all just be being ruined or going to waste at the 2 Hull clubs.

Don't follow the u19s much so someone else can provide a better answer than me. Skimming through the reports on the official website it sounds like he creates a lot of tries for us and has a good kicking game.

We don't have either quality half backs or a good pack.
Add that to our excuse of a coach and that's why we are 3rd bottom o the league