Lineham played for York but did at least one full season in our academy. We used to go and watch him quite a lot. There's no credentials to question there. If I pointed out that Westerman or Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook counted because they played for our academy - that would be questionable. Although I'm quite sure they're only decent players because of that fact!

Didn't Watts play for either our or your academy too?

And as an aside, I thought Turgut was starting to look a real player just before Salford got rid. Which makes what's happened an even bigger tragedy.

Yeah, I think quibbling about the definition for defunct rule is a bit daft. I’m interested in the comparison because this has been one of several problems for us in putting together competitive squads. Whether Will Oakes having been with Wakefield until he was 16 means he isn’t one of our own is much less interesting to me than whether he can become a top-10 winger in SL over the next couple of years, for example.

For some it’s a competition in of itself though, and you do get different views on who counts, and they’re often partisan. Liam Watts played one game as 16-year old for Cas against amateur opposition and so was discounted as a Rovers product by some despite fully meeting the official criteria. Westerman’s time in Hull’s youth ranks was occasionally flagged by hull fans, but usually only Rovers fans mention Abdull was with us before switching to Hull.

In case anyone is wondering....



If you want to know the definition of Under 21's then look it up!

Ahhh, I had forgotten it was carried over or was adopted as part of the salary cap rules, having been dropped from the quota rules. Those rules are so opaque that I can’t really be bothered with them. Also the dispensations are not generally relevant to Rovers!

What I mean is that the details of how we bring players in don’t matter all that much to me, other than how well it works. If bringing in (cherry picking) players like Kristian Bell, Liam Watts, Will Oakes or Will Dagger works, i’m happy with it. Same goes for doing better more locally. And if it doesn’t work, why not? The RFL’s Byzantine system of incentives - it changes faster than clubs can adapt to it anyway. The suspicion being that is because it adapts to reward whatever situation certain clubs find themselves in - central contracts and all that.

Just a bit of fun mate, you know that, there is a post on the Rovers forum, that is comedy gold, the hatred of all things Hull is great, loads of post when we lose then nothing when we win, Connor needs to be sold, Hull getting all the decisions, Pearson leaving and saying we were full strength against Warrington and saying it should be an easy win in a mocking way (That backfired). I love reading some of the things on there, would love to post but I'd better banned straight away, as nothing can be challenged from a fan of another club.

Back on topic, agree with you, forwards we always seem to produce, but backs and particulary halfbacks just don't seem to kick on, I really thought one of Dean and HTW would make it.

Of course!





RBA makes a fair pointing about striving to match Wigan and Saints. However, I recall reading an announcement before the academy merger about the lads newly signed to the first year of Rovers’ scholarship. If memory my isn’t playing me false, the majority were from Skirlaugh or West Hull, with the odd one to two from Beverley or Myton etc. With Hull, i’d guess, also having signed players from Skirlaugh and WH, it did make me wonder how many those clubs had left in that age group, not on scholarship programmes. Also, do Saints and Wigan rely that heavily [ujust[/u on Blackbrook and St Pats and St Jude’s? Might have a look.

I think we're victims of our own success. In my opinion Abdul is a better halfback than Dec Patton or Richardson neither of which do I think would do half as good a job as Jordan has at London. In my experience, our best youth come through when the first team is awful. The likes of Horne and Cooke came through when we had no option but to play them. Enough game time and responsibility can transform a player but in recent years our first team has been too strong to allow that to happen. It's much less of a risk to blood a forward than it is a back, as an error from a forward usually has less consequences. Shaul, Hall, Lineham, Lynne, Crooks, and Briscoe are all high end performers in the top league and we produced them all. The emergence of Connor Wynn looks exciting if a bit tragic that he plays in a position we're already so strong in. Also I know he's a hooker, but I think there's very few other SL sides that would've give Litten so little game time.

A current 1 - 13 of current Super League players that have come through the Hull academy could compete with the equivalent of any other SL side in my opinion.

Looking at Saints current U-19s and Scholarships together, for players whose community club is listed (nearly all of them), those clubs are below with number of players in brackets.

Blackbrook (14)
Halton Hornets (7)
Thatto Heath (7)
Newton Storm (5)
Wigan St Jude’s (5)
Leigh East (3)
Orrell St James (3)
Chorley Panthers, Leigh Miners Rangers, Liverpool Lions, Walney Central (all 2)
Clock Face Miners, Folly Lane (both very cool names for clubs), Roose Pioneers, Shevington Sharks, Woolston Golds (all 1)

So although just three clubs provided nearly half of all the players listed, there are 16 clubs there, which i’d guess is more than Hull and Rovers draw on. Among the players who are in their first team squad and came through their system, you can add South Wales Scorpions, Bold Miners/Pilkington Recs, Barrow Island, Rochdale Mayfield and Oldham St Anne’s/Littleborough.

Yes but how many clubs are recruiting from those teams? Whereas ourselves and KR have almost exclusivity to our local amateur teams. The sad thing as a Saints fan is that for all their much lauded youth, it's almost impossible to find one of their players that is actually FROM St Helens itself in the first team.

I think what is perhaps interesting there is the proportion of those that make it who come from community clubs outside Hull and District. Briscoe from Fev Lions, Crooks from Cas Lock Lane, Lineham from teams in York. Watts and Oakes being examples of us trying similar, and you have Bienek from London and the Badham (sp?) twins from Wales. Obviously there are plenty of Hull lads are in there too, and bringing youngsters from elsewhere doesn’t always work - e.g. Kristian Bell for us. But as a proportion of the overall intake, these more hand-picked talents seem to offer a good return. I understand there’s a need to fill out the squads and it makes sense to do that locally. For all that Blackbrook produced Graham and Roby, I suspect part of the reason Saints have so many from there is convenience.

Looking at our debutants from 2012 to 2016, with the exception of Oakes, I think they were all local lads, which suggests we weren’t spreading the net all that wide. After Lineham and Crooks, it was has been similar story for Hull in terms of relying on local lads.

Looks that way, good news that for us, wouldn't want him anywhere near the club.

6 players from the Hull area have been selected for England under 16's. unfortunately 3 of them signed for Cas, what a disaster the COHA has been, lets hope it doesn't set us back too many years.