But again, why would Hull (or Rovers) take responsibility and spend money on the amateur and schools game development for the other club to take the rewards? There is this reluctance from either club to do this on a major scale because the other will get free benefits. If they work together on this, the joint academy will see the benefits and ultimately both clubs and the game of rugby league in Hull will improve.

There certainly should be some balance in the article.

I also remember the incident in the picture back in the day.

True but the real danger would be if they're nowhere near the turnstiles next season.

Comments just seen from the petition so hardly going to be pro ones

I'm very much against the idea, but the majority of those comments are pathetic. I couldn't care less if Rovers benefit from it as long as we do too. My problem is that I can't see any benefits for either team.

It will be the same coaches we already have working with a smaller pool of players. Kids will slip through the net, and the ones we do catch won't be any better. The draft won't work (if indeed that's how it happens, but I can't see an alternative). Fans will be alienated, as we have already seen. And all the while we won't have done anything to improve the real issue, which is the integration of these players to first team, which is where we have fallen down for as long as I can remember.

What annoys me the most is that Pearson came in and spent years telling us how brilliant he was and how much money he had spent on getting the academy up to scratch, and now that it is baring fruit and we have some youth teams to be proud of he's going to rip it up and start again just to save a few £.

The reason Leeds, Wigan, Saints juniors do so well isn't because they are much more talented that ours, or even that they get better coaching. It's that a) they get introduced slowly into winning teams that have coaches who know to go about doing it. And b) the culture and the standards set by the first team are carried on through every aspect of the club, so that when kids make their debuts they already know what's it's about because that's the way they've always done it anyway. How are we supposed to set a culture and replicate it right through the club when effectively 3 different clubs are involved?

I have supported this club for not far short of 20 years, and obviously a lot of you have followed them for many more. I have already been becoming disillusioned with it. Not because of the bad results, or Radford, or the refereeing, but because I'm struggling to indentify with it anymore. You go to places like Cas and it feels like a proper part of the community. You go to the KC these days and it's just sterile and soulless. This whole move just feels like another small part of the clubs soul has been ripped out.

Fair post.

Agree with every bit of that.

I fail to see any real positive from this move and can't see a way i'll be convinced otherwise. I want to believe in Pearson and have backed him from the off at FC, but here he's painful misguided. I think this 'venture' is bound to fail and will be abandoned as quickly as it has begun.

I listened to Hudgell's 'interview' keenly on Humberside at the weekend (which was just a PA exercise for Hull KR). Hudgell's final statement said it all for me. Something along the lines of 'please Rovers' fans, believe me when I say I wouldn't do anything that wasn't in the best interests of Hull Kingston Rovers, as that is my one and only concern'. I wouldn't expect him to say anything else, it's his club and passion BUT this attitude is what will break the agreement.

If it is to work the clubs needs set aside their singleminded attitudes and have a common goal, for unified success at junior level in Hull. Hudgell was only a few months ago smugly claiming 'Rovers will no longer sign FC players'....now he wants this linkup? After making a U-turn and backing the marquee player rule he the wants to jump into bed with FC's 'outstanding' academy, allowing more money for player signings. I don't trust him and can't believe Pearson does either.

West isn't East, Black isn't Red and FC will never be KR. The two clubs are defined by their differences and rivalries. Breaking these down to produce a system where we share players is going to be unworkable. The draft system (which is so ill-thought out) would be impossible to implement and i'm sure there will be underhand tricks being used to ensure one club gets the player they want. Surely having a weekly starting squad of 17 players, reduced from 34, is going to limit the progress of the players? It's easy to come on the Radio and say 'the new Academy will produce future GB internationals' but that's not guaranteed. FC's last big batch of top youngsters came in 1998....and that's because they were thrown into the team all at once. Get the players a decent coach and pathway to the first team and you'll see results.

I'd reluctantly accept FC sharing Bishop Burton with Rovers, and see benefits in sharing equipment, transport and resources etc, but this is too much. This 'plan' has left me feeling like FC's identity is being tarnished. In a few years the new academy will crumble to pieces and I'll gladly be one of the many fans ready to tell people 'i told you so'....

And if it works and produces England internationals, will you be one f the fans that says "I was wrong" or one of the fans that wishes it to fail just so you can "gladly" let everyone know "I told you so"?

Obviously a lot is to do with money, there isn't 40 players aged 17-19 that are good enough to play rugby at this level and will go onto to make SL players, of all the players that played on Saturday I'd bet only 5/6 wil make it. So you are paying 10 plus players plus taking coaching etc time who will never make it.

I'm still on the fench and will see what happens in the next year or so, I hope the clubs are true to their word and they spend big on a top youth coach, who is independent to both clubs.

Of course it will produce England internationals sooner or later, just as the current system has. That doesn't mean it's the best way to go.

Well it won't have produce many to match the current system.