I've seen Hull fans counting Tom Briscoe and Whiting.

And Watts did qualify under the (now scrapped) rules. Iirc he played very few first team games in 2008, then went out on loan to Gateshead in 2009 before having his breakthrough in 2010. I suspect he'll have played for the 19s or 20s or whatever a few times in 2008. He was a good couple of years younger when he joined than Hodgson was when he did.

Not that it matters much to me. It's what a team does rather than how it is put together that matters. I genuinely don't attribute a big chunk of Rovers current struggles to the shortcomings in our scouting, recruitment and development of young players - though shortcomings there have certainly been.

I agree with you about Watts and Hodgson, I wrote a lengthy piece earlier that new tablet helpfully translated into Chinese and then deleted.

Hodgson was featured in a Guardian Australia article about two months ago (which linking to sent my post wrong) where I think it shows his development at Hull was more important than his progression at Hull.

Lovegrove is a strange case, I've never been quite sure how we came to sign a complete unknown nineteen year old other than he shared Riolo as a manager with, erm, well, he just did didn't he...

The thing is though, my goosey friend, that Hodgson is nearly a year older than Watts and joined us two years later. I think that three year differential, between joining at 17 and joining at 20 is important - or certainly the rules made a distinction.

I just don't see what the justification for excluding Watts would be. If it is age or being on another club's register, then can Hull claim Jordan Abdul?

Watts did play one game for Castleford's first team, I think - but against amateur opposition.

Doesn't matter now anyway, not sure it ever did tbh, apart for my innate fondness for pedantry.

Briscoe surley was, he never played for any other professional club and I'm sure he was at Hull through the scholarship since he was 14/15, Whiting certainly didn't come through our youth system.

Anyway as you say it doesn't matter, it started as a petty arguement and I was bored.

Biggest failings is signing the wrong type of players, too much cap on individual players, injury prone players and I really do think a reserve team would have helped and as I have mentioned before I joint one with Hull would have made more sense than a joint academy.

Quote: Dave K. "Briscoe surley was, he never played for any other professional club and I'm sure he was at Hull through the scholarship since he was 14/15, Whiting certainly didn't come through our youth system. Anyway as you say it doesn't matter, it started as a petty arguement and I was bored. Biggest failings is signing the wrong type of players, too much cap on individual players, injury prone players and I really do think a reserve team would have helped and as I have mentioned before I joint one with Hull would have made more sense than a joint academy.'" Hull signed Briscoe at 17 for the 2008 season, same as us with Watts. According to this anyway: news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 215186.stm Our failing, IMO, is a bit of a loss of direction and bit of belt tightening since around 2012. Plus sometimes that's just sport.

Quote: Dave K. "Briscoe surley was, he never played for any other professional club and I'm sure he was at Hull through the scholarship since he was 14/15, Whiting certainly didn't come through our youth system. Anyway as you say it doesn't matter, it started as a petty arguement and I was bored. Biggest failings is signing the wrong type of players, too much cap on individual players, injury prone players and I really do think a reserve team would have helped and as I have mentioned before I joint one with Hull would have made more sense than a joint academy.'" Hull signed Briscoe at 17 for the 2008 season, same as us with Watts. According to this anyway: news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 215186.stm Our failing, IMO, is a bit of a loss of direction and bit of belt tightening since around 2012. Plus sometimes that's just sport.

You really are obsessed with Tilse aren't you?

There is indeed a massive difference in comparing seventeen year old players and twenty year old players.

I'm not bored, I'm just trying to be boring enough to kill this thread from all the incredibly dull posters whilst building up my hack job Chinese (other brands of computer equipment are available) tablet's vocabulary before I Frisbee into the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

Note to tourists, if you do wish to explore the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, I believe that passage from Lancashire to Yorkshire is only available on Tuesdays and perhaps Fridays. When coming to Yorkshire, I can whole heartedly recommend The Little Bridge wine bar in Slawit, where Tory will be your host. If you're into dogging, you'll need to take Slawit cars up to Scammonden, there are however Police cameras installed now-a-days and it's not as popular as once was.

indeed, it's not massively important where players come from.

But I still think I'm right - sources as diverse as Up the Cream and the Guardian's pre-2008 cup final profile imply that is the case too.

Basically, I vaguely recall in late 2007-ish, a poster from the West Riding saying that Hull and Rovers had each snaffled a promising teen from his area. Whenever Hull fans have sought to diminish Rovers (admittedly disappointing) record in this area by developing new definitions of a club product, Briscoe has been my go-to guy. I don't recall anybody saying he was at Hull at 15 before - usually the counter point is that he came from an amateur club, whereas Watts had been at Cas. Then I turn to Jordan Abdull. There probably is a way of defining club product that denies us Watts and allows you to 'keep' Briscoe and Abdull, but it'd be an unofficial, fairly lengthy and pretty transparent construct.

Licensing, eh? What a load of poop that turned out to be.

Can you really quote anything from the terrible up the cream

You may be right but it seems improbable that briscoe wasn't in some club's academy given he made his debut in pre season. fev lions to wembley in one season is some jump for a 17 year old

He was, he was at Hull, spoke to my mate who coached in the scholarship program and confirmed he was at Hull from 15, he was one of the top juniors so there is no way he wouldn't have been at a professional club.

As I stated by naming this thread. Yet more crap luck this season. Afraid that cpuld be his career over as well as his season.

I expect both our players to cop a ban as well even though Wigan got away with a dangerous throw against us the previous game.

If we manage it, surviving in SL might actually be the one redeeming factor after this torrid season.

Hudge tweeting that you will happy with the plans he has in place, wonder if he means signings, coach or both.

Massive recruitment for next year, a few seasons ago, Rovers were the best in the league at recruiting particularly from overseas, seems to have all gone downhill.

I'd like to hear the plan to stay in SL first