Re: Player Development : Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:25 pm  

Legionited wrote:

Zero chance of Westerman leaving at the end of this season if you ask me. He's tied up and it would take a hell of a lot of money to change that.

Owen might have been looking likely to head off to pastures new if not for this injury, there's no chance any big club is going to risk taking him on after such a terrible and unfortunately it has to be said a career-threatening injury.

Shenton is the most likely to leave once his contract is up, but if we improve things on and off the field and give him a reason to stay then I think he will do so.

As for their development, Westerman and Shenton have already been involved in the England set-up in recent times and Richie Owen was looking likely to stake a claim until the unfortunate accident at Bradford. All 3 players have come on leaps and bounds under TM and nobody could argue that they aren't proven SL quality players.

I was listening to Radio Humberside last night on the way to the game and they were discussing that Westerman hasn't quite proven himself as the "second coming" that people were saying he would be. Some of the hype and expectation put on his shoulders was absolutely ridiculous. Talk about putting a youngster under pressure. That being said, the lad is only 20 years of age and he's got a hell of a lot more to learn and achieve in his career and hopefully that will be at Cas.

You seem to be getting a young player becoming physically and mentally more mature---which happens to a large extent as a matter of course, confused with a player improving. Shenton, Westy and Owen, fine players, fine athletes, have not improved under the first team set up. And as for the poor lad being only 20, look around you, open those eyes, because there are and always have been plenty of brilliant 20yr olds out there playing our game who have gone from strength to strength.


At present, our star home grown players, as good as they are, appear to be stood still in there development. See Cheshires post in how to improve the situation!!

Re: Player Development : Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:31 pm  

Tigerpie wrote:

Fine post Cheshire, absolutely spot on in every way!! Clearly you know a thing or two about sport!!!!!!!

We've heard so much over the past few years how the focus of our club must be to develop our own players.

IT SIMPLY ISN'T HAPPENING


As for not being able to manage an 18yr old, it is pathetic.

Agree,i am beginning to wonder why i am still in the Tigers lottery scheme...Developing talent for other teams to benefit

Re: Player Development : Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:37 pm  

As for liam watts leading joe astray, these 2 lads are cousins....not like they arnt gonna see one another out of rugby.

Re: Player Development : Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:14 pm  

Having a scholarship and academy structure is not having a youth system. It a start, but the talent ID and nurturing of it is a scientific process which needs investment. A set of tracksuits is not that!!

I'd love to see a RL club to employ a specialist in talent ID and youth performance specialists. This does not have to be a RL person, we have coaches for that. Someone to oversee the process.

Im not aware of anyone to take this type of view and this could be Castlefords niche that makes us stand out from the rest. That said, someone at the club has to have the knowledge, vision and focus to make such decisions. Thats the hard bit.

Re: Player Development : Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:57 pm  

Cheshire Tiger wrote:

Having a scholarship and academy structure is not having a youth system. It a start, but the talent ID and nurturing of it is a scientific process which needs investment. A set of tracksuits is not that!!

I'd love to see a RL club to employ a specialist in talent ID and youth performance specialists. This does not have to be a RL person, we have coaches for that. Someone to oversee the process.

Im not aware of anyone to take this type of view and this could be Castlefords niche that makes us stand out from the rest. That said, someone at the club has to have the knowledge, vision and focus to make such decisions. Thats the hard bit.

You clearly appear to have more than a good idea of whats needed Cheshire.
Why isnt anybody on the B.O.Ds thinking like you

Re: Player Development : Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:06 pm  

Tigerpie wrote:

Shenny was a damn fine centre when TM arrived and has been Mr Consistent since then. I do not believe he has developed at all under TM. He has matured as a player-got a bit older and wiser

Westy, well he arrived in the first team as a lad with a sack full of skill, these skills have gone backwards, because he aint getting chance to use them.

Owen, what has he gained from being stuck on the wing instead of fullback? Again, not benefiting the individual in his development.

So...........lets see, who exactly has the current set up developed again?

Sorry to be pendantic but didnt shenton play on the wing before tm arrived?

Re: Player Development : Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:24 pm  

pyeman wrote:

Sorry to be pendantic but didnt shenton play on the wing before tm arrived?

I think Shenton ended the 1st N.L season at centre when Dave Woods was the coach

Re: Player Development : Sat Mar 06, 2010 9:02 pm  

duke street 10 wrote:

A very good post cheshire

This area is an absolute gold mine for talent,but we miss out to alot of them due to the set up.

Its like a quiz,think of the G.B internationals that were born in the town but never played for Cas.

Gareth Ellis,Andy Goodway,Paul Anderson,Daryl powell,Paul Broadbent, Rob burrow(not sure about Gareth Raynor)

Any others?, do know there will be others

yes i think you could add another 20 or so to that list it just depends how far you want to go back i suppose.

Re: Player Development : Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:07 pm  

One of the major problems in development is that whilst clubs will happily spend 60k on an average overseas players, they only ever seem to allocate 25k maximum to development staff. Now elsewhere in the workplace, people with the necessary skills leave to chase the greater earning potential.

Now Im not saying thats me, but I worked in RL development at 2 clubs and my earning potential was fixed at that with low job security. Hence I left to teach with much much higher earning potential and much greater job security. I know of plenty of very high quality staff who no longer work at clubs because of this.

RL development jobs are often seen as the jobs you do first after university and thats what you get for the money. Its things like that that I mean when I say, invest in youth. Its a highly specialist job, so employ specialists and renumerate them accordingly. It will be a better investment than paying the Sean Rudder's of this world.

Re: Player Development : Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:50 pm  

[quote="Cheshire Tiger"]See we lost then?

We have one of the finest pool of young players in the world on our doorstep. Look how often Cas schools make finals. Surely only the Wigan / Leigh Servie Area can rival ours.

Now, the club is paying a bit of a price for cutbacks that had to be made when we were relegated. I know money is often tight, but if we ringfenced £100k of our playing budget and instead of paying an average overseas player to play and give him a house etc....., why not invest that on top of what we do currently with our juniors?

I know the club has a junior structure, but there is always more that can be done. At present we cannot be the biggest club in the game yet, BUT we can have a junior programme that rivals the best in the world.

If we staff it with high quality sports science and coaching staff and invest in the finest facilites we can that will pay off. Ajax is not amongst the biggest football clubs in the world, but its youth system is. That can be our model.


a fine post cheshire you clearly know the time of day and what is required to enhance a young players performance,the club could certainly do with a person like yourself involved in developing players.

you should send your ideas to the ceo and tim rumford the develpment officer for their views,they are always asking for ideas and often get them from the local junior clubs but unfortunately most get knocked back due to cost cutting although jack fulton has always been supportive financially to getting things up and running.

one of the many reasons that we have so many cas lads been developed by other super league clubs is because many of the parents and coach`s have lost faith with the cas system and its many junior failures that they have quite simply let their kids go to other clubs that will develope them better.

has a father and coach of a junior side i would be very reluctant to advise a kid that cas is the best place for their development,my own son is regarded by many has one of the best players of his generation and there is nothing id like more than seeing him sign for the tigers but at this moment in time there is no way i would trust the current regime to get the very best out of him.