Marty Grrrrrrrrrr! wrote:
Well said Jimbo. Welcome back.
The squad balance isnt right is it? We all knew we are a prop, at least 1 prop, light and weve no depth in the halves. Those are 2 big issues. You can go a winger light but not 2 majorly important positions.
Weve a really good batch of 17/18 year olds but below that very little and above that nothing cos we decided to cut the older ones for financial reasons.
I was told yesterday that going forward the amateur deals will be scrapped to allow us to compete for junior talent but not just yet. Well that has to change immediately in my opinion.
We will come thru this im sure but its certainly worrying and hard to take right now because we all know this squad is better than this.
What sort of age group we talking when you say compete for junior talent Marty? Our 16's were a good group when we recruited them, we missed a few, but it was still a solid group, the issue with them, for me, is they havnt developed at the rate players at other clubs have, especially physically. I mentioned a few week ago about this groups development being of concern, 5 from Guisley Rangers who never play a game, when they do, they're terribly coached, Mark Nelson and Sonny Pattinson dont look any bigger now than they did 12 month ago.
The 15's, i honestly dont think the club could of recruited the area any better, we'v got all the best players in the Yorkshire league, probably Noah Broadbents the only one i would add, he chose Warrington. The key now for this group is development imo. We need to make sure, as best we can, that these lads are still the best players in Yorkshire in 2 year when Academy contracts are given out. Then they go again
What i would say, we dont tend to recruit outside of the Yorkshire youth league anymore, we dont get any from hull, Cumbria or Lancashire anymore, the Sinfield/Saddleworth connection excluded. Not sure if thats because we dont try anymore or because we dont offer the same appeal as we used to.
