Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 3:36 pm  

I can't see any benefits apart from cost cutting. viewtopic.php?f=28&t=533823&tsmp=1343748899 Your thoughts please.

I can't see any benefits apart from cost cutting. viewtopic.php?f=28&t=533823&tsmp=1343748899 Your thoughts please.

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:59 pm  

The partnering with the Championship clubs makes sense. It gives the players better access to competition for places in a senior side, something that academy players at the likes of Wigan probably lack currently. It stops SL clubs holding on to too many young players and means they are out in the shop window for everyone to see.

Merging the junior levels seems a strange move to me. At U15 and U16 level there will be a big discrepancy in sizes presumably and will no doubt mean players either get knocked about a bit by bigger players or don't play at all.

Something had to be done, junior development in Super League clearly isn't working as it stands now and pretty much all the clubs are headed on a one way street to financial doom or complete reliance on a sole benefactor.

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:38 pm  

Some of it is OK in principal, it was one of my ideas put forward on the VT to get our u/20 s into the championship clubs, so I can agree with that.
But they have tinkered too much at and below the u/18 levels, its looks too fragmented and cant see how this will help progression wise.

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:08 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

The partnering with the Championship clubs makes sense. It gives the players better access to competition for places in a senior side, something that academy players at the likes of Wigan probably lack currently. It stops SL clubs holding on to too many young players and means they are out in the shop window for everyone to see.

Merging the junior levels seems a strange move to me. At U15 and U16 level there will be a big discrepancy in sizes presumably and will no doubt mean players either get knocked about a bit by bigger players or don't play at all.

Something had to be done, junior development in Super League clearly isn't working as it stands now and pretty much all the clubs are headed on a one way street to financial doom or complete reliance on a sole benefactor.

I guess the fishing rod is broken.
Sam Powell who is in the squad for would take the tally of Wigan Academy products to play first team this year up to 21.

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:13 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

I guess the fishing rod is broken.
Sam Powell who is in the squad for would take the tally of Wigan Academy products to play first team this year up to 21.

I'm not fishing Rogues, if anything it was a compliment. Wigan will clearly produce more Under 19s than they can accommodate in the first team squad. I'm guessing 4 or 5 per year that would be Championship/Super League level.

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:15 pm  

Judder Man wrote:

Some of it is OK in principal, it was one of my ideas put forward on the VT to get our u/20 s into the championship clubs, so I can agree with that.
But they have tinkered too much at and below the u/18 levels, its looks too fragmented and cant see how this will help progression wise.

But you can't ship out 20 or so players to the Championship clubs. Where are their players going to play?
Will the Superleague Clubs form partnerships with more than one Championship Club.

How will the newly promoted U16's be expected to play against 19 year olds in the U19 comp.
Will that U19's comp be competitive with all teams playing each other or the joke that is the U18's for the last two years?

It looks like an ever diminishing pool of players to me, with cost cutting the priority.

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:20 pm  

Seems a big step up between under 16s to under 19's

I appreciate at present that we see some of the best under 16's sometimes being moved upto under 18's and also under 18's going into reserve competition.

However going forward we may be talking about 15 year olds being asked to play against 19 year olds.

I seem to recall back in the 1980's when i was a nipper, that something like that happened at Blackbrook when the Blackbrook Royals under 14's/15's played a match against a so called French school side, that actually put out 18/19 year olds.
The result was a bloodbath as the French "laid on" the Blackbrook kids. Parents of the blackbrook lads were naturally livid at seeing their sons take a hammering.

Such things can damage the reputation of a sport. If parents think RL isnt prepared to protect their children, and instead wants to throw them to the lions then many parents will just say no to letting their kids play RL. Promising kids themselves can also have their confidence literally smashed out of them by older and not necessarily as talented players.

What is also going to happen with the reserve competition. Is that going to stay, or will players be chucked on the scrap heap at 19 years old. Most players only really start to break into first teams at around 21 years of age. Hence if we bin off the reserves then we will pretty much be killing off any player development.

I like the idea of utilising championship clubs or even championship 1 teams as psuedo feeder teams for the SL clubs.
This would in many ways follow the australian model.
The best juniors who arent quite ready for the rigours of SL would be able to play at a higher level than reserves and thereby be able to polish their games off. It would also have the benefit of raising the quality and profile of the RL in the championship. Rather than ignoring the championship as most SL fans do now, we would instead see fans of Wigan, Warrington and St.Helens, keeping a close eye on reports coming out of Leigh, Swinton or Oldham to see who their new superstar player may be. Fans of Leigh, Swinton or Oldham would also get to see first hand the burgeoning talents of the new Jonny Lomax or Sam Tomkins.

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:01 pm  

Maybe we can limit the number of players in the U19's eg six 16 year olds, six 17 year olds and five 18 year olds.

It's still a big dilution of the playing pool though.

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:19 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

I guess the fishing rod is broken.

You'd know all about that wouldn't you!!

Re: Proposed academy changes next year. : Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:46 pm  

mistermoo wrote:

You'd know all about that wouldn't you!!

Another positive insightful input from you.