Chris Dean : Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:05 am
I know we had a thread about P Johnson last week, but, watching B&All, Chris seems to be getting on ok and carving our a good career for himself. Its nice to see.Saints now seem to be preducing an excess of youngsters of various quality that are still good enough for SL clubs. These two guys + Jacob Emmitt and Matty Smith, its sensible to predict that all three of Ashurst, Dixon and McGennis wont spend their full careers at Saints, plus we have half a glut of promising young backs who won't want to spend their careers as back up players and some will move on. Even Jamie Ellis is tipped for a return to Super League.
So saints are starting to do what wigan have done before us (and continue to do) by producing many youngsters that make the SL grade at another club. Leeds also have no problem producing players and clubs like Hudds, Cas and Bradford have also been giving a lot of oppotunities to young players it seems. London's progress in this area is well promoted by posters on the VT.
So, in another couple of years, especially with Widnes, who have an impressive youth system, also joining SL, will we be producing enough professional players to sustain 2 more SL teams like some people hope, or should we keep the number of clubs lower, with a veiw to keeping the average standard higher or reucing the no of imports to 2 per team?