roofaldo2 wrote:
On the subject of juniors, I'd say that although the under-19 table shows Widnes being ahead of Bradford, how many of their juniors make the step up to the first team either with the club or elsewhere?
If you look around both SL and Championship clubs, there's a large percentage who've got at least 1 player who was a Bradford junior in their first team.
Not to mention the fact that Bradford's current first team squad includes around 14 players who've come through the clubs junior system.
I don’t really want to look much outside Widnes and Bradford. If it’s a statement about who currently has the best juniors then I’d still say it was Widnes’. But I would wouldn’t I.
It’s not neccessarily about quantity either, more quality.
But these players that played Superleague rugby for Widnes last season all came through our junior setup.
Ollie Ashall
Owen Buckley
Kieran Brand
Ryan Ince
Joe Lyons
Danny Craven
Tom Gilmore
Ted Chapelhow
J Chapelhow
D Walker
Brad Walker
Matt Whitley
Dan Norman
Owen Farnworth
Not a bad effort really. Although we did get relegated, these young lads certainly did themselves proud, we just lacked a lot of quality right throughout the team in the right areas.
D Walker and Whitley are moving on but expect Ashall, Buckley and Brad Walker to make a real impact within the next few seasons. I’m sure Bradford have a very similar setup and scenario going on, but going off the 19s league position last year and players we’ve integrated into the first team I still believe Widnes have the best junior setup in the league.
All this aside, this won’t help us back into SL which is the goal for 2019. After Gelling, we seriously lack quality but hopefully 6-7 players will be announced with a coach in the next few weeeks.
