Short term thinking, also in this case we aren't just talking about academy kids, they have Corey Hall and PLT, neither played and the weekend and both could step into replace Hall.

You could argue the case against Hull for continuing to play Mcintosh, Lane and Dywer, instead of Barron, Staverley and Balmforth.

Yeah, you're probably right, last time I defend them

Long-term success is more typically built on continuing short-term success than patience and SL should not be backfilling as a development competition.



I accept a correlation between success and strong academy set-ups and even that it is a contributing factor. But those clubs have different circumstances. Hull and Rovers need to adapt as well as possible to their own circumstances rather than buying into the sanctimonious philosophies of our captors. Imo.

We have tried the other way, throwing big money at players, Sneyd, Westerman, Ellis etc, this worked short term and to be fair, I'd sure Rovers would take a challenge cup with in the next three or so years, but we have done that and as much I would love to to win the cup again, i want us to build the club ready for challenge long term and there is only one way to do that IMO.

Buying success is realistically only ever a short term solution. For that to work and become a long term solution you need to have to also integrate within that the building of foundations to bring the youth through, in some ways its a bit of Catch 22. Failure to do that will only ever see short term plans which are based purely on funds available which makes it a high risk strategy long term.



As you say we ourselves have seen that, as we failed to build on the 2016/2017 seasons and combined with ridiculous merging of the Academies and assistant coaches promoted beyond their abilities/experiences at the time have set us back significantly.



With TS he has the experience and knowledge and we are already seeing the benefits of that and with the combination of the investment by AP in to the junior development and pathways at the club.



As fans we have seen more positives and changes in the club moving forward in the last few months than we have done from 2018 to 2022.

Looks like the NRL is coming calling for Clifford. Would be a massive shame to lose him, but pleasure to see him play

I'd be really disappointed, I get he is a good player, but so are Lam and Croft and both Salford and Leigh have managed to keep those.

Where?

Not sure. Just seen a tweet by someone who normally has things right, given who he hangs around with

Will be hard to replace that’s for sure

Fair enough, I think optimal approaches can vary according to circumstances. Being able spend year after year is the key to sustained success, everything else is marginal (all of this, imo, of course). The problem wasn’t that Hull spent big but that they stopped and [urelied[/u on a generation of academy graduates. It could have worked but when it didn’t momentum was lost. If the money’s not there, it’s not there - you can only spend what you have. Similar to Rovers losing momentum after the first promotion to SL and some relatively good years under Morgan. There was nothing wrong with seeing Dave Peterson and Louis Sherriff (sp?) as heralding a new dawn… until it didn’t work. Surely, both Hull and Rovers have to wonder at some point why it keeps not working for them and whether something else might work better. Maybe next time will be different!







In all good faith, I have taken the opposite lesson from the SL era. The same few clubs with the biggest budgets the have dominated the competition with a dreary consistency.



Every club should try to prioritise effectively, but whatever they do they’ll struggle against teams who don’t need to prioritise as much.



For clubs that do need to prioritise the most, putting the academy at the top of the list and underlining it (again!), feels like a white hat bias to me now.



All that said, if Rovers are now the sort of club who can offer sizeable transfer fees and stretch the cap, then those relatively low return marginal gains could become just gains.

Hearing Griff has signed a contract extension, though not sure on the length. Come from a sponsor

Hope you are right about this and also wrong about Clifford, from Brooksy I think, who has a mixed record when it comes to rumours.



Near impossible to replace, I still fail to see where he goes, wonder who would take him, he would get in Newcastle team, better player than Gamble. Wests or Canberra look like they are losing 7's too.



Id be disappointed in Clifford if he leaves early.

Guessing it's Brooksy if it's the tweet I've just seen

Clifford is better than Jamal Fogarty , in my opinion, and way classier Gamble, who is really aggressive player but hasn't really got the skill set that JC possesses.. Luke Brooks would be sensational in SL, a bit in the Rob Burrows mould, but his contract, even though now on reduced terms, is way more than SL clubs can pay.

That would seriously derail our recruitment plans for 2024, I think Sam Walker may be looking around, given his demotion at the Roosters, so maybe he'll be the answer for other clubs, leaving Clifford to stay with us. In an ideal world we keep him and add some pace in the centres, Carlos does look like he has lost his yard of pace now, although he is still a good player he does get exposed by pace, he could maybe convert to 13, as he is skillful and offers something with his ball handling.

I think Carlos could be a really classy back rower. He has good hands, which are not utilised enough IMO

I don't think you could blame him really, if he has been open and honest with the club from the start. His Wife seems to be doing a lot of European travel without him and seeing the sights, that you would normally expect them to do together

I wonder if the interest in Watson, is for him to play in the halves rather than as our hooker. Also, Smith alluded to the fact that he thinks the signing of Hoy was with the intention of playing at 6 as we still had Connor at the time. Perhaps he sees Litten, Hoy, Trueman as the 1,6,7 with perhaps Watson as a 9.



Either way...once all of the rumours are either dismissed, ignored or confirmed, its going to be an interesting few months

Well we missed him against Saints, but I think we showed enough to be confident with whomever plays, they look like a team now, and that is down to coaching, so if JC does go, it'll be hard but we have to optimistic. Oh to have Richard Horne and Paul Cooke coming through again, we really struggle to produce top class half backs , apart from those two, I really cannot recall any home grown half backs, even in the 80's, we could always bring through great props , hookers and forwards, but never any halfbacks. I used to think Anthony Thackery (memory not all that so may be wrong name) was going to be a star, but his level was not SL standard, wonder if any of the reserves or under 19's will poke their noses though?

Not really he's good but he'll go back to nrl been a bit part player



He won't ever be Jason Smith level playing for aus and origin



Still think Kelly at his best better than Clifford 100%



Came across highlights of that st george game other week on youtube just reminds you how good he was

I know this sound daft, but having seem him this year, I'd hope we don't make a play for Josh Hodgson, someone mentioned him on Saturday- but from what I have seen at the Eels, age and his injuries have really caught up with him

I think someone said a few weeks back he is settled in Aus, and has no intention to come back.

I don't think anyone has ever said he's as good as Jason Smith, or Albert Kelly, but with an alarming dearth of talent in the pool, at the moment I'd doubt we can recruit anyone as good as, or better than, Jake Clifford.

He's definitely a top 4 standard number 7. Why he deems it necessary to bring up Kelly and Jason Smith I have no idea.



Welsby isn't as good as Kemble was, but I'm sure he would sign him!