Re: The Academy : Sun Jan 08, 2017 1:50 pm  

vastman wrote:

That would be all the clubs you outbid with money you never had - face up to it the only people at fault are Bradford.

Wakefield CEO Michael Carter is on record as saying Bradford have out bid Wakefield for three Wakefield based players in the last three years. All in the certain knowledge they couldn't afford them.

Trust us we know. Sad fact is, the players we probably outbid Wakefield for probably only played about 10 games between them. We had a squad of about 43 with the coach only preferring to use 20. The other 23 probably played about 10 games between them.

The academy was pretty much paid for via lottery and bullbuilder. John Bastian and many others worked so hard to try and create a conveyor belt of young Bradford produced players that over time, would have hopefully brought us back to SL in the future years. Now we've lost that because we had managenent wasting money on players we didn't need want or the coach had any intention of playing.

Re: The Academy : Sun Jan 08, 2017 4:20 pm  

A lot to be said for having regional academies.
How about this - All teams have to pay a fixed fee towards the cost and the rest comes from central funding. That way all youngsters get equal resources. They are all paid a fixed fee which can increase through years 1,2 and 3 in the U19s. The junior team the youngster belongs to is designated a senior side and they get "first dibs" on those players. There could be a minimum fixed wage for their first professional contract which could have a maximum tenure of one or two years. Teams in SL have to pay the full wage amount, championship teams a proportion, champ 1 teams a lower proportion with the rest made up from central funding. Yes ok it might mean some players will have to play for keighley when their dream is to play for Bradford- but it would only be for a short time. If they are serious about being professional it shouldn't matter.
All junior players would then receive the same level of coaching and resources, all teams would get access to young players, this would improve the flow of junior talent and improve how the talent is distributed.

Re: The Academy : Sun Jan 08, 2017 4:37 pm  

jools wrote:

A lot to be said for having regional academies.
How about this - All teams have to pay a fixed fee towards the cost and the rest comes from central funding. That way all youngsters get equal resources. They are all paid a fixed fee which can increase through years 1,2 and 3 in the U19s. The junior team the youngster belongs to is designated a senior side and they get "first dibs" on those players. There could be a minimum fixed wage for their first professional contract which could have a maximum tenure of one or two years. Teams in SL have to pay the full wage amount, championship teams a proportion, champ 1 teams a lower proportion with the rest made up from central funding. Yes ok it might mean some players will have to play for keighley when their dream is to play for Bradford- but it would only be for a short time. If they are serious about being professional it shouldn't matter.
All junior players would then receive the same level of coaching and resources, all teams would get access to young players, this would improve the flow of junior talent and improve how the talent is distributed.

Not a bad idea Jools

Could I just change one thing in that though

"Some kids might have to play for Bradford when their dream is to play for Keighly"

Re: The Academy : Sun Jan 08, 2017 4:44 pm  

roger daly wrote:

Not a bad idea Jools

Could I just change one thing in that though

"Some kids might have to play for Bradford when their dream is to play for Keighly"

You beat me to it - I was just gonna say the same thing

Re: The Academy : Sun Jan 08, 2017 5:00 pm  

Smack him Jimmy wrote:

You beat me to it - I was just gonna say the same thing

Haha we'll share it pal

[Bulliac]

Re: The Academy : Sun Jan 08, 2017 5:18 pm  

jools wrote:

A lot to be said for having regional academies.
How about this - All teams have to pay a fixed fee towards the cost and the rest comes from central funding. That way all youngsters get equal resources. They are all paid a fixed fee which can increase through years 1,2 and 3 in the U19s. The junior team the youngster belongs to is designated a senior side and they get "first dibs" on those players. There could be a minimum fixed wage for their first professional contract which could have a maximum tenure of one or two years. Teams in SL have to pay the full wage amount, championship teams a proportion, champ 1 teams a lower proportion with the rest made up from central funding. Yes ok it might mean some players will have to play for keighley when their dream is to play for Bradford- but it would only be for a short time. If they are serious about being professional it shouldn't matter.
All junior players would then receive the same level of coaching and resources, all teams would get access to young players, this would improve the flow of junior talent and improve how the talent is distributed.

Does sound ever so slightly like the NFL college system, with each team having 'draft' picks as they graduate.

Not sure that would work in RL, mainly since 'football' in the US is such big sport which, however we dress it up, RL just isn't, and it does depend on young players not being bothered about where they play as there would no control over draft picks. It's not as relevant over there as all the teams in the US are on a similar level, sort of all SL clubs, you could say. The youngsters might not be totally happy where they finish up but, career wise, it doesn't make that much difference. A kid who fancies himself may not play ball when he finishes up as Hunslet's [or any third tier club's] first draft pick. Maybe your changes would make the difference

Re: The Academy : Sun Jan 08, 2017 7:25 pm  

vastman wrote:

That would be all the clubs you outbid with money you never had - face up to it the only people at fault are Bradford.

Wakefield CEO Michael Carter is on record as saying Bradford have out bid Wakefield for three Wakefield based players in the last three years. All in the certain knowledge they couldn't afford them.

That's the point of bull builder thought, rightly or wrongly they have made a play for the best talent about. Prime example is Hampshire at Wigan, as you lot will know

Re: The Academy : Tue Jan 10, 2017 9:51 pm  

Imagine if we had a draft like system that ensured junior talent was equally distributed?

Trying to think how it could work, any ideas?

Re: The Academy : Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:01 am  

Bulls4Champs wrote:

Imagine if we had a draft like system that ensured junior talent was equally distributed?

Trying to think how it could work, any ideas?

This was an idea certain members of the RFL tried to push quite heavily about 4 years ago. A friend of mine in sports science was involved as a consultant to carry out data collection for the RFL supposedly pre a trial of the system. Sadly some clubs were totally against the idea (guess which ones) and so the regional academies were set up-but the idea went no further. I don't know the details of any proposals but know it involved having regional academies and an American style draft system.

Re: The Academy : Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:31 am  

jools wrote:

This was an idea certain members of the RFL tried to push quite heavily about 4 years ago. A friend of mine in sports science was involved as a consultant to carry out data collection for the RFL supposedly pre a trial of the system. Sadly some clubs were totally against the idea (guess which ones) and so the regional academies were set up-but the idea went no further. I don't know the details of any proposals but know it involved having regional academies and an American style draft system.

I can sort of understand why, some clubs can afford, have spent more in time and capital and other resources to improve their talent pathway over the years and are now in positions to be reaping the benefit from that investment. Obviously they wont want to see their investments benefit another club, when perhaps they haven't done as much previously.

Some catchment areas are large and strong and probably develop a decent number of potentially professional standard players each year, but behind that is likely 5 years of investment to bring them to that standard. Is it fair that other clubs stand to benefit from that? I'd say no it is not.

Only way I see a draft style system working from regional centres is if it cash funded partially by the RFL and equally funded by SL clubs. Each club nominates a number of players each year to the system for age groupings. That then brings up the problem of larger or more successful systems and catchment areas potentially missing out on the numbers they wish to bring though.

Also FT clubs in the lower leagues, when do they get their picks. Bradford for example have a strong record of bringing youth players through, would a system such as the above hamper clubs like Bulls, KR, Leigh or any other in the lower echelons with bigger ambitions?