The Academy : Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:21 pm  

If the Club had been run with anywhere near the efficiency of the Academy, this situation would never have gone down. John Bastian, Robin Sharpe, Matt Diskin, Chev Walker, Lee Beatie all did a remarkable job, I know first hand having two of my sons in the team last season and one this. John had a superb way about him and the squad responded, and on their day last season were a match for anyone, and had a few disgraceful refereeing performances not gone on against so called top clubs they would have finished second.
These lads will now go onto other clubs, but they will at least go with a level of professionalism, fitness, skill, and charachter they all learned at the Bulls. I know my oldest son was at Castleford and Featherstone, and last season at the Bulls, and he loved every single second of it, from the banter, the coaching the leadership, the facilities, and from John Bastian himself. A huge massive thankyou to all the above named blokes, fantastic to a man.
The people who have contributed to this decline hang your heads in shame.

Re: The Academy : Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:45 pm  

This is what hurts the most out of all of this. All of that hard work and effort, and now its other clubs who will see all of the benefit.

Re: The Academy : Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:53 pm  

Ten years from now we'll see the England squad and count the ex-Bulls in it. Just like we do now, ten years on from doing anything.

Re: The Academy : Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:01 pm  

vbfg wrote:

Ten years from now we'll see the England squad and count the ex-Bulls in it. Just like we do now, ten years on from doing anything.

Too right, some fantastic young talent

Re: The Academy : Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:01 pm  

Agreed this is absolutely shocking. We have a fantastic Academy system, let's hope this can be salvaged in this horrible mess. These young men don't deserve to have their dreams taken away, us old gits get used to disappointment but kids don't deserve this

Re: The Academy : Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:54 pm  

roger daly wrote:

Agreed this is absolutely shocking. We have a fantastic Academy system, let's hope this can be salvaged in this horrible mess. These young men don't deserve to have their dreams taken away, us old gits get used to disappointment but kids don't deserve this

I think the majority of the Bulls lads will get signed at other clubs, still a bitter pill to swallow

Re: The Academy : Wed Jan 04, 2017 12:52 am  

roger daly wrote:

Agreed this is absolutely shocking. We have a fantastic Academy system, let's hope this can be salvaged in this horrible mess. These young men don't deserve to have their dreams taken away, us old gits get used to disappointment but kids don't deserve this

Trouble is it costs about a quarter of a million quid a year to run a decent academy set up, thats why many clubs have ditched theres. I can't see how it can be maintained in its current guise given the financial restraints you'll have.

Re: The Academy : Wed Jan 04, 2017 8:25 am  

cyclone65 wrote:

I think the majority of the Bulls lads will get signed at other clubs, still a bitter pill to swallow

Quite a few of them already have from what I'm told. Even if the academy was salavaged, a lot of the better talent has already moved on (and you can't blame them for doing so).

[Bullseye]

Re: The Academy : Wed Jan 04, 2017 8:28 am  

Been here before in 2014/15 when we lost the previous raft of promising youngsters.

I'd hope that any new club would set up a new academy. Other clubs in the Championship and even League 1 have done it - London and Newcastle for instance.

Re: The Academy : Wed Jan 04, 2017 9:31 am  

Agreed. It's gut wrenching with all that hard work. Sad thing is, i think a lot of these would have made a successful RL career with us as we're one of the best clubs at developing young talent. Very few other clubs are as good.

Wigan & Saints although both tend to focus in their area. Leeds but in fairness they've struggled to bring anyone of note in the least few years. Castleford are quite decent but that's about it. Maybe Warrington.

We had some of the best juniors i think we've ever had and to see that taken away again, it will take a lot of effort to get ourselves up off the floor and start again.

But hey, according to some individuals, we've got away scott free.