NickyKiss wrote:
The weirdest comments I saw about HKR were from Barrie McDermott, who compared them on Saturday to that Leeds side going in to it's first Grand Final and how it lead to a sustained period of success. I don't think they could be any further apart. I really like what HKR are doing, the owners are showing ambition and making good decisions but currently it's quite short term planning that is going on. That Leeds side was packed full of lads who had come through their academy and who were at the very start of long careers with the club. HKR have one player who has come through the ranks and are signing players at the ages of 36/37 years old. It all looks geared to getting success 'now' and unless they can really accelerate bringing some juniors through, I don't see how it can be sustainable.
I agree, in fact the only reason Mikey Lewis is in a KR shirt, is because FC had first pick from the the joint academy one year, and we went for Connor Wynne instead of Lewis as Radford was big mates with Wynne's dad!
KR have even tried to sign some of the Hull academy lads this season - Callum Kemp and Ryan Westerman who made their debut in the last game of the season. Despite our shocking season, FC are closer to emulating Leeds - with us trying to build up our academy kids into first teamers, supplemented with some experience. Be interesting to see which approach brings a trophy first!