Over the past 10 years or so, the club has had a reputation as having one of the best production lines in Superleague. Is this really the case?

Do we produce world class players? Do our products peak too early in their careers? Have many fulfilled their promise? Are there issues with the coaching/nurturing?

The first ‘batch’ came through in the early 00’s. We had Yeaman, Radford, Horne, Cooke and King. All home grown players, three of whom played for GB, one won every domestic trophy in the game and the other was perhaps one of our most influential players in the decade (love him or hate him). However, the three lads still at Hull are shadows of their former selves (Horney’s neck injury and diabetes couldn’t be helped), despite them still being relatively young (Yeaman 27, Horne 28, Radford 31). Cooke and King have had plenty of off-field issues and are now at Wakefield.

After this came players like Liam Higgins, Graeme Horne, Danny Hill and Kirk Dixon. All of which were not kept by Hull.

More recently, the club brought through players like Washbrook, Lee, Hall, Houghton, Briscoe, Thackray, Wheeldon, Hodgson and Burnett. Out of this list, only two players are living up to anywhere near the potential that was placed on them. The others have been released, moved elsewhere or struggling to get into the Hull 1st team regularly.

We’ve also signed youngsters from lower league clubs; Whiting, Saxton, Bailey, Brough, Maloney. Whiting won young player of the year a few years ago but still hasn’t managed to nail down a starting position at the club (he has had bad luck with injuries). The others were let go, and only Brough is playing in SL.

In 2010 we gave debuts to Lynne and Nicklas and reportedly have some decent players in the U20’s – what’s going to happen to these guys? If the recent trend continues, one, maybe two of them might make it and become a regular 1st team player like Briscoe, the others will be released one by one and fail to realise their potential.

This, rather than failing to invest in a top coach or sign X, Y or Z superstar, underlies Hull's failure to meet their fans expectations in recent years, IMO.

Compare this to the number of Leeds or Wigan players released still playing in Super League and the difference is huge!

It show that the players we are releasing are not going on to be super stars but the number as a whole is not big enough.

Indeed, we have numbers, but the quality is, shall we say, cack compared to what Wigan release...

A question i asked the Rovers lot on their board was about the area they scout, they didnt understand the question and i met a barrage of abuse.

But anyway, we look to have local lads, but sould we be looking further afield, North Yorks, the North East, South or the Humber? maybe union players?

I'm not so sure the issue is about the players we get in, i think it's more what we do with them when we get them.

Our kids are as good as the Wigan kids at ages 12-16. Our coaching and development of them during and from that point onwards is where the issue is for me.

Anyone got time to do a count of ex-players from any clubs playing SL ??

You or Wilfy

Off the top of my head our academy grand final winning side included the likes Ade Adebesi, Kirk Dixon, Tommy Lee, Louis Mcarthy Scarsbrook, Liam Higgins, Scott Wheeldon, Anthony Thackray, Danny Washbrook, Matty Dale and Mike Worrincy, all made decent enough players playing at a decent level, a lot of them failed to live up to there potential though.

There's definately an issue somewhere along the line, and agree with you that it seems to be around ages 16-18.

Our scouting doesn't seem to be the problem. We've signed a few lads from Fev recently, and I know of a few lads from Scarborough Pirates who used to be on the books. Wasn't Joe Westerman in our academy too?

The problem is fulfilling their potential. Tommy Lee for instance, was supposed to be a world beater, we turned him into a hooker/loose and bulked him up. Graeme Horne was supposed to be better than Richard etc etc.

Saints, Leeds, Wigan etc, all seem to have an endless production line on talent who can be called into the 1st team and slot straight in. The backbone of Leeds' Grand final winning of teams 07-09 was made up of Burrow, McGuire, Hall, Smith, Sinfield, JJB, Ablett, Burgess, Diskin and Bailey - all Leeds products. Saints had Graham, Roby, Cunningham, Lomax, Hargreaves, Foster, Wellens, Clough, Dixon, Emmit, Smith (11) and Wigan had Tomkins, Goulding, McIlorum, O'Loughlin, Hansen, Tomkins, Prescott and Farrell (8), playing in the grand final on Saturday.

I think the problem lies with how we (both Hull teams) play these players when they get a chance. We tend to get an injury and then have to throw them in, but rather than playing them in there position of choice theres a shuffle round so they can be thrown on the wing.
We did it with Haynes a couple of years ago, promising full back, Briscoe was injured so what happens, we moved a winger to full back and slotted him on the wing, he got mullered. A lot of the excuses where that it would expose him too much at full back, surely his chosen position would be best bet. Kid never played for us again...

If Hull is such a hotbed of RL, why are the best two youngsters in the city not from Hull, Briscoe (fev), Watts (cas). Is it an attitude thing that Hull lads don't have it whatever it is.

W Godwin ( Bradford )
S Reardon ( Bradford )
N Scruton ( Bradford )
K Dixon ( Cas Tiger's )
L Higgins ( Cas Tiger's )
T Lee ( Crusaders )
J Thackray ( Crusaders )
P Lupton ( Crusaders )
G Horne ( Huddersfield )
D Brough ( Huddersfield )
S Briscoe ( Hull KR )
S Wheeldon ( Hull KR )
J Hodgson ( Hull KR )
C Hall ( Hull KR )
P McShane ( Leeds )
J Broughton ( Salford )
G Carvell ( Warrington )
P King ( Wakefield )
P Cooke ( Wakefield )
M Dale ( Featherstone )
R Divorty ( Featherstone )
T Saxton ( Featherstone )
D Maloney ( Halifax )
A Thackray ( Sheffield )
A Thackray ( Widnes )
C Thorman ( York )
I Bell ( York )
A Benson ( York)
J McLockian ( York )
M Micthell ( York )
K Peacock ( York )
N Freer ( York )
D Hill ( York )
P Stamp ( York )
D Tuffour ( York )
S Logan ( Canberra )
C Best ( South Sydney )

Lee is a classic example, he was very good, could strip a defence on his own.

We then bulked him up and turned him into a hooker, in the Cunningham mould, it just never worked.

We let Kirk get too big at one point too, that slowed him down