OMEGA

Miller dg WT 13 v 12 LR

Green also in the bin with Prior 12 v 12

No they haven’t!

What he’s saying is the RFLs own rules contributed heavily to Huddersfield being unable to field a team. Youth players are not allowed to play 2 games inside of 72 hours, The Giants Academy had played 48 hours earlier which prevented Huddersfield from drawing on those players. The RFL took 5 players from Huddersfield’s 1st team to play in the England v All Stars game The RFL states 7 Covid-19 cases warrant the postponement of a match, an arbitrary number chosen as a one size fits all circumstances amount. Huddersfield had 5 cases but their player shortage was far from normal and had been contributed to by the RFL itself Added into that were 11 players who’s injury status was not in question as all 11 had undergone surgery for their individual injury. 2 of those were ruled out for the season. So due to the RFLs own welfare rules, the RFLs one size fits all arbitrary number of Covid cases and the RFL taking 5 Giants players the Huddersfield club were left unable to field a team. IMO it’s a bit rich for the RFL to place all the blame on the Giants when they were partly, possibly largely responsible for the situation the Giants were in.

Harsh on Huddersfield in my opinion, they had 11 senior players out through injury (not Covid) all of whom had surgery for the injury. They had 5 players pulled from their remaining squad to play in the Mid Season England v All Stars match and then had 5 Covid isolations. They tried to cancel their match due to being unable to field a squad of sufficient quality and yet are fined for breaching the integrity of the competition! The very thing they were trying to preserve by not fielding a substantially weakened team. With the one exception of Wigan, no one has played more games than Huddersfield!

The short answer is no! I’d love to say yes but while some clubs are marginally better than others they pay lip service to the player to help ease the disappointment. The club might offer advice about areas of the players game for him to work on and they might even promise to monitor a player back at his community club. The truth is that they don’t, their interest in the player ended when they made the decision to release him and as he walks out of the door their eyes turn back to the players still in the system. Some clubs will work harder for the player, they may circulate his details to the other Clubs Youth Systems or if he’s Academy age they may notify Championship 1 & 2 Clubs in an effort to help the player into the pro game. The clubs that do this are the ones who run a genuine Youth System which, while primarily is for their club, also feel a duty to serve the wider game. You can probably guess which clubs I’m talking about as they’re generally the ‘Outstanding’ rated ones. Its another good reason to run a proper Reserve competition!

The only change is from the ages of 14 to 16 where we currently create a number of cliff edges over which many of our juniors fall. We currently select Scholarship players during their U13 season, the focus of most players during that year is to be selected for a Scholarship at the end of it! For those who are selected it’s great but for many of those that aren’t it’s devastating, so much so that Rugby League ends for them! Unfortunately at the end of the U13 season match days move from Saturday to Sunday forcing many players to choose between Rugby League and the Community Football team they’ve played with since they were toddlers. Which sport do you think the non Scholarship players choose? We create another precipice after 1 year in Scholarship where many are not offered their 2nd year and over the cliff they go! Then there’s a 3rd cliff edge at the end of Scholarship when the lads are still playing in an U16s League. If they’re not offered an Academy contract many walk away from the game, go to College, take a job and find other things to do like girlfriends etc. The rose tinted view from the RFL is that they’ll go back to their Community Club and continue to play but take a look at how many U17s teams there are in our game to see the reality. Just for completeness, at age 18 we currently release the majority of Academy players because they’re not offered a Super League deal. Once again, the vast majority exit the game, take a job, go out with their mates etc... The current system is not designed to keep players in the game, it’s not geared in a way that caters for late maturation or late developers in terms of a mature mentality and uptake of core skills. I see no reason why, under the system I’m proposing that video analysis can’t be part of a players development. Access to nutritional advice can be obtained via Community clubs, IF the RFL supports the new pathways in the right way. Regional training camps would still give young players access to Professional Coaches including Strength & Conditioning professionals. By providing Representative opportunities from age 14, players would also have access to a higher level of coaching, a higher level of competition and would begin the process of adapting to ELITE team training camps. That experience would be essential to the players who progress through the pathway all the way to Internationals at U18. As things stand in our England Academy for example, for many of the players it’s the first time they’ve ever been in a Representative training camp. Under my system they will have had experience of camps at City Rep level at 14 years old, City and County Rep levels at 16 years old before being asked to attend Rep camps leading to Test matches against the Kiwis and Aussies at 18 years old. Their familiarity with Elite Rep training camps and they’re ability to adapt to a different coach with a different game plan will stand them in good stead. Unlike Scholarships and Academies, If a player misses out at age 14 he is not cast adrift by the game and there is a pathway still to follow. Beyond the age of 18 and at the end of Academy, players not offered a Super League deal can still have a chance to progress and develop via the U23s competition. Even players who have never been part of any Rep teams from 14 years old onward can be brought in to play U23s. The key is to engage players when they are young! When I was 12 I attended a trial to play for Wakefield Schools and at the time in my mind it was massive! I was selected and went on to play against Rep sides from Wigan, Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Warrington & St Helens. I was captivated by the sport from that point forward! Another facet of those City Rep games was playing against lads I’d never played against before either for school or my Community Club. I’m still friends with a number of lads that I played with for Yorkshire at age 13 We don’t offer that to our young players anymore! You say the standard of player would fall, I could not disagree more! The standard of the players coming through a similar system to that which I propose was far higher than that of today’s players, sorry it’s true! I believe we would broaden the base of the pyramid and what’s more we would retain more players within the system! Couple that with a lighter touch from the Pro game till the players are 16 years old and better support for the Community Game in terms of Elite Regional Camps offering S&C, nutrition and skilled coaches and we might just begin to regrow the quantity and quality of players.

Yes, but it can’t be done in isolation First Abolish Scholarships They interfere with schooling during years 10 & 11 the two most vital years of Secondary School. They disillusion junior players who don’t get selected They force players to choose between school games, community games and scholarship games & training. Allow young players to develop at their Community Clubs Run Regional Camps At U14s - Run inter Town Completion as a first step into the world of Representative trials, selection & non selection which breeds resilience. This provides the first taste of a higher standard of intensity, speed & competition. Also introduces players to a different Coach & System At U16s - As above but also followed by Inter County Competition. This provides a further incremental step into the environment of Trials, Selection with a greater level of quality and intensity. Again, introduces more Coaches, new ideas, different systems. - National Schools Cup - Community Game - U14s Inter Town - U16 Inter Town & Inter County Secondly U18s Academies run by Professional Clubs to include: League Structure Knockout Cup Competition Play Offs £ Grand Final Inter County Series International Academy Thirdly U23s/Reserves to include League Structure Knockout Cup Competition Play Offs & Grand Final Maximum of 5 over 23s to allow for late developers/injury returnees/First Teamers needing game time

I’d go with being regarded as one of the best 3 or 4 in your position worldwide but there are exceptions such as when a player offers something more over and above his contemporaries. Sam Tomkins is a good example, he’s World Class IMO, he may not have the pace of Papenhausen anymore or the dynamism of Tedesco but his around game is superb and he still does the things that other players seem unable to do. Others: Tommy Makinson Alex Walmsley Daz Clarke Roby has been the best modern day Hooker I’ve seen in the game and therefore obviously has been World Class throughout most of his career but I think he’s just dulled a little. Whitehead was a consideration but while I think he’s a good international standard player there are a number of Second Rowers I’d take before him. Williams is similar to Whitehead, close but not close enough Tom Johnstone has the potential still but needs to shake off his injury hoodoo and put a strong season together. Lots of Young very talented players coming through at a number of clubs but it’s too early to tell on those

His high shot on Craig Young was one of the worst I’ve ever seen Great player though and a nice bloke

I’m amazed that anyone who’s ever seen the originals could honestly rate The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker! IMO, if Ryan Johnson had grown up despising Star Wars, had been bullied by Star Wars fans and his mum left his dad for Mark Hamill. He could conceivably have developed a seething hatred of all things Star Wars and hatched a plan to ruin it for everyone. If that were the case he couldn’t have done a better hatchet job on the whole Star Wars culture than make The Last Jedi! Ill give JJ Abraham a bit of a pass as Johnston pretty much left him a pile of complete tish & nowhere to go in his attempts to salvage something in the final film. There’s a pretty strong lobby from thousands of fans trying to get the 3 sequels made non canon so that someone at some point in the future can finish the saga in a more fitting manner.

Oh dear, how sad for you!

Just rewatched the Lord of the Rings trilogy on a 75 inch screen with superb surround sound. Id almost forgotten just how absolutely fantastic these three films are in every respect. The score by Howard Shore is epic, the casting superb, the special effects just right and Peter Jackson had his Sistine Chapel moment

I enjoyed it, Pitt and DiCaprio made for an unlikely double act but it worked well. Trivia: In Kill Bill 2 the the little girl who plays the Brides Daughter at the end is also the hitchhiker girl in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

If my memory serves me correctly, I can recall only 1 occasion when a verbal agreement was enforced after a player changed his mind. When Paul Cooke decided to leave Hull FC for HKR he claimed he was out of contract and free to do so. Hull FC claimed he had agreed a new contract and crucially, even though no paper contract was signed, he had played games under the terms of that new contract. Legally by playing and accepting remunerations outlined in the verbal agreement he was deemed to have accepted the contract and was now bound by it. I will stand being corrected on this but it’s how I recall the events.

It’s easy to just write him off because you’ve seen him for a couple of games and he made an error or two but as the post above states, you have to look at the context. Before you’d even begin there’s an acknowledgment that he’s just turned 20 years old, he’s living away from home for the first time and due to injuries you’ve fast tracked him into 1st grade before he’s 100% ready. Now you look at the errors and what might have contributed. Hypothetically, let’s say he’s dropped a ball cold with no pressure on him. So, for this purpose let’s set aside the possibility that his team mates might have contributed to the error and just focus on the player in question. You check his GPS and heart rate and see what work load he’s had just prior to the error. On doing this you discover that in the 3 minutes before the error he’s made 4 back to back maximal efforts in defence including a 50m chase back to prevent a try. His heart rate tells you at the point of the error he was sucking air in through every orifice in his body and the error has come through short term fatigue. So now you question how well embedded his core skills are, does he need to work on these more and even further do you replicate what caused the error by putting him under fatigue during a part of that work. (the answer is yes) Secondly, you might look at his fitness regime and in conjunction with that you’d look at his diet to see if it’s contributing to his negative energy levels. At the end of the day this is why a Coach at NRL & SL levels has a team working under him. Analysts, Nutritionalist, Conditioners, Welfare Officers and Skills Coaches, that’s their job. At the end of such a process there eventually has to be a decision made about whether the player is engaging enough and putting the effort and time in, ultimately does he have it or not? By the way, that’s not at age 20 after just a short time at the club!

So Tom Johnstone’s isn’t a home grown player at Wakefield?

Hewitt, Trout, Kirby, English & Young are all from Wakefield Russell is from Wigan Price is from Leeds/Bradford Michael is from Ireland The Senior twins are definitely from Huddersfield So who are the ones from Halifax?

How many of them came through Halifax’s Youth System? Young, Hewitt, Kirby, English & Trout are all Wakefield born lads but they didn’t come through any part of Wakefield’s Youth system

It’s quite feasible for Huddersfield to put out a strong SL team including nothing but recent Academy graduates. Indeed if you were to include the few that have left the Giants to go elsewhere it is a very impressive achievement from a club that wasn’t renowned for producing their own talent. Jake Connor Dom Young Jake Wardle Louis Senior Darnel McIntosh Will Pryce Oliver Russel Matty English Kruise Leeming Jon Luke Kirby Sam Hewitt Sam Wood Owen Trout Innes Senior, Ronan Michael, Then there’s the senior players who’ve served the club for over a decade, McGilvery, Cudjoe, Lawrence

Welsby (Sts) Young (Newcastle) Wardle (Huddersfield) Newman (Leeds) Farnworth (Brisbane) Price (Huddersfield) Dodd (Sts) Thompson (Canterbury) O’Neil (Castleford Havard (Wigan) Pearce Paul (Wigan) Gannon (Leeds) Knowles (Sts) Subs Smith (Wigan) Bentley (Sts) Oledski (Leeds) Lees (Sts) Others. Lewis (HKR), I Senior, L Senior (Huddersfield) Holdroyd, S Walker (Leeds) Partington, Smithies (Wigan) Truman (Castleford) Ashton, Walker (Warrington)

I made a special effort to go to Bondi when I was playing in Australia to say I was disappointed and underwhelmed is a huge understatement. Now Gold Coast is everything you’ve heard it is, a veritable paradise, such an amazing area. Batemans Bay is another amazing area to spend time, it’s a beautiful place and far better than Bondi

Blackpool IS BETTER Than Bondi and Bridlington is better than both! Bondi is nothing more than an imitation of a typical British seaside seafront, with a promenade and a few arcades and coffee shops.

There are actually 3 NRL clubs chasing him, it’s almost nailed on that he’ll go within the next couple of years.

Sad to read this, Dick Huddart was a forward ahead of his time RIP