Super League Youth Pathways

[Curly perm]

It’s around the time when lads are signing their Scholarship to Academy contracts. Is it always just a merry-go-round of players seemingly jumping ship?

E.g. Hudds look to have lost players to both Wigan and Leeds academies, Bradford to Hudds, Wakey now entering the market with their backing. 

Is it just a case of the wealthier clubs picking off the best talent at each phase after others have developed them? We tend to judge a club’s youth pathway on how many ‘homegrown’ lads they bring through to the first team, but it’d be interesting to see which of them were actually in the system from the start vs those that have been offered more money to sign at their academy at 17/18.

It also opens up a wider question about how many very good players are released from the bigger clubs to make way for those who have been the top performers at scholarship level. They might go start again elsewhere but they might also get disillusioned. Seems like a minefield. 

Edited August 13 by Curly perm

[EagleEyePie]

Which players have Hudds lost to Wigan? I think we've only announced our scholarship intake so far and not those stepping up from scholarship to academy. I'd be interested to know who we've picked up.

I think the clubs who have a history of strong academy sides and youth development will always have a bit more pulling power and there's not much you can do about that given we want to reward clubs for investing in youth. 

When these players sign up to scholarships as teenagers there's quite often a limit to their options and many will sign with their local clubs. At what age do you then put limits on how freely they can move to another academy? It's a tough one. If you say players can't move freely once they sign scholarship contracts you could inadvertently create a postcode lottery where some young players aren't in a position to move so have to sign for a local club who don't invest much into their youth system and their only hope of moving somewhere better is through a fee. 

Even the best clubs lose players from their scholarship. Wigan have lost good players to Saints, Wire etc but that's the nature of the beast. Clubs get time to work with these payers and convince them that they are in the best place to further their career. You can argue that if they are then looking to sign for another clubs academy you've not done your job in convincing them.