Let's be honest.

We would love to be leaders in youth development, but let's face it, we are shat at it.

May as well just keep taking Wigan bred stock.

Since Riley and Tyke, and we've shipped those out, I think we have to go back along way to see a Warrington youth development of cup winning credential.

Mark Forster is the only homegrown GB international, way back in 1988.

We never paid Leeds a penny for Morgan Smith. He was 16 and free to choose whichever club he wanted to sign for.



You will get Tingley Rhino saying we paid a fortune to Smith and Rogues saying similar in respect of Currie but in reality kids in RL get paid pea-nuts (and obviously when Kallum Watkins and Ryan Hampshire signed for Leeds and Wigan respectively it had nothing whatsoever to do with the amount of money being offered).



The likes of Joe Burgess did sign for Wigan when there was more money available elsewhere as he was a mad keen Wigan fan however as they learnt to their cost at some point everybody needs to be paid market value or they will leave to go somewhere where they will be.

There is nothing wrong with the way our youth system and facilities are set up. They are better than most clubs and I include Wigan and Leeds in that statement.



The harsh reality though is we are just not a rugby town. The amount and quality of the kids playing the game in the Warrington community clubs compared to our neighbouring towns (especially Wigan) is I am sorry to say, risible. On a wider level, schools often struggle to raise teams as well.



There is rarely a team at the top of the NW Counties Premier and winning trophies from Warrington, the last I am aware of was Latchford at U15s-U16s and that is why six players were signed from the team and all of them are still there at U19s.



If we had more quality coming in there would be more quality coming out.

The mighty Leeds Academy who finished seventh in this seasons programme and haven't reached the final for years. Give your head a wobble.



Just count yourselves lucky that the 'Leeds' catchment area has first pick of all the players from Castleford, Wakefield, Huddersfield and Bradford as well as those with LS postcodes.

Quote Alffi_7="Alffi_7"Hasn't Ben Harrison played for England...? Might be adding Cooper to the list too on Saturday, he's one of 4 props in the 19 man squad so should get a game, unless they run with Westwood as a prop.'" Yes. www.englandrl.co.uk/statistics/p ... &c=England First cap 2010.

Quote Alffi_7="Alffi_7"Hasn't Ben Harrison played for England...? Might be adding Cooper to the list too on Saturday, he's one of 4 props in the 19 man squad so should get a game, unless they run with Westwood as a prop.'" Yes. www.englandrl.co.uk/statistics/p ... &c=England First cap 2010.

So, is it worth investing so much in the youth setup for the meagre pickings they produce?

Perhaps our club needs to spread it's net then?

I would agree with all of that. Our problem in getting numbers of youngsters from the immediate locality means that the base of our pyramid is a lot smaller than say Wigan, hence there are fewer quality players at the top to fill our academy. That forces us to look outside the area which I suspect is much more difficult.

There are far more kids playing the game than when I finished up around 20 years ago so I'd say the situation is improving.



The clubs community programme seems to be well respected, hopefully by engaging with the community we can increase the number of kids playing the game.

We have been spreading the net. From our 2013 U19 's, there were only 9 out of approx. 27 that came from our locality, and that included two from Golbourne Parkside which is perhaps borderline. The rest were from all over; Kells, Hunslet, Shevington, Meltham, Saddleworth, Cockermouth, Thatto Heath etc etc. I hope we always draw quality youngsters from the whole Uk, but we still need a larger contingent from the Warrington area. And in any case the RFL are strongly pushing SL clubs to 'regenerate' the local club scene rather than taking from outside their area.

I have been coaching locally now for about fourteen years and this year threw in the towel due to having to constantly scratch about for numbers on match-day and the pressure of keeping a team running. The number of kids playing rugby league every week is minuscule compared to football and no better than rugby union. In my experience participation numbers haven't increased significantly over this period despite the sterling efforts of the club and the Foundation.



The club do have scouts in other areas but the issue with bringing in players from other service areas is they will either not be wanted by their local club or if they are in most cases, Warrington will have to outbid and pay them more to secure their services and to entice them to travel over. I am sure most would prefer to see a locally born side playing to a high enough standard but that won't happen any time soon.



I could write a long essay here on how the NWC is run and the rules they enforce on mini and mod rugby but that will wait for another time. Until numbers of participants playing increases the Academy will also not increase the quality or quantity of players coming through the system.