Good luck to him, I don't see how he's a better option than Dan Smith would've been or a better option than retaining Baldwinson. But, he's so lets see if he can turn out to be another Chris Hill.

Never seen him play. Welcome to the club Andy!

At risk of being branded as a blinkered Hethringtonite, I'll see how he goes before passing judgement.

Mr Hetherington doesn't strike me as the sort of person to make a signing just to prove a point about dual-reg (unless it comes gratis, that is) ... he does strike me as the sort of person who sees dual-reg as useful to his purpose and is using it to make a signing.

Do you think he's ahead of the game or simply got it wrong?

Many in the game believe he has it wrong. I am not making a judgement, as it needs time to see longer term. I do however think that the concept will work, but not how Leeds are doing it.

But I do believe this signing is purely to try and make a statement that it is right. He has nothing to lose from it. It is already stated the lad will still be playing for Hunslet. In my own opinion I don't think we will ever see him in a Rhinos shirt in a competitive fixture.

I must admit that I'm a bit baffled as to why Hetherington's so much behind it. I can see that it might save money in the short term but to me it seems to be gambling on the future successes of a much smaller pool of young players than previously. If this assessment is correct, it's not hard to see how we might end up incurring higher costs while at the same time jeopardising the future success of the team.

I don't mind the Dual-Reg concept but not at the cost of a u21's/open age reserve team.

The problem with dual-reg is that as usual, we have a new procedure put in place, some clubs go out find a feeder club, put in place a new structure for bringing youngsters through, improving training at youth and amateur level and a pathway from there, through the feeder club to SL, and put in place a new, improved and joined up concept for RL in an entire city and an expansion club and area giving a pathway all the way up to SL for an area unused to RL.

Some clubs sent a couple of youngsters to a championship club.

Whatever we do in regards to reserve and youth grade, Some clubs will make it work, others will find excuses.

I’ve said before my preference would be to take youth rugby away from SL clubs completely. Invest in the amateur game more, have amateur ‘super clubs’ with RFL help in coaching, nutrition, etc, benefit from economies of scale in facilities and better coaches working with youngsters, progress them through these amateur ‘super clubs’ and regional camps until 17, put the best with C1 and Championship clubs for 2 years before drafting them to SL clubs at 19, but the players still stay affiliated to their lower league club on a constant dual reg, so if they do need fitness or experience they will play for the same lower league club. Pro and semi-pro clubs as a whole have shown they can’t be trusted to priorities youth development so we should force them to.

In principle isn't duel reg meant to give young players exposure to higher standard of RL at an earlier stage rather them having them go stale in the reserves when they have out grown that level of RL, whilst also preventing clubs from stock piling and holding back young players?

I've never really understood what everyone's problem is with the restructure to be honest.

AFAIW it's the fact a decision now has to be made at 19 whether to offer them a contract in the first team or get rid of them. Previously you could keep them on and see how they develop - I think especially for a prop, 19 is too young to make such a call.

Because the standard of the U19s/U20s was too low. Standout players in that competition were not ready for SL. The relative weakness of those competitions led to more and more juniors being loaned to Championship clubs to try to get the right level of competition and experience......but in taking those players out of the U20s, it weakened that competition still further. So the sport had to decide: stop loans all together and hope that made the junior competition strong enough, or go the whole hog and loan out stacks more players to get them playing a tough enough level to progress. They chose the second option.

Apparently, we've beaten off a number of Championship clubs to secure Yates's signature.

On the same day that Hull FC sign Mickey Paea for 2014 and three SL clubs are rumoured to have made offers to Roy Asotasi.

Unless there is a mass exodus of props on the cards, it's a signing that makes little sense. Hill and Walmsley were ripping up that level when they got their moves to SL clubs. Can't say I've heard Yates being discussed in similar terms.

Thanks for the clarification, Richie. But will it work without a substantial overhaul of the coaching and facilities at the lower league clubs? After all, with one or two notable exceptions, they've hardly overwhelmed when it comes to developing players to SL levels either.

The young players going out on dual-reg will do the majority of their physical and fitness work at their parent club anyway, only training with the Championship team once or twice a week. So facilities isn't really going to be an issue.

Yates a plodder that makes Richard Moore look like a human wrecking ball......masterstroke by Hetherington on the Dual Reg system being a success or it could be the Marque signing for 2014 !!
Good luck to the lad at least he is getting a chance before some washed up old aussie looking for his last pay day.

Exactly!

And hopefully this dual reg structure is extended globally so that our SL clubs become de facto feeder clubs to the NRL. This would potentially give all our players potential exposure to an even higher standard of RL rather than them going stale in Super League like many have done. On the plus side, any established or even top class NRL players who have been out injured can be eased back into some kind of match fitness by being dual registered with a SL club. This creates the potential for players of true world class calibre like Inglis, Thurston, Slater, Smith, etc, who could turn out for their SL feeder club when the need arises.

Some people think it's a masterstroke. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=553177&tsmp=1372441100

Some people think it's a masterstroke. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=553177&tsmp=1372441100

I fully agree

Hope I'm proved wrong and this lad makes it with us, but I rather suspect this will end up like Ambler, Amor and so far the other promising young project....whoops I mean signing, Liam McAvoy from Bradford last close season.

Players like Walmsley are the ones to go for but then again Yates will no doubt have been a much cheaper option than competing with Saints for Walmsley and this way GH gets some publicity for his Dual reg little baby so no real surprises with the outcome

He's average at best, this Ckub is being run into the ground whilst continuing to suckle the believests on the teet of averageness!!

My thoughts too rhinoms i also hope that the kid can make an impact like Hardaker and Chris Hill have made from the lower leagues, but IMO he is well below the standard that they were showing when they were snapped up

I was very disappointed when the club let Dan Smith go as i though he had all the attributes to make it in SL, I'm wondering if this Is GH's attempt at appeasing the fans should Baldwinson be announced by the NZ Warriors very shortly as their latest capture from these shores?

If we end up losing the likes of Dan Smith and Jordan Baldwinson whilst signing players like Ben Cross, Daryll Griffin and Richard Moore from outside our structure as these have all had minimal game time at the club, so surely we could and should have persevered with these talented kids?

I recall speaking with Rhinos scout Bob Pickles and he was raving about both these two as being future Rhinos first team players without a doubt

It's all the more hard to comprehend when Leeds seem to have made largely the correct decisions in the backs (apart from maybe Broughton)

How much of an effort did Leeds make to keep Dan Smith?

Frankly, the option of spending time out on loan or on dual registration at Hunslet against playing lower grade stuff in Australia wouldn't have been much of a pull to keep him in the UK.

Not sure we did make much of an effort to keep D.Smith AG!!

What I'm getting at is that if Leeds offered him a contract commensurate with his status - an Academy graduate who IIRC hadn't even been in the 19-man squad for a first team game at that point - and he's jacked it to go to Australia, there's not really an awful lot else the club could have done without setting a precedent.

It would hardly set a precedent Andy.

If he is/will be good enough then you put your faith in them. If still not enough then you move on.

This will not be the same offer to every player, so hardly a precedent.

You could argue now. What seems like a pointless signing in Yates, could be deemed by potential future stars as another obstacle in their development. Someone like Smith or a Baldwinson might not appreciate that, and money may not have been the decider.