There is a quote from Wayne Bennett about developing juniors. "You have a 20-year-old who is not as good as your 30-year-old pro but you know that he is going to be, he has got all the right attributes, so you take a short-term loss for a long-term gain," Full article here www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher ... tml#067664 Its common sense, but its surprising how few clubs can achieve it.

There is a quote from Wayne Bennett about developing juniors. "You have a 20-year-old who is not as good as your 30-year-old pro but you know that he is going to be, he has got all the right attributes, so you take a short-term loss for a long-term gain," Full article here www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher ... tml#067664 Its common sense, but its surprising how few clubs can achieve it.

Quote ="The Chair Maker"There is a quote from Wayne Bennett about developing juniors. "You have a 20-year-old who is not as good as your 30-year-old pro but you know that he is going to be, he has got all the right attributes, so you take a short-term loss for a long-term gain," Full article here www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher ... tml#067664 Its common sense, but its surprising how few clubs can achieve it.'" FAO WIGAN

Quote ="The Chair Maker"There is a quote from Wayne Bennett about developing juniors. "You have a 20-year-old who is not as good as your 30-year-old pro but you know that he is going to be, he has got all the right attributes, so you take a short-term loss for a long-term gain," Full article here www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher ... tml#067664 Its common sense, but its surprising how few clubs can achieve it.'" FAO WIGAN

I'd agree with this approach. At academy/reserve level what you have essentially is potential, for first grade level playing. If, as Bennett says in that rather good article, the young person has the attributes - which is, the potential - then that young person should be given the opportunity to discover whether he and the coach can turn the potential into a successful professional career. At the moment, our guys Lomax, Wheeler, Ashurst, etc are mainly potential. They are each showing individual moments of, quite frankly, gifted play but they are only moments because the potential has yet to be converted into actual play at that standard. That will take a long time and once the initial adjustment to first grade has been made, they will continue to develop for years afterwards. In fact, professionals no matter what they do never stop learning, adjusting and developing their skills IMO.

Very good points made there SaintsFan, and I would suggest maybe we see this happening to Scott Moore at the moment. Brought into the Saints team at 16 and touted as potentially the next big thing he has seen himself dropped back down to academy and reserve level and then shipped out on loan first to a struggling Cas team and now to a growing Hudds side.

The initial opportunity given to him by Saints in the first team was very brief but showed great potential then i'm told this was in danger of stagnating once he was dropped back down to reserve grade. Though he seemed to struggle at Cas it was clearly a good learning experience for him in many ways and an essential part of his learning curve. Now he is gettting the opportunity to play regular first grade in a side that is playing some great rugby and perhaps most importantly seems to have a winning mentality his potential and hard work is clearly paying dividends.

I agree. It is a positive for Moore too that clearly Nathan Brown has taken him on board, which is a significant investment in a loan player (perhaps to entice him to stay?). Given Brown was a hooker and that's the position Moore plays then maybe he is now getting the kind of attention he needs to really kick on in his game.

Meanwhile back home I hope that Potter doesn't just leave the development of our new young players to injury time (although this season there appears to be plenty of it to go around!) but throughout the season provides opportunities for those players with the most potential to play, maybe resting the more experienced players now and again to facilitate this. I'm sure he's got a plan, I don't mean to suggest he would be negligent of what after all is his remit, but still I do hope that is what we will see, especially since a number of players are coming up to retirement/end of contract at the end of this season.