Good to see Millward continuing Matterson's work with the juniors at Cas.

Decent effort last night, in bad conditions, with a team averaging less than 22 years of age, 6 of the starting 13 being 21 or under and 8 of the 17 coming through the Cas ranks.

Pity others continue to stack their sides with players from overseas. HKR had 9 in the starting 13 on Fri (how is that right) and our near neighbours heading in the same direction.

Huddersfield Giants:

Average Age 24

4 Debuts

6 Under-21

18 uk players in the 19

Wigan 16 - 20 Huddersfield

Injury crisis my backside.

Widnes are harvesting their youngsters from an i-farm outside Halton.

makes it even more impressive doesn't it

good to see danny nicklas getting a start today for hull fc, no doubt if agar was still head coach, he would've juggled the side around and had horne and westerman in the halves, looks like peter gentle is sticking to his word of playing players in their positions to cover injuries

Obsessed.



I don't feel particularly proud of our current ratio of imported players, but I remain hopeful that now we've got a bit more stability and a proper run at the recruitment market for next season, we'll see a shift away from our over-reliance on foreigners. We've got a decent crop of young players coming through, a couple of whom have recently signed longer term deals, so that feels like a promising start. Long way to go though, without a doubt.

True though.

In Agar's 4 seasons as head coach, just one youngster came though to become a regular in the 17 - Tom Briscoe. I could count on one hand the number of other youngsters that he even gave debut's o in this time.

Danny Nicklas is an example which shows what a difference a coach makes:

Danny spoke to the local media and said that he now trains in his actual position at half back, regularly swapping with Horne/Seymour. Last year, only Horne/Long trained as halfbacks, and Nicklas admitted that if calle dupon, he wouldn't have been ready.

Two seasons ago, Agar gave Danny a couple of games off the bench. He came on at centre for 10 minutes each time. Yesterday, Gentle gave him 80 minutes at half back against arguably the best team in the comp and he didn't look out of place.

That's the difference.

That's super. My question is this - now that you've got the best coach in the world at Hull, together with the bestest, most honestest owner and everything in the garden is as rosy as it can be - when will you stop banging on about Richard Agar?

8, not 9 players with Aussie accents. A pedantic point maybe, but I've seen it escalate on similar threads. More than once I saw 'what's that now, 13?' when it was actually 11 in the squad. I'm not asking for credit for that, just accuracy.




Definately and a very positive reflection on him getting ahead of Ellis.
Since Myler, the clutch of promising halfs to come out of the Championships (Briggs, Moore, McNally), haven't really cut it. Hopefully Ellis, that level's best player last year can reverse that trend.

Very grown up

I must have hit a nerve (although that wasn't the intention).

Surely you must understand that fans will make comparisons between their new coach and their old coach?

You have to remember that everything before Wakeys latest Admin debacle has to be forgotten, Then and only then will you start to understand that WTWC are the new Warrington, untouchable in every way.

And dare cross them and they will unleash the magnificent Spin Doctors on you!!

Nothing to do with admin, nothing to do with Warrington and nothing to do with spin; actually, I posted a pretty honest opinion that we are over-reliant on imports and expressed my hope that the situation would improve over time. A poor attempt binks - not even up to your usual standard of mediocrity.

As for RA and his continued villification by a small contingent of Hull fans - as I said, I wonder when it will stop.

Michael Monaghan and Trent Waterhouse the only overseas players in our team yesterday.

6 players in the team came through our academy at some point - Chris Riley, Rhys Evans, Rhys Williams, Ben Harrison, Mike Cooper, Paul Wood. Average age yesterday was 26.

I'm sure more youngsters will be given chances during the season, and Lee Mitchell is getting a chance with his loan at Cas.

Hull's 17 had just the 5 homegrown: Horne, Nicklas, Briscoe, Yeaman & Houghton.

What he should have said is that perhaps comparing the use of the said young player with that of a previous coach is unfair.

Perhaps the said young player is now ready for 80 minutes of super league, but previously he wasn't.

That does need to be considered. Who is to say Gentle would have been picking him had he been there 12 months earlier.

Quote ="Gotcha"What he should have said is that perhaps comparing the use of the said young player with that of a previous coach is unfair. Perhaps the said young player is now ready for 80 minutes of super league, but previously he wasn't. That does need to be considered. Who is to say Gentle would have been picking him had he been there 12 months earlier.'" There was a very open interview with Nicklas in the HDM last month: www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... story.html As you rightly say, there's no knowing wether Gentle would have played him last year, but the differences in his training, confidence & preparation under a new coach have meant that he was atleast ready should the opportunity arise.

Quote ="Gotcha"What he should have said is that perhaps comparing the use of the said young player with that of a previous coach is unfair. Perhaps the said young player is now ready for 80 minutes of super league, but previously he wasn't. That does need to be considered. Who is to say Gentle would have been picking him had he been there 12 months earlier.'" There was a very open interview with Nicklas in the HDM last month: www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... story.html As you rightly say, there's no knowing wether Gentle would have played him last year, but the differences in his training, confidence & preparation under a new coach have meant that he was atleast ready should the opportunity arise.

How frustrating it must have been for you to type that bit in about Hull KR.

Have Hull Kingston Rovers not tried to rectify this situation since coming into SL. We currently have 20+ youngster as I type on a tour of Australia.

Against Leeds we had the following come through our academy.

Kris Welham, Scott Taylor, Jordan Cox,

And the following are all from the city of Hull

Craig Hall, David Hodgson, Graeme Horne, Josh Hodgson, Scott Wheeldon.

That admittedly needs alot of improvement but the time we spent in the lower leagues didn't help because for many years we simply didn't have the cash to run an academy. Rovers will improve this area and a testament is the money they now put into the academy setup.

Same old excuses of "we've only been in SL x amount of years" etc. This is now your 6th season of Superleague.

The five players you've mentioned that are from Hull (but not homegrown as per the thread), just highlights further how poor the academy is, and was a poor cover up attempt.

If you didn't invest so heavily in imports (11 on the books this year?), people may be a little more sympathetic to the lack of homegrown players.

Thank you Shooze.
Despite this Cas remain favourites along with Wakey to lose their franchise next time around because we don't have a shiny new stadium. Shows where some peoples' priorities lie.

And you have relatively poor attendances, and a relatively poor record on the field, and a relatively low turnover, and relatively little money, and relatively low visibility.

The chance Cas give to their youngsters is admirable, its among the best. But lets not pretend that if Cas get a new stadium then they will have done everything they need to. The stadium is the foundation, its the beginning of what needs to be done, not the end.

Ellis is a product of St Helens, he has just had the one year at Leigh

Bollox!

I had cause for optimism initially, seeing a thread entitled "Growing your own" but just like the "Hash Tag" thread, you've let me down like a cheap pair of braces

There teams with lower average attendances who are not in danger of losing their place in SL.
There are teams with a worse on-field record who are not in danger of losing their place in SL.
There are teams with far lower turnovers who are not in danger of losing their place in SL. In fact turn-over is a bit misleading as Cas are one of the very few teams to own their own ground, and therefore do not 'pay to play' (and also have a worthwhile asset unlike most clubs).
Nobody claims that Cas are the pace-setters or that they should have a Grade A license, but in a 'race to the bottom' they are certainly not winning.