Regarding application..... https://www.castlefordtigers.com/mobile ... hp?id=7427

Regarding application..... https://www.castlefordtigers.com/mobile ... hp?id=7427

Regarding production line..... https://www.castlefordtigers.com/mobile ... hp?id=7434

Regarding production line..... https://www.castlefordtigers.com/mobile ... hp?id=7434

Quote ="Tigerade"Regarding production line..... https://www.castlefordtigers.com/mobile ... hp?id=7434'" It's a piece written by Cas to try and justify their academy - and it fails! It boasts "Michael Shenton, Adam Milner, Nathan Massey, Oliver Holmes, James Clare, Greg Eden and Liam Watts" = not a single one of them produced under the last academy licence, issued in 2016. Cas academy is FILLED with talented youngsters and has been for years. That virtually none have been brought through to the first team by the club is a travesty.

Quote ="Tigerade"Regarding production line..... https://www.castlefordtigers.com/mobile ... hp?id=7434'" It's a piece written by Cas to try and justify their academy - and it fails! It boasts "Michael Shenton, Adam Milner, Nathan Massey, Oliver Holmes, James Clare, Greg Eden and Liam Watts" = not a single one of them produced under the last academy licence, issued in 2016. Cas academy is FILLED with talented youngsters and has been for years. That virtually none have been brought through to the first team by the club is a travesty.

Everything you guessed came true? Ha ha ha you even admitted on the last page that you didn’t give any detail until after the announcement today.

Your exact words were “the wider rugby league community know why those clubs were rejected” and you still got it wrong.

Great work Nostradamus.

Fact is no one was party to the behind closed doors discussions over the last couple of weeks. We can draw our own conclusions from that. I am quite cynical and think that this whole thing was political and to avoid the risk of ending up in the court of arbitration for sport the RFL had to give those clubs elite academy licenses. This way Ralf can save face and kick the can down the road but that’s just my opinion. I’m certainly not going to try and dress that up as fact and claim I’m in the know.

You crack me up dboy you’re a good ‘un ha ha.

I didn't give any detail about the 3 clubs specific failings until the last page (though Cas not producing any players was pretty much obvious to all anyway).

It's quite a few days since I said the clubs would receive a 2 year licence.

I think I have also written somewhere, that in the case of the Bulls, it will all have been "someone else's fault".

Uncanny, eh?

Obviously reading isn’t one of your strong points.....
“However, over the past five years, Castleford’s Academy has been involved in bringing through ten players that have gone on to represent the club at Super League level. These names include Tom Holmes, Connor Fitzsimmons, Brandon Douglas, Jake Trueman, Calum Turner, Jacques O’Neill, Lewis Peachey, Sam Hall, Brad Graham and Bailey Hodgson.”

It’s a few days since you said you thought it would be fairer if Hull KR got a 2 year licence.

As for your comment re. Bulls you’re trying to pass off my opinion as 1 fan with no way of knowing what discussions went on as proof of what exactly?

Real nosey Parker stuff this.

Unsure about the Bulls detail, but thought they would get a reprieve, as 2 sports were available to fill.

Cas do not actually deserve a reprieve, but by backing down to 2 clubs, they have made it impossible to do otherwise.

“Cas do not actually deserve a reprieve”.

Why not?

The names don't "include" those products - that's it! In 5 years!

Embarrassing.

Holmes = ave. 4 games per season
Douglas = 2 games 2016-18
Fitzimmons = 2 games in 2017 - now in Cumbria.
Trueman not even a Cas product! Signed for Cas in January and played first team in June.
Turner 15 games - now at Newcastle
Hall = 1 game
Graham = 1 game in 2020

''Castleford Tigers believes that the Club is currently fourth in the table for Super League appearances made by Academy products who are currently playing in Super League, this includes both at the Tigers and at other clubs"

So lets get this straight - you reckon Cas Tigers are lying?

More Cas propaganda.

They are wrong. Plain and simple.

And in the last academy licencing period - which is what is assessed - Cas are bottom.

I do believe the RFL really should publish that data.

Didn’t they also claim about 10 years ago they would get a super league worthy stadium in order to get a licence?

come on this was the most stupidest decision ever, its ok have a select few clubs having elite status but some families can't even afford to travel long distances to travel to elite academies, the more clubs that have their own the better for me it just doesn't make sense, maybe they should just look at the coaching certificates that get handed out as its them that are there to teach and select the cream

as for Rimmer the sooner he goes the better

No they didn't make such a false claim, they agreed to try to work towards this. Leave out the baiting....

Some clubs that got new stadia got an awful lot of help from their councils. Castleford and Wakefield got no help at all through no fault of their own

I once had a go at this about 10 years ago when Wigan were top producing players, and Leeds were doing very well too at that time. Saints were doing well too.

Struggling were such as Salford, and IIRC Warrington weren't doing to well..............

As I have said Featherstone won the cup with 12 Featherstone born players. It's clear over the decades the production of local quality RL players has been tumbling across the board big time. Even the city of Leeds with so much success in fairly recent years isn't doing so great.

I don't know if Cas are "fourth in the table" they could be, but the fact is academies across the board aren't producing the quality they did and everyone seems to max out on their import quota and despite these players being NRL rejects they are often the clubs best players.....

The RFL flipped quickly. What a joke and shows just how badly the sport is ran over here.

If you are going to make a decision at least believe in it and stand behind your convictions.

I don't know if it was the right decision but if you are going to to make big decisions don't give up so quickly.

As for the idea that players playing first grade is some kind of measure of the quality of acadamy it isn't. More important is if they are actually good enough and actually stay in first grade for a sustained period.

Playing a handful of games means nothing.

Obviously lads with high squad numbers can get games late in the season covering injuries, and I agree that dosen't make them "professionals" nor the academy a producer of professionals.

Leeds were the first club to push for academies followed by Wigan. I am thinking Carl Ablett, Danny McGuire, Lee Smith, Ryan Bailey, Matt Diskin, Jamie Peacock (via Bulls academy) matt Diskin (from Dewsbury) Luke Burgess (Liversedge), Ben Jones Bishop, Jamie Jones Buchanan, Richie Mathers, Mark Calderwood, Chev Walker, Paul McShane, Danny ward and Ryan Hall (rothwell)....

All successful players indeed, but where are such players now at Leeds? Liam Sutcliffe and Ash Handley seem to be the only successes from the Leeds area academy.

If the founding academy with a lengthy record of producing it's own talent is struggling badly what of other clubs beyond Wigan & Saints......

Stevie Ward (retired), Cam Smith, Mik Olezdski, Tom Holroyd, Morgan Gannon, Jack Broadbent, Jack Walker, Alex Sutcliffe

Then there's others at other clubs like Ash Golding, Alex Foster, Brad Singleton, Kalum Watkins, and Paul Mcshane etc

many thanks



You can't have Stevie ward as he dates back to when Leeds had a productive academy, and I named Paul McShane as well and he too dates back to then, and Kallum Watkins was enticed from Salford's academy.

The more up to date products you name prove my point that Leeds Academy are nothing special anymore so it's a bit rich the RFL having a go at Cas etc. Golding never really made it in SL and Jack Walker has proved to be talented but not physically up to it.as for Cameron Smith here is the ironic fact......

Smith was at Castleford Academy, the one the RFL want to shut down, and in Leeds desperation for talent he was made an offer by Leeds to join their academy.

Leeds is a city of 800,000 people and Castleford is only 40,000......

I'd like Ralph Rimmer to explain why Leeds Academy with 20 times as many kids to target for development into Rugby League professionals but is no longer producing quality RL players from the Leeds area, is supposedly so great................ yet Cas's academy should be shut down??

How does Jamie Peacock count? He’d already won the man of steel and captained a grand final winning team before he signed for Leeds.

BTW that’s not taking anything away from Leeds academy success. They’re still churning them out too.

I’m not even sure Bradford can really count him as a. Academy product because he was about 19 or 20 when we signed him from Stanningley and sent him out on loan to a uni team in Australia.

Peacock counts because he was developed by a Leeds amateur club. I'm just noting geographically where we get our players from and in what numbers, it isn't a competition, you don't have to claim Jamie as one of your own.......



Leeds are not churning them out at all mate - read my posts the quality of the top RL players who came from Leeds 10 or more years ago is far greater that it is now, and that's a massive worry.

Do you remember the Wigan teams of old packed with Wigan born, bred, and home grown developed talent???

This current Wigan squad only contains Marshall, Powell, Farrel. Partington and Bibby actually from Wigan......

So you agree that an academy isn’t an answer.i It’s not a pathway or a gateway to future rewards. What needs to be explained is how an academy works as opposed to the community game and what happens to those players.

Should they make the grade of an academy then not make the grade of SL what happens to them?

Ok I see what you mean. The problem IMO is the relatively small talent pool we are working worth.

Surely the answer is academies, a thriving amateur scene and schools rugby league?