Oposite ends of the spectrum but going hand in hand.
I'm loving the club being in touch with the fans and embracing our heritage.
Great film up on the big screen...
And with that came the timely announcement of the club vision...
The same vision we had and lost with the resignation of Paul Cullen....to get a team of pure bred Warringtonians as an ultimate objective.

OK it's a tall ask and I don't think even Wigan have exactly managed it...but the club has said through Paul Anderson that, that is the goal.

I'd be surprised if Wigan haven't achieved that but then again, going back to the early 20th century, I suspect the majority of clubs comprised of just local talent

Strangely not. Warrington’s team in 1909 contained 3 Aussies, and at least two Welshmen.

I'm sorry, but what a load of contrived old boll0cks.

Yes, wouldn't it be lovely if every Warrington player had a WA1,2,3,4,5 postcode on their birth certificates, bit it's NEVER going to happen.
We live in a town where RL is played in schools as a second, sometimes THIRD OR FOURTH sport preference for PE teachers. In Wigan and St Helens, it's the be all and end all.
I remember talking to a lad in 2005 who attended Bridgewater High. He was mad keen on RL. One of his mates had the surname Cullen, who played for our academy. His dad played, and was current coach of Warrington Wolves. That school played Rugby ####ing Union. At the time, it didn't recognise league.

We have Rylands, Crosfields, Bank Quay Bulls, Woolston Rovers, etc. Wigan have LOADS of local clubs PLUS schools. Then there's Stl Helens .

Our marketing dept/promotions/schoolwork still have tons of work, to get even close to them.

It's a dream Lefty. And you should never kill the dream.

Keep the dream. I'd LOVE it

But until the PE teachers of this town, and we get more local sides, Ive more chance of having a pooh on the Queen's handbag

Our club MUST work 10000% to get to other NW team levels
Our football team gets pathetically poor attendances, for a town of 200,000+ population, so bar 4 big local(ish) Premier League teams, we are NOT a football town.
So what do those 200000+ people spend their leisure money on..

Get these newcomers to Warrington, living in Chapelford, Saxon Park, etc, into RL.

Schools start it
Look at Oldham. Sh1te at RL for decades, but their schools have produced quite a few recent greats, in recent years.

Schools, schools, schools

Too right.
Oldham have created some great players.

Who cares about this pure blood crap.

Mike Gregory came from Wigan.
Des Drummond came from Jamaica.
Brian Bevan came from Bondi.
Lee Briers came from St Helens.
Jonathan Davies came from Trimsaran.

It's not where you are born it's the pride you show in the primrose and blue.

I care Sally...I care.

Couldn't give a

As a big town and one of the biggest rugby league towns, we do have a duty to try to ensure the game is played in schools and that there is a thriving community game. If you have that, there is a good chance you will get SL-quality players coming through, and that is great news.

I don't think you will ever get a born and bred Warrington 17, but it is certainly an aspiration worth aiming for. If the town with the 4th best side in the country can't be d supporting the youth game, you've got no chance of Barnet and Birmingham producing the players of the future.

I'd rather we had the best scouting network in the game, that picked up all the elite talent before our rivals did. Where our Academy was known as being the best place for young players to develop their game and find a route in to the first team, so the best young players have an automatic preference for us rather than them.

If the scouts discover the next once-in-a-generation player, and he was born in Stockport, I don't want us to be saying "not got the right postcode on his birth certificate, might affect our heritage, lets leave this one to Wigan/Saints/Leeds".

While it’s nice that a local lad plays for the team I don’t see it as a “be all and end all”. Where would it stop, only locals allowed to support the team? I’m a glory seeker (that went well) from N-le W, will I be banned?

You're contaminating our terraces Hook, get back to St Helens.

Many junior youth team coaches around the town with tell you that our local kids have been overlooked by Warrington W for years preferring to scout those from Wigan.
Not me just saying...I know a few of them.

Agreeing with Duckie there (rare) I would also add that historically players from outside the town have got signing on fees and more cash. Having said that I cannot see many players from Warrington in other sides...

But I can’t understand what they say! Eg what does “forrard “ mean? Is it a swear word? They seem to shout it whenever the opposition score.

This and it dates back a long time. I remember the warrington try outs when I was a kid those going through had been decided before a ball had even been touched.. No wonder our local schools n teams are not up to much if the local pro team does not pay any attention to them or turns up for the odd day to pay lip service.

I would love a team with more warrington born players in it bu I don't think that I want us jot to be considering players because they're jot from the correct area.

But once again this won't happen whilst as a club were more interested in what the young lads in Yorkshire are doing

There is currently a team at rylands who are one of the best junior sides i have ever seen. They have been beaten once in 4 years. 9 of their team have been snapped up by saints. Who is responsible for looking at the junior talent in our town?

Exactly this.

We are. Just and have a look at the parks on a Saturday and Sunday morning and see what the kids are playing.

At my lad's age group, there were 7 divisions of football (11 a side). Granted there are quite a few out of town teams but there were many more Warrington based football teams than Rugby teams.

Growing up in the late 80's/early 90's, my age group had two football leagues. When I started playing Rugby, there was a choice of two teams and they ended up merging as one team folded.

In my 20's, I was playing Saturday and Sunday league football. Again there were enough teams to support five or six leagues and only a handful or RL teams.

I also find that if I'm talking to people out and about, at work or in pubs, there are a lot more football fans than rugby fans.

Good points raised LB, and the club need to help to get more kids playing via local schools and amateur clubs.
It wouldn't surprise me if there were more kids participating in cricket than RL in and around the town.

Well cricket is a traditional summer game.

Correct. We've moved to the summer so that we don't compete with football (whether this is in Sky's schedules is another debate) or other winter sports.
The challenge for PA is how we progress the numbers of Warringtonians within the team. Latchford Bob has made many points regarding football getting kids attention, which is a sport that RL has to compete against at grass roots level. I was trying to make a point that cricket was another. It's going be a difficult job for the game as a whole, not just PA.

Why?

I would have thought the challenge for PA was to provide Steve Price with a stream of talented young players capable of addressing the planned vacancies (succession planning) in the 1st team whether they were born in Dallam, Denver, Dijon or Darwin.