Quote ="Mookachaka"Where did Hill, Taylor, Grundy etc play before they reached the first team? They all played in the academy.
Work hard with the ametuers? I'm sure Pownall and Hopkins have played academy rugby, which has no doubt benefited their careers. You can't just jump from ametuer to Pro, to big of a leap.....
This is a backwards step in my opinion! All the top teams have the best academies, Wigan, Leeds and Saints. They build their team around youth products, a bit like we did a couple of years ago.
Let's hope the boom and burst works!! Or else we could be left with no youth players, ageing players with massive salaries and impending debt.
=#FF0000If a club like Leigh can't afford an academy, what does this tell you about the state of their finances???'"
As far as I am aware, Leigh are not permitted to run an Academy or Scholarship program and have not been for some time now.
