Got to ask you the question? If we had been promoted this season to SL what would have happened to the reserves?

Had we been promoted we would still have a reserve team.

To get promoted you need a Superleague standard team as this season just gone has shown.

Getting promoted brings a much bigger income from prize money Sky money and better attendances.

I realise that your a Wigan lad and your son played in the Academy, but you need to cease winding folk up on here. To build a real conveyor you need to compete for the best kids both financially and with a proven pathway, neither can be done at Championship level and hence you simply turn a side out and tick a box.
There will be loads of kids with better potential than we can attract shown the door by SL clubs every year, as it stands we can only attract the kids SL overlooks and that isnt going to feed you.
Lets focus on the youngsters at East/Miners/Parkside etc and get the club into a position we can offer a decent opportunity for the better players who now are snapped up by the established SL clubs in the area, and that means SL.
20 years of sky funding has only created a few decent SL academy's, we have no chance without being in SL

Who has an Academy in Championship/SL..Where do the players from a SL academy end up if they don't make the grade? Where do those academy players come from originally?

I think the issue many have is not necessarily the cutting of the reserves, as long as it's a temporary measure, it's spending the savings on a huge gamble like Chase.

But w!g@n, Leeds & Saints all have access to a quality academy competition, we don't. They all receive large sums of money from the RFL, Sky, Sponsors and fans so they can buy up any young player who even shows the slightest hint of talent, we don't. Obviously they are the clubs you want to emulate and what you want to be doing but to suggest that where we are at the moment we can do anything comparable to their academy setups is daft.

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.

Exactly.If clubs have the option to opt in/out when they please,how can there be structure.

So you congratulate them for winning a weak league two seasons on trot , then pull out cos it's gonna be stoner c,mon

I'm not doubting what has been achieved,I'm doubting the structure around it.You could end up with only 4 reserve teams next season,what benefit is that to anyone.

Whatever your club enters and wins the team should be congratulated on, then evaluate its benefits if in doubt

You seem to name the top 4 in SL as your answer.Do you not think SL for Leigh would carry a similar response..Would it not be in the interest of East to see Leigh in top flight?

Why do you think I'm a Wigan fan?

Why do you think I have a son? (Might have one in Mexico but that's another story)

Winding people up, I'm giving opinion...... if I'm winding you up, don't read it hahaha

It seems Huddersfield are not running reserves as well Keith.

How many East or Miners players are in the SL 17's week in week out? Manfredi, Moore, - anyone else?

How can a championship club attract the best kids? The best kids will migrate to the best facilities, the best clubs, the best opportunities and the best career path - that will not be Championship.

so virtually no leigh lads in SL then

Anyone know were the youngsters are going?

in the key age groups of 13/14/15 there seems little Leigh elite presence, hardly a shock when the local schools barely play the game these days.
Wigan/Saints/Wire have over 120 players on their u16 academy squads. They will always suck in the best as long as we are in the championship

Can you clarify what you mean in that?

Hes obviously missed the current intake of under 14s lads from Leigh on various SL clubs scholarship programs plus regular links with the pro clubs for those players who havent, to ensure they dont slip through any nets.

I am not fully sure of the numbers but there is a good quantity of Leigh lads also on the u15s/u16s pro club programs as well

Wigan have Kibula on there books who has also represented England, Josh Woods who has just played and won a grand final with the Wigan lower grade teams, I also know Lee Hansons lads are doing well for themselves.

Thankfully the game isnt limited to the local schools and East & Miners are doing the town proud in providing a lot of lads to clubs, pity the Centurions don't want them as i am sure if you asked most of the lads a good %tage would love to play for there home town pro club

Its the same with Fax, how do we attract the good young players from the area when you have SL scouts and teams like Hudds and recently Bradford on your doorstep. There must be 10 Fax lads alone in the Huddersfield squad and then when you factor in all the ones at Warrington, Salford, Bradford etc its easy to see the area does produce the talent but the only way they end up back at Fax is when they are deemed not good enough for their SL teams like Ambler, Saltonstall, Fairbank etc etc.

Indeed, half of Siddals U14's appear to have been signed up to the Wigan or Warrington scholarships.

Yeah they had SL scouts watching them every game and its not even worth Fax's money doing the same because they have so little chance of signing any of them as even the ones that are 'borderline' the SL clubs take them just incase before casting them adrift. It makes it worse when the reserve set up is in such a mess that it really isnt worth teams in our league spending money on it as it stands.

Help me out here then as I am looking from the outside in. At present there are very few Leigh lads playing SL - FACT. We have only 1 Leigh team in the premier divisions at 13-15 age groups? The local SL clubs hoover up everything and at 40 player squads at 16 yo Scholarship the vast majority will not make it, yet they were deemed good enough to be hoovered up. Championship clubs do not have the infrastructure to offer these kids the best chance and cannot afford to create one, our best chance until we are an established SL club is to pick off whats available at 20-21 as these will have had the best possible grooming at Saints/Wire/Wigan. Until then we should be working with the junior clubs and schools to grow participation and fans imo

Spot on about the way Centurions need to operate at the moment - however, you underestimate a little the level of players at youth and junior level. Miners have teams in the Premiership at 13 and 14's with the 14's coming third. Miners 16's came runners up in the Prem and East 15's should get promoted to the Prem next season. Miners 12's are in the Lancs Cup final this Sunday - there is definitely some decent Leigh youngsters out there and they have/will be picked up by the Wigan/Saints/Wire scholarship system. I just wish that Leigh would show some interest in the towns youth and perhaps get involved in some coaching sessions with them - there are enough coaches at Leigh surely to give a couple of hours a week in getting to know the towns young players with potential.

Tried a quick look at the NWC site for the little data I had. I am in total agreement about supporting the kids at East/Miners/Parkside etc. Think it would be a great idea if teams adopted a player, who attended a minimum number of sessions and the awards nights. I will hope with all the coaches and half the teams then the club will do more to develop the coaches at the junior teams also.