I totally agree with bringing on as many homegrown youth players as possible. Is it not our problem that far too few of our academy players make the grade either with us or at new clubs e.g Hall, Lee, Washbrook, Burnett, G Horne to name our most promising prospects. Even decimated by injuries only Crooks, Nicklas and Houghton started vs Wigan. Don't know the reason but over the last 40 years Hull as a city has only produced a handful of international quality players. This is why we have to pay top dollar for over the top Aussies or transfer fees for English talent.

I mentioned this today on Twitter. It seems to me that Gentle and Pearson have a clear strategy about where they want the club to go and it involves buying young british players. The positive is that it should help to bring us longevity rather than a quick fix. The negative though is that it will take two years at least so fans will have to patient. It's also common sense with the changes in the NRL as we are going to see less and lee quality players coming over. We have to trust Gentle and AP to get it right and need to give them time.

I don't think all fans will like this approach but it does mean sustainability over a longer period.

totally agree with all that

I've mentioned this before but: there is a very distinct problem with player development in Hull and that has been the case for many decades, not just years.

We have amateur youth and open-age teams that can hold their own against anything that the West Yorkshire or North West Counties can provide. It all seems to go wrong when they are identified by either of the two professional clubs. I'm not sure what they are doing but whatever it is, it's certainly not developing the players.

How many times has the city of Hull produced an international-class halfback over the last 40 years?

Neither club have invested sufficiently in youth development. Hull are starting to improve but unless you employ top class coaches at this level then you will never maximise the potential