I saw on Twitter earlier that the Cas U15's was announced & had a raft of Hull-born players in the squad. https://www.castlefordtigers.com/mobile ... hp?id=5600 There are a few on here with their fingers on the pulse with regards to junior RL in Hull, what does this tell us (if anything) about the CoH academy?

I saw on Twitter earlier that the Cas U15's was announced & had a raft of Hull-born players in the squad. https://www.castlefordtigers.com/mobile ... hp?id=5600 There are a few on here with their fingers on the pulse with regards to junior RL in Hull, what does this tell us (if anything) about the CoH academy?

It's a failed experiment?

I suppose it depends on whether these 8/9 lads now at Cas would've got into the COHA but felt Cas was a better opportunity, or have the COHA picked up the best 20 at U15 and these lads were surplus to requirements? If it's the former it doesn't look good.

I wonder how much longer COHA will go on for, especially if Rovers don't make it back into Super League this time around. With the salary cap increasing steadily over the next few years, the gap between Super League and Championship will widen, and as it does, surely the value of a cross-city academy set up becomes less and less.

Still waiting to hear about any other merged academies. We were told by the Hull clubs that others would follow..?

From what I'm told, all 8 of these lads were offered COHA scholarships. In total COHA offered 16 lads scholarships. From this figure 8 decided to join Cas, 1 turned them down which leaves them currently with 7 players.

wow, if true that's a huge vote of no confidence in the CoHA.

Was talking to someone last night whos friends son plays for coha and didn't sound good at all. Seem to be focusing on the size over skill of a player and olso not playing them in their prepared position even though they have had representive honours through the age groups up to this point in that position

Time for a rethink.
Especially as we won't have the expense of running an under 23s next year. Don't have confidence in the people running it.

I doubt it's as simple as us removing ourselves from the joint academy and picking up central funding and playing games next year. Whether the RFL would sanction it is one thing, us affording our own coaching set up etc. another, finding enough players yet another, the contractual situation at bishop burton yet another.

pearson has made some good decisions and some poor ones in his time with us and this has to rank with some of his poorer ones IMO. From what I've been told, most of the best youngsters seem to be contracted to rovers and get the favourable treatment

RBA knows about these things for sure, I bet that's true!

I have never been a fan of this whole idea, but accepted Adams reasons for doing it. But I think our owner was a bit too trusting of our partners in this and more to the point who was put in charge of the academy. That amount of young players turning down a channel to eventually play for their local Clubs and the honour of their home city and instead opting to go to Castleford is diabolical. Its unheard of in Hull where the tradition of aspiring to play for the team you support whichever side of the City you come from is so strong! In the past aspiring youngsters have been kicking and screaming when they are not selected and certainly not instead actively pursuing a career away from either of the two Hull teams as fast as they can get one. It just reflects what parents of kids in the academy are telling me all the time and why am I not surprised when you look at who is in charge. I wondered why the academy was being bulled up of late but now this news breaks I can see why.

Danny Wilson is in charge of COHA.

Never liked the idea from the start, hopefully this kind of thing will send alarm bells ringing and Pearson will use some of the wemb money to go back to our own academy.

Was told there isn't enough talent for two academies, well there certainly isn't now with8 top young players going to Cas, all of these players will be Hull or Rovers fans, but the academy has no identity.

Agree about the Wembley money needing to be reinvested. Periods of success like we seem to be in now need to have a legacy to them. If we can sustain a top 4 place and very good cup runs for the next few years, we need to be looking back at this period as one that helped to set the club up for long term successes, including building an appeal for young players in the city to be Hull FC players of the future. Having a shared academy absolutely opposes this idea.

Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's.

Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced?

Quote ="Dave K."Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's. Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced?'" According to this www.rugby-league.com/article/326 ... nity_board Pearson said that "we've ring fenced our players for the next four years" - not sure what age-range that covered though.

Quote ="Dave K."Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's. Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced?'" According to this www.rugby-league.com/article/326 ... nity_board Pearson said that "we've ring fenced our players for the next four years" - not sure what age-range that covered though.

I can't say I'm surprised. Who wants to play for a joint academy if you support one of the clubs?

Just to put the record straight I wasn't referring to Danny Wilson who is a good and conscientious bloke with whom I have no problems at all he's just doing his job but for whatever reasons most folks I speak to seem to have serious concerns about the coach. Fact is that so many kids [upreferring[/u to go to Castleford is a massive issue for me!

Putting a coach in charge who had previously criticised Hull FC on social media was a dumb move.
AP is a sharp operator. I'd like to hear his view on his decision to run a merged academy now.

Ah, good ol' JN eh?

Tbf, it was always an unpopular idea on this board and I doubt he's surprised to see people who were mostly against the concept being critical of the delivery.

A while back there was a thread looking at negative evidence from team performances. Then results picked up, which would have attracted plenty of attention back when HTW was a future hall of famer. Now it is merely framed as a distraction from these apparent failures in recruitment.

Perception is an important and real consideration, of course. And stuff like this won't help.

On the other hand, the reserves/23s was widely popular, but perception by itself won't protect a flawed concept very long (usually). I'd be more interested in hearing what Pearson (or indeed Peacock) has to say on that (surely bigger?) bit of news.

especially if they are backs/halfbacks
For some reason we really struggle to bring young backs through our system yet HKR seem to be the opposite

The COHA was a completely terrible idea from the start.

Scrap it, now!

This is how I feel. I very much appreciate a lot of what Pearson has done for the club but this has to be one he got wrong. The key word is trust, something that is quite impossible when Hudgell is involved and frankly I'm surprised at Pearson's lapse in judgement there.

Its going to be tough to untangle this mess as the RL was in on it. The other clubs must be rolling over laughing at this mess and I certainly haven't seen any other merged academies - nor do I expect any soon either.

The joint academy was a crazy idea from the off, I wouldn't even say good idea in theory. What's even worse is having anyone involved that has been so anti Hull FC and publicly.
Unless the RFL increase teams in SL next season Rovers unlikely to come back up.
The experiment for want of a better word just hasn't worked and should be scrapped.

I was quite vocal in being against the merged academy when it was first announced. Most of us saw it for what it was, a cost-cutting exercise, and in the process we've sold part of the clubs identity & got into bed with a lower league club run by a bloke who has an innate hate for Hull FC and questionable morals.

This exodus to Cas is the first real tangible proof that the academy isn't working. It's time to cut adrift the poor relations & start funding the academy properly.