Re: Our youth system, does it hold us back? : Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:12 pm  

Just like the good Dr Cockrash down the road

[DaveO]

Re: Our youth system, does it hold us back? : Sun Jul 13, 2014 12:06 am  

Pieman wrote:

I know thats why I asked for your opinion

Apologies. I thought you were having a pop but I also didn't know quite what you meant.

also you know we had bateman on scholarship...

No I didn't know that.

[DaveO]

Re: Our youth system, does it hold us back? : Sun Jul 13, 2014 12:13 am  

pie.warrior wrote:

without our youth system we would be paying over inflated salaries to journeymen to put a team on the field and be in position 9-12 in the league

Well I don't know what we pay to the players we signed but we have 12 players signed and I reckon they will regularly be picked before any home grown player and 8 of them although not journeymen are nothing that special.

This is my point. Our production line still hasn't stopped us signing some pretty average players.

Re: Our youth system, does it hold us back? : Sun Jul 13, 2014 9:34 am  

DaveO wrote:

Well I don't know what we pay to the players we signed but we have 12 players signed and I reckon they will regularly be picked before any home grown player and 8 of them although not journeymen are nothing that special.

This is my point. Our production line still hasn't stopped us signing some pretty average players.

the point Dave is that our philosophy has changed with IL. In the past we would have blown the budget on a big name and been left with a weak squad as a whole. We have also been reluctant to give opportunities to young players or develop a youth system to be as strong as possible.
By focussing on youth development we have been able to build a strong, large squad without the need to blow money on big names. The TEAM ethic has meant that often our 1-17play as a unit better than the sum of the parts.
We could not have used this approach without the quality supply of juniors that are able to come in and fit in straight away when injuries dictate.

Re: Our youth system, does it hold us back? : Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:59 pm  

ShortArse wrote:

the point Dave is that our philosophy has changed with IL. In the past we would have blown the budget on a big name and been left with a weak squad as a whole. We have also been reluctant to give opportunities to young players or develop a youth system to be as strong as possible.
By focussing on youth development we have been able to build a strong, large squad without the need to blow money on big names. The TEAM ethic has meant that often our 1-17play as a unit better than the sum of the parts.
We could not have used this approach without the quality supply of juniors that are able to come in and fit in straight away when injuries dictate.

Exactly, we paid a few players pension plans, granted we had a few gems as well, but we were forced to let go of promising youngsters , some of which came back to haunt us.
The way the present regime is going about things means we have a team ethic carried over from juniors to seniors , as opposed to bedding in overseas seasoned pros.

End of the day our youth system is the envy of a lot of superleague clubs, so why change i?