C for Cuckoo wrote:
I don't think it's that coaches are scared, I think we just haven't produced quality players. MacNamara and Kebab have been okay. Hookem didnt make it.
You could say that youth coaching is the issue. Or our falling catchment of players. But if the quality isnt there then there's not much you can do at first team level.
I've watched a few games this year and think Harman, Medforth and Charles look decent. But they don't look SL quality right now in the way Balmforth did. Let's hope that changes.
Theres always been a tendancy in youth rugby to focus on the kids who are physically bigger who stand out because they are taller/stronger than the rest. This also happens in Football too. The smaller skillful players get overlooked. The result is as a city we seem to produce hard working hookers and props.
The challenge for RL is young kids will want to play Football, its more pooular and more lucrative, even ending up in non league football likely brings in more money than SL squad player wages.