Quote: Jake the Peg "Their youth policy is to sign anyone they can who came through our academy. Been told they are sniffing around quite a few of our younger players throwing daft oney around. Hopefully our new investment will help us fend the off'"
Think anyone in our academy would be daft to go there. The chances that they'd actually get any game time are very slim. At least we have now proven over the last couple of years that we will give a chance to the ones believed to be good enough, even if it is only down to injuries, at least they're getting a game.
What Rovers have done with Corey Hall should warn off any of our players. Sign him as the next big thing and then as soo as someone else comes along (Broadbent) just ship him straight back out again.
I think Rovers will win something in the next couple of years, and genuinely good for them if they do, but like us in 2016/17 (and the Warrington of a few years ago) they will soon slide back down the league table because they don't have a good enough youth setup to mix it at the top of the table for a sustained period. Splashing money about can get short term success but it's not sustainable. Agents and players soon realise you're ready to spend and will start negotiating for bigger wages which will then cause squad size to shrink.
We are very much in the same boat. Our youth set up isn't as good as Wigan and Saints but we are working very hard to get there and in a couple of years I think we will have a great core of homegrown players, with people like Moy, Charles, Hodgson, Armstrong, Staveley, Jebson. We just need to sign somebody older, experienced players to help guide them, and Asiata is exactly in the right mould.
