Tomkins

Grix

Hodgson/Ratchford

Hardaker

Webb/Escare

Kearney

Wellens/Lomax

Eden

Briscoe/Hanbury

Mathers

Dorn/Hurst

Tansey/Owen

Sneyd/Murphy



As I said, I don't see anywhere where his chances of a game are better than with us that isn't a backwards step long-term. For a season, maybe London or Salford would be his best chances (if Sneyd moves back into the halves). Widnes possibly an outside chance.

Recruitment needs to be strategic , joined up from junior development through to targeted "buy ins" from elsewhere and planned over a long period. If it's left to chance as it was under the previous regime this is the result. You get an imbalance between positions needed to be filled and players to fill them. That leads to half backs becoming hookers , full backs becoming off halves etc. It also leads to surpluses on occasions. The lack of planning in the past could mean more of this to come but ultimately you can't keep everyone. The thing we need to do is to produce enough youngsters so that we're not devastated when we lose one to someone else. Obviously you try to keep the best ones but when players are 18/19 it's difficult to tell. I'm sure this is what we're looking to do but there'll be casualties and at the moment it's difficult with our priority having to be to find a halfback and to create a team that will keep bums on seats through the time it takes to get player development and recruitment on track.

could he be meaning last season as well, when we brought in a Wigan youngster on loan rather than giving one of our own a chance and then signing McGoldrick

Only thing I'd say is that McDonnell was signed by the current regime, and the under 19s structure is new this year. Hard to blame this specific instance (assuming you're talking about Shaul) on the old board/coaching staff.

Not true, he went to try and play first team NRL, and is still hoping for the opportunity!

It was Russell we had on loan. He's now at the Gold Coast Titan's.

Was Shaul ready when McDonnell was signed? We don't know he's ready now. The point I was making is that the system is more important than individual instances or players. It's all made all the more difficult because of the Dual Reg scheme which in theory could work but in practice leaves players with nowhere to play.

I'm confused. I thought you were saying that recruitment should be done with an eye on the juniors coming through to avoid having players' route(s) to the first team blocked by signing players in positions we may already have covered? If you think this has happened to Shaul it's down to the current set up, if you don't then there isn't a problem. Either way, for all of the faults of the previous board I don't see how we can attribute this and/or any future similar cases to them as well. It is/will be down to those now in charge, or simply the unfortunate mess of the new U19s system (mainly the latter IMO). It's only really right to blame the old board for a lack of players coming through or any being blocked by players signed under them, IMO.

out of interest, why can't he go on dual registration to a different club than York?

[url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/rules/interactive_operational_rules?section=C1C1:2:23 b.[/url Only those Clubs with a signed partnership agreement which has been accepted by the RFL may dual register Players and only within that partnership. Clubs who are not in an official partnership may not dual register Players however may still loan Players.

thanks



so, we should enter into a partnership with more than one club, if Gentle's youth development policy and the half back schools work we'll need more outlets to allow us to keep players??

Can't find any rules on whether or not that's allowed. Would expect it's not, or at least Championship clubs not being allowed more than one SL 'parent', which would significantly cut down (eliminate all?) the options anyway.