Many expect academy players to be ready for Super League from day one. That's obviously crazy. The game lacks a real pathway for youngster and decisions have to be made too soon on their futures. Reserve team rugby (even 21s ) is a must but sadly miles away. I recall going to A team games which were competitive and gave lads a chance to impress. and play regularly. Players can improve once they are 18 but most are lost to the game from all clubs. As always money is the issue but unless something is sorted things won't improve. IMG's proposals may make sense but do not solve this problem. For me the ability to run an 18+ team is vital. Forget loans etc.

Chris Riley is a shining example. What an underrated player he was. Was he a world beater? No, i think he could only manage a contract at Rochdale after Wire if memory serves me right. He grew up in the system. He understood what it was to play for your club and he scored a pan full of try's every season. The fire obviously went out when he left. They don't have to be the best. A lot of our academy players are just squad players who will move on but they get utilised whilst they are here. FWIW Thewlis and Wrench will be mainstays (or should be) in your side for years. King has been superb for us and is heading back. He obviously needs man managing but Powell just wanted rid and started seemingly making up reasons when he probably just wanted his wage off the cap.

A couple of my opinions. Not that they’re worth much, but,

Our academy is way behind Saints and Wigan.
Warrington has one of the youngest demographics in Britain and should be churning young players out.
But Warrington is a football town and has hundreds of youngsters in premier league football academy’s.

I would honestly pay the best coach a marquee player wage, such is the importance of a coach to a team.
Pay Trent Robinson or Gower £500k a year and it will give more bang for your buck than paying a 32 year old Aussie.

Exceptional centres are a must for any ambitious teams.

Wigan have just signed Walters and Chan, possibly the 2 best young emerging forwards in the game. Why have we left next years recruitment so late when Top teams have done their deals?

Do we need to be signing other clubs young forwards? They have potential but are far from the finished article (especially Walters). I’d rather give those opportunities to Lucas Green, surely we should be giving him the game time over bringing someone else in?

I’d say it’s more important to get the right people in than get someone signed up early - it’s clear the club have been active looking for players for 2024 - and could have already agreed terms, just not yet announced.

IMO this is the biggest single deficit in our game ,there is too much of a gap physically between a reserve team & academy level. In the good old days there was probably more stability throughout squads because you could play bulked up old timers & a.n.others side by side in the A team. There was more seamless integration into first team rugby for reserves when called on to turn out for the first team & quality wasn't affected as we seem to see now. Oh yes, & effort was always part of the match day experience.

the lack of a credible reserve league gets brought up time and time again, but it comes down to money, the same clubs want to invest in it, the usual suspects can barely afford to run an academy and even a first team.

I suppose you would really need some input from the local amateur clubs for promising players to turn out on an ad hoc basis. Sadly, though many amateur & works teams have disappeared. These are definitely times far removed from the hay day of A Team rugby.

again this is another problem with the modern game, they reckon a lot of the academy lads that dont make it, don't filter down into the championship, or back to their community clubs, they just go to civvy street, which is understandable, i remember when i first read the guardian, the amount of RL reports and scores for the multitude of amateur clubs, eg laportes various age groups. it was mental.

Any actual signings…or rumours of signings..?

There’s murmurs that McMeeken and Davies (no idea how true) from Catalans could be available…two players I would definitely want in our squad.