RBA knows about these things for sure, I bet that's true!

I have never been a fan of this whole idea, but accepted Adams reasons for doing it. But I think our owner was a bit too trusting of our partners in this and more to the point who was put in charge of the academy. That amount of young players turning down a channel to eventually play for their local Clubs and the honour of their home city and instead opting to go to Castleford is diabolical. Its unheard of in Hull where the tradition of aspiring to play for the team you support whichever side of the City you come from is so strong! In the past aspiring youngsters have been kicking and screaming when they are not selected and certainly not instead actively pursuing a career away from either of the two Hull teams as fast as they can get one. It just reflects what parents of kids in the academy are telling me all the time and why am I not surprised when you look at who is in charge. I wondered why the academy was being bulled up of late but now this news breaks I can see why.

Danny Wilson is in charge of COHA.

Never liked the idea from the start, hopefully this kind of thing will send alarm bells ringing and Pearson will use some of the wemb money to go back to our own academy.

Was told there isn't enough talent for two academies, well there certainly isn't now with8 top young players going to Cas, all of these players will be Hull or Rovers fans, but the academy has no identity.

Agree about the Wembley money needing to be reinvested. Periods of success like we seem to be in now need to have a legacy to them. If we can sustain a top 4 place and very good cup runs for the next few years, we need to be looking back at this period as one that helped to set the club up for long term successes, including building an appeal for young players in the city to be Hull FC players of the future. Having a shared academy absolutely opposes this idea.

Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's.

Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced?

Dave K. wrote:Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's. Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced? According to this http://www.rugby-league.com/article/326 ... nity_board Pearson said that "we've ring fenced our players for the next four years" - not sure what age-range that covered though.

Dave K. wrote:Short term we are ok, we have some great young players in the reserves and 19's. Are the current 16's the ones that aren't ring fenced? According to this http://www.rugby-league.com/article/326 ... nity_board Pearson said that "we've ring fenced our players for the next four years" - not sure what age-range that covered though.

I can't say I'm surprised. Who wants to play for a joint academy if you support one of the clubs?

Just to put the record straight I wasn't referring to Danny Wilson who is a good and conscientious bloke with whom I have no problems at all he's just doing his job but for whatever reasons most folks I speak to seem to have serious concerns about the coach. Fact is that so many kids preferring to go to Castleford is a massive issue for me!

Putting a coach in charge who had previously criticised Hull FC on social media was a dumb move.
AP is a sharp operator. I'd like to hear his view on his decision to run a merged academy now.

Ah, good ol' JN eh?

Tbf, it was always an unpopular idea on this board and I doubt he's surprised to see people who were mostly against the concept being critical of the delivery.

A while back there was a thread looking at negative evidence from team performances. Then results picked up, which would have attracted plenty of attention back when HTW was a future hall of famer. Now it is merely framed as a distraction from these apparent failures in recruitment.

Perception is an important and real consideration, of course. And stuff like this won't help.

On the other hand, the reserves/23s was widely popular, but perception by itself won't protect a flawed concept very long (usually). I'd be more interested in hearing what Pearson (or indeed Peacock) has to say on that (surely bigger?) bit of news.