Rumour is Salford have scrapped their academy.

Surely now is the best time possible for Leigh to set one up and encroach on their catchment area as well as Wigans?

Wigan encroach on the Leigh catchment area or at least share it, I wonder, exactly how many players Wigan have taken from Miners & East ? Must be a good few.

Stability of the club in SL must come first before any academy ideas are pursued.

both Warrington & Saints have a lot of Leigh lads their academies and scholarship programmes as well.

Having U19s and U16s gives a club more stability IMO. If you don;t you're constantly needing to buy all your players to replace ones that move on.

Invest now and reap the rewards later. Derek won't be able to bankroll the club forever and putting in place a decent youth set up will pay for itself in a few years.

We couldn't survive without our junior set up at Bradford.

Would have thought Wigan had pickings of the area with you being a small suburb in Wigan with a Wigan postcode??

Don't bite chaps

Heart and head situation here, we all love locally produced lads pulling on the shirt and running out at LSV but I don't feel we would be ready to do anyone any justice this season coming but we should be planning for 2018 so that we have everything in place and can provide the quality these kids deserve. Bradford will struggle to keep the Academies running much longer outside SL, and they have 20 years advantage over us at this present time. Lets get into the 14/15/16s and provide experiences and coaching/mentoring via the amateur clubs this season.

At Bradford our U19s and U16s set up is by no means a continuation of 20 years work. Remember we’ve been in administration twice and had numerous changes in personnel and facilities. Thankfully our owner sees it as an investment as it produces players more cheaply than constantly dipping into the transfer market. The supporters trust contributes thousands too so I don’t think we’re in too much danger hopefully. Obviously having had big names come through previous systems in the past helps recruitment but 16 year olds now have no memory of players older than the Burgesses/Whitehead etc. It’s all about the quality of what you offer and in that we’re amongst the best in the country (putting the 1st team to shame last year).

With the right staff and commitment from your owner and help from supporters you can build something special that can create long standing foundations. By all means start building relationships with community clubs. No need to jump straight into it but hopefully you’ll be doing it right in a year or two. After all why should Wigan and Co benefit from lads playing on your doorstep?

Problem is that the best kids aspire to the Best clubs, and that has been Wigan, Saints and Wire which are all within 10 miles. For 20 years the best kids in the Bradford/Dewsbury/Batley/Halifax area would aspire to join Bradford. Huddersfield will benefit at present as Leeds cant take them all. I am a great fan of the RFL running regional academies to supplement the better ones at Hull, Wigan, Leeds, Warrington and St Helens, because no matter who we support we are RL fans and the more and better players we produce the better our sport becomes

If Leigh get the right people running things and do it right they will be able to compete with the other big clubs. Kids join clubs for different reasons. For some it’s about the big signing on fee, for others it’s because the club is successful. For us we can’t compete financially and 1st team success isn’t exactly dragging them in. We can however offer a genuine pathway to 1st team rugby without being farmed out to another club, plus we have good facilities and staff. It’s been enough for us to keep our best young lads out of the clutches of bigger clubs so far.

I happen to think it’s easier to offer kids a chance in the championship because you have less to lose. The standard is a bit easier to get up to than SL. Also if a kid has a bad game you’re not risking relegation. .

Kids get hoovered up by the big 3 round here then most get spit back out again, the didn't quite make it end up as squad players at Widnes or Salford, or in the Championship as PT. Outside the 3 you are looking for scraps until you can offer a similar proposition but that wont be overnight.