Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Mon May 18, 2015 11:59 am  

I was making a point on another forum and quickly rattled through a list of players I believe came through our academy system under Alan Hunte's leadership that are still playing the game. They are;

1. Theo Fages (Salford)
2. Jason Walton (Salford)
3. Niall Evalds (Salford)
4. Adam Walne (Salford)
5. Jordan Walne (Salford)
6. Ryan Lannon (Salford)
7. Matty Gee (Salford)
8. Jon Ford (Salford)
9. Marc Sneyd (Hull)
10. Jordan Turner (Saints)
11. Stefan Ratchford (Warrington)
12. Gareth Owen (Oldham)
13. George Tyson (Oldham)
14. Adam Neal (Oldham)
15. Adam Clay (Oldham)
16. Lewis Palfrey (Oldham)
17. Kyle Dolan (Barrow)
18. Max Wiper (Barrow)

Can anyone name anymore?

Also, would you consider the above list and any others that get added to it a reasonable return given the limited resources Alan and his coaching staff had to contend with 11 of his 13 years in charge.

If you look at the likes of Sneyd, Ratchford and Turner alone there must be a reasonable amount of transfer fees received. How much would the likes of Theo and Niall be worth in 12-18 months if they also continue to develop as they have been doing?

I think all things considered, he has done a fine job and given further budgets could have probably done even more particularly with regards to forging those closer links with our local amateur clubs. There still seems to be no production line coming from the likes of Eccles, Langworthy, Folly and Cadishead into Salford's academy system which must be a priority for whom ever replaces Hunte on a permanent basis.

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Mon May 18, 2015 1:44 pm  

In comparison to other SL clubs its very poor but Salford don't have enough locally produced kids to draw upon from our football mad city. This forces us to look further a field and sign young players other teams don't think are quite good enough.

For Salford to break the cycle it will take more than just a better financial contract offer in my opinion. The place to start would be investment in a state-of-the art academy facility with junior coaching resources better than anything Superleague has ever seen. I'd even consider offering academy lads an annual playing tour to Australia or New Zealand to make signing for Salford more appealing.

We need to have something much more attractive that we can really sell to these wonder kids and their guardians.

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Mon May 18, 2015 4:03 pm  

I am sorry if this sounds like a history lesson but back in 69/70 the then Salford Management decided it was time to start using local talent. The Club advertised that it was looking to start an Under 17's team known then as the 'Colts'. I went down to the club and along with about 30 other Salford lads signed up. The Team was run by the Great Dai Moses and Ernie Critchley and we trained twice a week at Stott lane. Several of the first team would also come down to the sessions the likes of Paul Charlton, Ken Roberts, Pete Smethurst and a few others.
The team eventually joined a league and we played against all the Lancashire clubs plus Leeds and HKR. We had some great players and initially after a few beatings we started to compete. I sadly was not good enough, I turned out for Widnes and Warrington once each and subbed for Salford against HKR but didn't get on.they were a great bunch of lads and stuck together but unfortunately only one made it to the first team. I think there is local talent we just have to dig a bit deeper.

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Mon May 18, 2015 7:05 pm  

Unfortunately, Alan Hunte wasn't a big believer of looking around the City of Salford. He preferred to look at the main catchment areas of Wigan, Warrington, St Helens. The problem with that is that a young player in say Wigan... will want to play for Wigan as his first choice... If he doesn't get picked up by Wigan then Salford may get the opportunity. So we are left with the ones that the big clubs don't want and will never truly be able to compete. As harsh as that sounds. Therefore the Salford club have to look for somebody with a fresh approach.

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Mon May 18, 2015 7:26 pm  

..I guess was a Rugby Genius..
Was also our Head Coach for 8 Games in 2013:-
1 draw , 2 wins , 5 losses.

other debutants not mentioned

Tim Hartley- Stand Off (20)
Darren Bamford - Full Back (4)
John Clough - Hooker (17)
Luke Ambler - Prop ( 2)
Luke Adamson - 2nd Row (120)
Toby Adamson - Centre (1)
Jack Spencer - 2nd Row (7)
Callum Marriott - Loose - (1)
Alex Davidson - Prop - (3)
Edwin Okanga-Ajwang - Centre (2)
Will Hope - Loose - (3)
Jack Holmes - Centre (0 ) Oldham

All this through the tenure of Karl Harrison - Simms- McRae , Veivers , Noble. hardly big believers in giving youth a chance.
and until recently no cash to splash on either players . Kit or facilities.

I hope who ever gets the nod , gets the time to invest & development what must need to be a 5 year plan to attract , develop & blood the next generation,

Hopefully Josh Wood will be another debutant.

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Tue May 19, 2015 7:07 am  

LoyalFan wrote:

Unfortunately, Alan Hunte wasn't a big believer of looking around the City of Salford. He preferred to look at the main catchment areas of Wigan, Warrington, St Helens. The problem with that is that a young player in say Wigan... will want to play for Wigan as his first choice... If he doesn't get picked up by Wigan then Salford may get the opportunity. So we are left with the ones that the big clubs don't want and will never truly be able to compete. As harsh as that sounds. Therefore the Salford club have to look for somebody with a fresh approach.

If MK is serious about his recent comment regarding youth development he has to find a way of attracting the best potential to develop. The club occasionally finds the odd player that slips through the net but it's not enough to compete with the cherry pickers every year.

A good example is Theo Fages who joined Salford's academy because a relative of his once played under Steve Simms when he was head coach at Featherstone Rovers in the 1997-98 season. If Theo was English we wouldn't of had a sniff of signing him, he'd of signed for a Wigan, Saints, Leeds or Warrington etc.

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Tue May 19, 2015 7:47 am  

Remember at the launch of the red devilution, big poster with his vision for the site included an academy development, never materialised along with the water park!

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Tue May 19, 2015 9:03 am  

I mentioned a young lad to Alan hunts, who was playing for cadishead, soon as I said cadishead, you could see his disinterest. The lad went on a 6 week trial at warrington, and was signed after his 1st week. His initials are G.W, and he will be amongst the best.

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Tue May 19, 2015 9:05 am  

LoyalFan wrote:

Unfortunately, Alan Hunte wasn't a big believer of looking around the City of Salford. He preferred to look at the main catchment areas of Wigan, Warrington, St Helens. The problem with that is that a young player in say Wigan... will want to play for Wigan as his first choice... If he doesn't get picked up by Wigan then Salford may get the opportunity. So we are left with the ones that the big clubs don't want and will never truly be able to compete. As harsh as that sounds. Therefore the Salford club have to look for somebody with a fresh approach.

Its about getting the right mix though isn't it. I have no issue with us going outside the boundaries of Salford and signing young lads up, all clubs do it, look at Leeds with Watkins for example. However it is most definitely imbalanced at the moment with next to no juniors from Salford being given the development opportunity.

Does anyone know if the likes of service area still exists? Also, do Salford offer out scholarships for teenage players anymore?

Re: Alan Hunte - successful or not? : Tue May 19, 2015 9:33 am  

I've said for a long time if they bring in the Marquee player rule that the club must commit to spending the exact same amount as the players contract on youth development.

Hunte did well with the tools he had for most of his tenure, he was hampered working under a couple of coaches who are known for not giving youth it's chance and let's not forget that for 2 seasons at Barton we were possibly blooding youngsters slightly to early which wouldn't help their development.