Academy production line : Thu Nov 30, 2017 2:31 pm  

It seems that only a few of our academy products make it to a long-term Warrington position. And that’s usually the ones with absolute raw talent such as Currie. There’s now an interesting article in the Guardian: http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/spo ... eur_clubs/ It appears that as Head of Rugby, Tony Smith didn’t have a direct involvement with players outside the first team. This is not a ‘dig at Smith’ thread by the way just an interesting observation. Price has put a system in place where himself, Henderson and Briers will all spend at least one night a week coaching the academy and scholarship players and instilling philosophies from the early stages. I didn’t realise that this hadn’t been going on under the previous regime, and the more I see of Price the more impressed I am. I hope he’s as good at motivating the players as he is at setting up the system. I guess with Tony Smith and Agar living quite far away they only contributed to the first team during daytime stuff, leaving the juniors to others. Price will have a much bigger oversight of all teams operations the new way so hopefully that will beat fruit in a couple of years. I always wondered how Wigan and Leeds seemed to consistently produce solid quality juniors instead of just the odd superstar. Our juniors were making it through but never quite looked as ready to slot in. Wigan’s wing talent line is one example. When have we been able to stick a Marshall or Davies on the wing and have them score 4 tries a game despite being in a boring team? Shirt and sponsors aside, I feel a little bit better about 2017 each week.

It seems that only a few of our academy products make it to a long-term Warrington position. And that’s usually the ones with absolute raw talent such as Currie. There’s now an interesting article in the Guardian: http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/spo ... eur_clubs/ It appears that as Head of Rugby, Tony Smith didn’t have a direct involvement with players outside the first team. This is not a ‘dig at Smith’ thread by the way just an interesting observation. Price has put a system in place where himself, Henderson and Briers will all spend at least one night a week coaching the academy and scholarship players and instilling philosophies from the early stages. I didn’t realise that this hadn’t been going on under the previous regime, and the more I see of Price the more impressed I am. I hope he’s as good at motivating the players as he is at setting up the system. I guess with Tony Smith and Agar living quite far away they only contributed to the first team during daytime stuff, leaving the juniors to others. Price will have a much bigger oversight of all teams operations the new way so hopefully that will beat fruit in a couple of years. I always wondered how Wigan and Leeds seemed to consistently produce solid quality juniors instead of just the odd superstar. Our juniors were making it through but never quite looked as ready to slot in. Wigan’s wing talent line is one example. When have we been able to stick a Marshall or Davies on the wing and have them score 4 tries a game despite being in a boring team? Shirt and sponsors aside, I feel a little bit better about 2017 each week.

Re: Academy production line : Fri Dec 01, 2017 8:49 am  

I’m with you ‘Easy’, looking forward to the new season, the signs are very encouraging. I just hope the fans don’t turn on Price the moment we have a bad spell, which is definitely going to happen at some point.

I bumped into two of our new Australian players the other day, in Stockton Heath. Said hello to be friendly and they said hello back.

It struck me how odd it must be for them, being here, having grown up in Aus, two young lads on the other side of the world, in a strange new place. It’s a tough ask for them to just turn up here and be brilliant straight away.

It might be a slow start, which increases the pressure. We might all need some patience.

Re: Academy production line : Fri Dec 01, 2017 9:45 am  

I think it will be a slow start for the NRL players, simply as they need time to adjust to the conditions that Feb - Apr can deliver.

Once the ground firms up I think we’ll see the best of Roberts.

I’d expect the fresh start to have a motivating effect on the remainder of the Smith era squad and even if we don’t see a run of victories hopefully we’ll see some resilience and effort and go into the spring at least in mid-table, which psychologically puts us in a good position for the playoffs. Saints were awful most of last year but at the business end of the season Holbrook got them playing to within a whisker of a grand final. They actually outscored Cas away from home so arguably could have gone on to beat Leeds. Just shows how fine the margins can be even after an awful start.