Academy Player Draft?

[Which Tyler]

Or do we want a single thread for all the rumours around the new PGA? (eg hybrid contracts, ringfencing at Prem2, re-introduction of Wasps into Prem2 etc)

https://archive.ph/58qRc

Premiership academies set for radical shake-up with NFL-style draft
Exclusive: Under new system, each team would be allowed to keep a certain number of players from each year group of their own academy intake

[FKAS]

Yeah cause it's always great to tell young kids they've got to move across the country irrelevant of where their family are based, what Uni they want to study at etc for a development contract.

It's not as comparable with the NFL as the guys coming out of college there tend to be 21 or older. They are ready to enter the big time and earn first team money, having already played in a college system that is professional in every thing but salary to the athletes.

Rugby academies kick out at 18. Most of those players then spend two or three years developing in a development squad and going out on loan. They aren't going to get the first team salaries that mean it's instantly worth uprooting their lives.

I can see the boundaries for the academies being haggled over though. There's a big gap in the West Midlands now for starters.

[Puja]

I opened the article, expecting to be enraged, but upon reading it's nothing like an NFL draft whatsoever and any suggestion that it might be comes solely from the fevered imagination of the writer, keen for clicks.

The actual detail seems sensible - rather than there being hard-and-fast boundaries, whereby anyone in a particular school *has* to go to this club, clubs would be able to nominate some and then others would be distributed to other local teams, depending on what's best for their development. So if the schools in Gloucester's catchment produced two outstanding 10s in the same year group, one of them could be moved to Bristol instead, rather than them blocking each others' progress.

Generally in favour of everything there except for the journalism.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Think this makes a lot of sense. Anything that give more youngsters more opportunity seems a good thing to me.

[Margin_Walker]

I opened the article, expecting to be enraged, but upon reading it's nothing like an NFL draft whatsoever and any suggestion that it might be comes solely from the fevered imagination of the writer, keen for clicks.

The actual detail seems sensible - rather than there being hard-and-fast boundaries, whereby anyone in a particular school *has* to go to this club, clubs would be able to nominate some and then others would be distributed to other local teams, depending on what's best for their development. So if the schools in Gloucester's catchment produced two outstanding 10s in the same year group, one of them could be moved to Bristol instead, rather than them blocking each others' progress.

Generally in favour of everything there except for the journalism.

Puja

I read the article as saying that a school/club would still sit within a club boundary (although these may be redrawn). So you would still play U18s based purely on that. What's changed though is that you may only be able to pick your best 4 (for example) players to promote to the senior academy at 18. With maybe more positional restrictions. Rather than the 5, 6 or 7 that clubs usually take on. The players below those ringfenced by the club would be drafted essentially. Perhaps in addition to those in non club affiliated RFU academies. For example the Quins or Northampton player that's 5th in their pecking order may be significantly better than the 5th best Bristol U18 etc.

May have read it wrong though.

[Mellsblue]

Sounds very sensible. My only real worry from the detail included is that the RFU will be more involved. That’s great if they can take best practice from the best academies and disseminate but it also means they can make matters worse on a larger scale and we all know the RFU tend to make a situation worse. For example, if the RFU appointed someone ill-equipped for a position - let’s call him Rean Dyan - the consequences could ripple further under this model.

[Mellsblue]

I opened the article, expecting to be enraged, but upon reading it's nothing like an NFL draft whatsoever and any suggestion that it might be comes solely from the fevered imagination of the writer, keen for clicks.

The actual detail seems sensible - rather than there being hard-and-fast boundaries, whereby anyone in a particular school *has* to go to this club, clubs would be able to nominate some and then others would be distributed to other local teams, depending on what's best for their development. So if the schools in Gloucester's catchment produced two outstanding 10s in the same year group, one of them could be moved to Bristol instead, rather than them blocking each others' progress.

Generally in favour of everything there except for the journalism.

Puja

I read the article as saying that a school/club would still sit within a club boundary (although these may be redrawn). So you would still play U18s based purely on that. What's changed though is that you may only be able to pick your best 4 (for example) players to promote to the senior academy at 18. With maybe more positional restrictions. Rather than the 5, 6 or 7 that clubs usually take on. The players below those ringfenced by the club would be drafted essentially. Perhaps in addition to those in non club affiliated RFU academies. For example the Quins or Northampton player that's 5th in their pecking order may be significantly better than the 5th best Bristol U18 etc.

May have read it wrong though.

I suppose it’s not too dissimilar to someone leaving school after A levels and heading off to uni. It’ll be interesting to see how much say the players have on their destination.