Watching Hull KR this season after finishing bottom of the league last year can’t believe this hasn’t been discussed more. Normal year last year and Hull KR would have been battling it out in the championship. They’ve invested heavily in youth over the last couple of years and are now seeing the results. Surely a licensing system needs to be brought back in to give teams the chance to blood younger players without the threat of relegation every year. I know it’s not as simple as that with expansion etc all on the cards but we seem to copy a lot of what the Aussie league does apart from this and the gap between the 2 leagues has never been bigger than now

No thanks are you forgetting we could have gone down

If the Crusaders had not thrown in the towel at the last minute.

Are you off your tits??



Invested heavily in youth?



They are on the same track as Salford = bust, boom, bust!



John Bastion leaving them tells you all you need to know (as does having Ben Cockayne looking after their youth).



Bookmark this thread for 10 months time...

I wasn’t referring to the academy, rather squad recruitment and strategy, taking young domestic players from the lower leagues, developing them then giving them a chance to prove themselves. And I mean a proper chance not just a handful of games. Abdull and Lewis are a halfback pairing who are 80minutes away from a grand final. Who would have thought that 24 months ago. That’s because they’ve had a settled period and a coach who’s developed them. Throw in relegation last year and potentially they’ve both moved on to different teams back to square one down the pecking order learning new playing schemes. As for bust or boom next year will have to wait and see.

I know I was speechless when I read that and even though the poster has recanted a bit it’s still a ludicrous statement.



I mean the initial point was fair enough but to use that club as the example couldn’t be more wrong.



There is nothing special about HKR, they have had a moderately decent season, just like we did once WP took charge.



If HKR get to the final and win I’ll be delighted for them but it will be just one of those wonderful sporting oddities due mostly to having a hugely experienced coach, it certainly won’t be the result of some great master plan.

You always get a season where a unfancied club gate crashes the party, we did it in 2004, Salford more recently. Sadly we drop back down to our level as we are unable to sustain it like the bigger clubs. That's not to say I haven't been impressed with HKR or enjoyed their style of play, but in reality it's a duff season. They only won one more game than we did, all be it played 4 games less.



Still good on them for nilling Wire at home, and I wouldn't be surprised if they beat Catalans either. They've run them close twice I think.

Am i right in saying they only won 1 more than us, yes they played some less but they where hard games they missed including saints and catalans. Kr did well last night but warrington where very poor and on last night showing all 11 other sl cubs would of beat them.think it now clear to see how far catalans and saints are ahead of every other team

Rovers were always going to improve under Tony Smith. He's an excellent coach who's done well everywhere he's been. They've recruited well and turned decent players into good ones.



But let's not get carried away, they finished 6th in a 12 team league and have benefited from playing less games than everybody else.

So it's' nothing to do with the coaching ,or a half who was playing in is dinner jacket

The praise Hull KR have been getting is vomit inducing. It’s like no other club has gone down the “youth route” before.

8 quite like HKR but the over the top love in by the sky pundits is sickening.

I would be prepared to take it one stage further, they (sky) have a hidden agenda to push certain clubs forward while disregarding others.

8 quite like HKR but the over the top love in by the sky pundits is sickening.

I would be prepared to take it one stage further, they (sky) have a hidden agenda to push certain clubs forward while disregarding others.