Rhinos set to target Australian youth

[josie andrews]

Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington is set to visit Australia in the new year and he revealed he will be pursuing a new strategy of targeting talented young players, who have yet to make their mark in the NRL.

With room for at least another 1 player in the Rhinos 2012 squad, Hetherington told the Yorkshire Evening Post that he hasn't got any specific target in mind when he visits Australia and how hard its going to be to attract any top-talent in the future.

“The increase in the NRL’s salary cap, the current exchange rate and various changes made by the government are going to make it very, very difficult to attract top-quality, international standard overseas players,” Hetherington said.

“.... we will no longer be able to compete with NRL clubs for their top players. We are now looking at identifying outstanding young players who might be interested in coming to England to begin their career and possibly get a university education as well.

“They would have to be exceptionally talented, because we have got very good young players of our own. Our focus is very much on attracting and developing our own talent.

“We have been concentrating on our own service area, which is Leeds, but we are now also looking further afield – overseas and to the south west of England.”

http://www.superleaguefans.com/leeds-rh ... youth.html

[josie andrews]

Where Wigan lead everyone follows!!!

[bourbon_rat]

They would have to be exceptionally talented, because we have got very good young players of our own. Our focus is very much on attracting and developing our own talent.

:conf:
So why go looking to steal emerging talent from a comp that already has education & advancement systems in place ?
And risk alienating local emerging talent at the same time.