Signed for Wakefield on 2 year contract.

Good luck young man.
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Didn't he win the Reserve/Acadamy (whatever it is) player of the year?

We're shipping the Young Un's out like Wigan now a few years ago

He's a back row though so he's sitting behind Clough, Wilkin, Flannery, Soliola, Dixon, Ashurst & McGennis. He's coming to that age we're its make or break, so I don't blame him for looking else where.

Good luck to the lad.

It's a major problem in that one players get to 20 -21 - 22 years old and have not established themselves in the first team, what does a club do with them.
The three over 20's in the U20 team rule makes it difficult, and so the majority move on. The other option is to loan players out on dual contract, but even in that case many of the players tend to move on, Ainscough, Walker, Smith, Emmitt, Dean, Tyrer etc.

It must be a very difficult for a club in deciding who to keep.

What is he like/is he a prospect or a no hoper? Never seen him before. Judging by the great players who have come through from your academy hope we havent signed a dud. Thoughts on what he is like would be grateful.

I've only seen him at first grade on I think two occasions so it's hard to say how good he is but apparently he's played some good matches at u20s level. I would imagine he's been spotted as potentially a good player who now wants a fulltime contract but who is a bit too far down the pecking order at Saints to guarantee much first team action in the near future.

No world beater but will take the ball up all day and tackle all day. Looks to have a good attitude towards playing the game.
Was awarded Saints under 20's player of the year last year, and played a number of games for Whitehaven on loan. Was Saints player of the match in the reserves grand final.

Also played a couple of games for Saints 1st team this year and although listed in the backrow, took it straight down the middle acting like a prop. He was not afraid to run flat out at lads bigger than him, get smashed then run right back at them.

I think with Full time coaching, he was apparently only part time, then he should improve and become the type of good club player every side needs.

He will be in the championship within 3 seasons.

thanks guys !

According to the Wakefield site Mike Rush recommended him to them. It is good to see we are looking after all our juniors and not just the ones that make it with us.

To be honest Rogues if a young player has not made it by the time they are 21/22 then they are not going to make it. A lot is made out about your team letting go a lot of young players but in reality very few have prooved Wigan wrong. The same can be said about Saints, even the natural ability of Lee Briers has not been enough to prove that Saints reservations about his professionalism were wrong.

I personally think it a good thing that the 20/25 rule and the salary cap exist. It forces clubs to find out if their young players are good enough and if not they are allowed to go to a club who will.

The bottom line is that Paul is a good player who should be playing in Superleague but is probably not good enough to play at Saints given the quality of the other players coming through. In the past a lot of good Saints juniors that have only just fallen off the radar after just missing out at Saints.

I guess that a lot of clubs know who they are going to keep. Foster vs Armstrong and Dean Vs Wheeler are great examples of this. For a long time it looked like Armstrong and Dean were going to make it at Saints but Wheeler and Foster had always showed more promise in the juniors and the club gave them more time to prove themselves so eventually they got the first team contracts.