Hull KR academy chief gives view on IMG's lack of youth development focus

Hull Kingston Rovers academy head Jason Netherton is hopeful that there will be more focus on youth development in future IMG scores. IMG's gradings, which decide the teams that will be in the 2025 Super League, will be revealed on Wednesday morning. Rovers scored 15.

52 in the indicative gradings, which was the sixth best score, and gave them Category A status. Netherton said: "There's not much in there for academies. I think there should be.



But, at this moment in time, the main concern for IMG is around getting more people watching the game. "A lot of the community aspects of the IMG scores are around what your foundation is doing, we tie in with that they do. We started a coach education programme and strengthen that up next year.

We have community clubs come in to do training sessions. We have parent workshops we do, with Paula Cullen our well-being officer." Asked about more value being placed on academies, he replied: "I think that will come over time.

The main focus for the sport is to get more people watching it. To do that obviously the focus has to be on what the spectacle looks like on TV and the matchday experience. Academies don't fit into that.

"IMG have got a long contract and I'd like to think that. over time, once we get more clubs at the point where the matchday experience is where it needs to be, I think part of the focus will start to lean towards what clubs are doing around youth development, around players playing the game, young players in the community. But I don't think it's the focus at the moment of the sport.

" Netherton can see the effort that has gone into Rovers efforts to score well, saying: "You look at Craven Park now on a gameday and it's completely different to what the atmosphere was like three years ago. People like Craig Franklin (chief operating officer) and his team and the media team have worked very hard. I know we are very high in the scoring for social media, which is brilliant.

And the retail team are smashing records left, right and centre. So the work that the guys are doing in their departments has been fantastic. I've seen how hard they are working.

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