MORRISON PREVIEWS WIRE CLASH

We sat down with Academy head coach Glenn Morrison to look ahead to tonight's Academy clash with Warrington Wolves - as well as discuss the pathway for junior players at the Bulls...

1. You have Warrington coming up on Thursday, how pleased are you with your start to the season?

We’ve trained well. Pre-season has been really good and the boys are positive, we had some good games and friendlies. We lost Sam Ackroyd and Sam Spencer the night before the game against Wakefield. That's our starting half-back and centre so it was a bit of a chop and change late on, especially in the halves which wasn’t great preparation for that game. The boys have trained well this week and we’re hoping to have everyone fit. We’ve got training tonight so we’ll look at some tape, see how they play and hopefully we can go out there and put a performance together.

1.  Are there any injury concerns or players missing going into the game?

We’ve got about four that have got to get signed off tonight and are still 50/50. I’m hoping we can get them, or at least half of them in because it makes a big difference if you’re missing four of your starting side. I’m confident we’ll get a couple of these back and into the team for tomorrow night. If we don’t then those that will step in will do a job. They’ve all trained well and they all know their roles. So, whoever gets into that final 17 tomorrow night will go out there and do the job as we ask.

1. Warrington are obviously a top team, with 9 academy products featuring for them already this season in the Super League. So, do you think that this game early on in the season will be a good test of where the team is at?

Warrington are one of the top teams, they always have strong junior development and junior squads. As you say they push them through into the first team which is something that we’re trying to aim towards. In the next few years we can develop our juniors and bring them through into the firsts. Again it's going to be a tough one for us. I know a few of the players on their side and have seen the tape. They’re really good players, a good team across the park. If we can put our team together and play for 80 minutes I’m sure we’ll give them a good run.

1. Speaking about moving players into the first team, the club has opted against dual registration this season. Does that open up a pathway for the academy players to progress into the first team?

I believe so, that’s what we want. That’s why I’ve come onboard to try, along with Ryan Hunkin, to make the junior area a very professional environment. To get standards up and develop the players so if they do get the call they’re ready to go. I know the club is not going to rush people through, but if we can show that we’ve got a pathway from juniors into the first team then hopefully it will encourage more young, local players to want to sign with the Bulls and continue on, like it was back in the old days when I first came over.

1. The Reserves is a sort of in-between step. Do you think it's important that the young players get experience at that senior level to develop?

Yeah, if they’re good enough they’re ready. So, for me I don’t worry about their age. If they’re good enough to play they’ll get a chance. As we’ve seen with the boys that have stepped up already this year in the Reserves, and a couple played for the first team in a friendly, and they’ve all held themselves accountable and done really well. I believe there will be more of that in the future. Getting that step up and playing against men does benefit them in the long run. So, if they’re putting their performances in to get selected, then they’ll keep getting selected.

1. Finally, as an academy what would you say your goals are for the season?

Obviously we want to win games. Don’t make up the numbers, we’re all there to win games and try and finish as high as we can. On the flip side of that I need to make sure that the players that finish the season through our academy are in a better place, better players with better skillsets than they started the season with. If not, we haven’t done our jobs. It’s still part of a development process at that age and we want to make sure that we’re building better players on and off the pitch whilst winning games at the same time.

 Credit: Matthew Richardson