Looking to the future

There are five names on the Super League trophy. St Helens, Bradford, Wigan, Leeds and Hull KR. Of those, Bradford last won in 2005. Hull KR have won one title, in 2025.

What do the remaining sides have in common? The heartbeat of their title-winning sides came from their academy. Leeds' "golden generation" was based on a spine of players like Sinfield, McGuire, Burrow and Peacock. In 2022, 9 of St Helens' Grand Final winning 17 came through their academy. Wigan's title-winning teams have also been littered with home grown talent.

Therefore, if we look at what is happening at academy level today, this may give us a glimpse into the future of Super League tomorrow.

And at that level something remarkable is happening at Warrington. Their academy team has not lost a competitive match since September 2024.

In 2025, Warrington's academy finished the season unbeaten and went on to the win the Grand Final. It's still early days in 2026, but Warrington have a perfect record so far this season too.

They had an Australian tour in 2025 too, beating Penrith's academy 50-10, drawing with New South Wales (yes, the best of an entire state!) and lost to Gold Coast.

For a long time, Warrington have focused on the big money imports and "win now" signings that when they arrived did anything but "win now". Or win ever.

That approach changed a few years ago. We are now starting to see the results. Cai Taylor Wray, Aaron Lindop, Lachlan Webster, Zack Gardner, Ewan Irwin and Luke Thomas are just some of the academy talent making their way into the first team. 

One of the biggest breeding grounds for Rugby League players in the North West of England is Widnes. Mark Percival, Lewis Dodd, Harry Smith, Sam Walters, George Delaney, Jarrod O' Connor, Harry Robertson and Danny Walker to name just a few current Super League stars were either born in Widnes or came through academy clubs in the town.

Just imagine if Widnes Vikings could have had just some of these players!

What do you notice of that list? Just one of those players have played for Warrington and that was the player who was born there.

You may also notice that St Helens have long being one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Widnes conveyor belt. The word on the local Rugby League grapevine is that the next generation of Widnes talent is heading to Warrington, not St Helens. 

I can't write a piece about academy-level rugby without making some other observations though:

• Leeds are also looking very strong at this level and are Warrington's main competitors.
  
  
• Wigan remain strong too but not as dominant as previous years (but, interestingly, have recruited heavily from St Helens based amateur clubs in recent years).
  
  
• St Helens have faced some chastening results, bringing into question the quality of players coming through and whether that is as strong as in recent years.
  
  
• Castleford and Wakefield are having good 2026 seasons.
  
  
• Hull KR remain mid-table but there are signs of improvement.

Despite an academy-first approach being the key to success in Rugby League in the UK historically, times are changing.

Look at how Hull KR are doing it. They have recruited aggressively with an eye for the future.

The signing of Bill Leyland in 2024 was not for the immediate. It was for the long term. Leon Ruan, Noah Booth, Jumah Sambou, Declan Murphy, Jack Charles, Tom Whitehead, Jack Charles and Ryan Westerman are all young players signed from other clubs who Hull KR intend on bringing through in years to come.

It's an approach I don't remember seeing in Super League before so it will only be in years to come that we see if it is a sustainable and successful approach.

Super League has also made a recent change which increased the number of overseas players that each club can have to 10. With more freedom to recruit overseas players, there is an argument that the academy-first route doesn't have to be the only way. Whether that is right or not is another question.

The ever-growing NRL is also important. With the NRL expanding to include more and more teams, this brings more opportunities for more British players to play in Australia. And with the vast disparity in salary cap and financial might of the NRL, we may see more and more young players going to Australia, possibly at younger ages. 

We have had this before but the extent may get greater in years to come. And it could be demoralising for British clubs to produce quality young players simply to see NRL clubs reap the rewards. Will it even lead to a change of approach in the UK?

But there are other advantages to an academy-first approach. For players under 21, only part of their salary counts towards the salary cap. Dispensation is also given to clubs for producing more Super League first team players.

There are also intangible benefits. We can never know, but I would wager that the likes of James Roby and Sean O' Loughlin could have signed for other clubs during their careers and got a higher salary than their clubs paid them. Effectively, clubs who produce home grown talent get more bang for their buck due to the loyalty of certain players to their club.

Warrington may see similar benefits in years to come.

Whilst the changing landscape of the sport means we are in a state of flux, I still think what we are seeing at academy level may well reflect what we will see at Super League level in a few years time.

If that theory is right, I think that the late 2020's and early 2030's could be a very exciting time to be a Warrington fan. We could be seeing the birth of an early-2000's Leeds style golden generation.