I still chuckle when I remember about the time I went to City's Training ground to to an interview with Phil Brown. He was telling the HDM and other Journo's that Featherstone is going to be a huge star for City in the future
To be fair, when he was a kid playing in the reserves he looked a class apart, he just seemed to get worse as time went on. A bit like Danny Emerton.
The trouble with him and Cullen was size/ speed. By the time their contemporaries had stopped growing, these two were left behind athletically. Unless they're exceptionally fast or skilled, players of their stature struggle to impress.
There were 3 9vs9 games going on. Schools were told to send their "best" players. One school sent 10 kids (can't remember the name)... The reason I say this is because having seen that school compete in the 5-a-sides earlier in the year and not do particularly well, you'd have to question what they class as "their best". Sending loads of kicks doesn't increase your chance of getting a child from you school into the squad, it just increases the chances of them missing somebody else who possibly should have made it.
The next/final phase of the trials is next Wednesday at St Mary's Sports College (think it's at 4:30/5pm) if anybody wants to go see how this kind of thing works and how kids are scouted. Or follow @HullSchoolsFA for more information.
Late 60's there were about 23 divisions. If you really dominated a league then you went up 4 or 5 divisions. Went from division 19 to division 6 in 3 years.
We used to be quite involved with the Hull Boys Sunday league quite a few years ago - there was definitely favouritism back then when it came to trials for East Riding and Hull Boys. I remember one incidence when a so called "scout" favoured his grandson over other boys!!!
I reckon that's probably due to the lack of quality opposition and facilities, hindering their development. There'll be plenty of players who could have made it at a higher level if our youth setup was of a decent standard.
