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Powell blasts “hugely disappointing” RFL academy decision

Castleford have not been granted an academy license for the period of 2022-2027, news which Daryl Powell described as “very disappointing”.

“The club has put a statement out and I’m in full agreement with it,” Powell said.

“We had a bit of lean period a few years back where we just didn’t have the players in our academy, but we do now.

“We’ve got some high quality young players and it’s very disappointing – for an area like this, surely we want to increase the pool not diminish it.

“More work needs to be done to get our community clubs in areas growing and thriving – if we can make sure that prospers and the RFL supports that then hopefully that’s where it all comes from.”

Powell also praised the work done behind the scenes to get the current group of youngsters ready for the first-team.

“The decision has been made and I’m not sure whether the club will appeal.

“They’ve been after this for some while have the RFL, but the player pathway is broken anyway.

“There’s no reserves – that came in and got dropped and it just needs fixing, but I just don’t think this the way to fix it.

“By getting rid of academies, it’s about putting more emphasis on developing young players.

“Darren Higgins has done an awesome job of getting a real good crop of young players, people like Adam Rusling and Cain Robb and we tried to get Callum McLelland after he came back from rugby union but he went to Leeds.

“I just don’t agree with it, it’s the wrong way to go about it.”

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