Bayern wrote: No Dan Trayers..?
Talent like him you'd hope he would stick with pro rugby.

Guessing he be in Sub-academy?

No Dan Trayers..?
Talent like him you'd hope he would stick with pro rugby.

1st year academy announced, no real surprises, don't think theirs any new additions or dropouts to year 2 and 3, SOB2 is still there which is a relief.

only 6 backs in the whole academy.

Year1
Cormac Brennan Back Three Galwegians RFC
Conor Kyne Loose Head Prop Galwegians RFC
Conor Lowndes Scrum Half Galwegians RFC
Stephen McVeigh Back Row Buccaneers RFC
Conan O’Donnell Tight Head Prop Sligo RFC
Pat O’Toole Hooker Corinthians RFC
Cian Romaine Lock Buccaneers

Year 2
Shane Delahunt Hooker
Jack Dinneen Hooker
Ciaran Gaffney Back Three
Marc Kelly Back Row
Conor McKeon Outhalf
Peter Robb Centre

Year 3
James Connolly Back Row
Jamie Dever Tight-Head Prop
Saba Meunargia Tight-Head Prop
Rory Moloney Back Row
Sean O’Brien Back Row/Lock
Rory Parata Centre
Jacob Walshe Loose-Head Prop

You're right that not every academy hopeful will become a 200 capper, but that's not the goal of the academy. Every academy is set up with the intention of giving promising players the chance to develop in a professional environment and then we wait to see what happens. Leinsters academy is the best established in Ireland and it still can't churn out five first teamers a year, it's not realistic.

Demented mole has a great ongoing series following the development of a selection from the under 20s. From the three years he's covered we can already see how quickly young hopefuls can fall away for a variety of reasons. He has picked 5 of the best of each squad but even those fifteen players have not all developed at a uniform pace. Henshaw and Layden are the best examples of the divergence in development.

Two of the best things about the current Connacht set up is that the academy trains with the senior team, and despite large gaps between first team exposure players like masterson have been happy to stick with Connacht and have slotted into the senior team when called upon. It shows IMO that there's a good team ethos and the whole squad knows that they are there to support each other as a unit

the point i'm struggling to make is that in reality only a few of those players who came from the have developed into the quality 1st team players(not squad players) that we require to move us from 7th\8th in the league into a position where we can challenge for a top 5. Also there is too much of a reliance on importing Leinster players who bypass our academy. So in my opinion the Acadamey is not delivering and is arguably not value for money but I don't know what the answer is. If staying in 8th place every year is deemed a success and then maybe our academy is delivering.

clanman wrote: i understand we have a lot of players who came through from the academy but that's over a span of many years if you look at the age profiles of the players, so if we take the span by the ages of players and say it's over 10 years maybe 1 player a year is coming through and ends up a permanent fixture in the senior match day team. maybe i'm being a bit simplistic and I know the academy is a lot more active now that it was 5 years ago. Browne for me would an example of a player who is not a 1st teamer

I'm genuinely missing what your point is here. If it's that the academy is not providing value for money in the last few years then that's patently wrong: of the 18 home grown players in next season's 39 man squad 13 have graduated from the academy in the last 4 years. If it's that it's not worth having an academy because before that it only produced a dribble of players, I don't see the logic there either (even if we wanted to shut it down that's not our call; it's funded directly by the IRFU as per all the other provincial academies with the exception of Leinster's "second" academy). Is there some other avenue like the French approach of importing planeloads of 20-year old Fijians that the branch is missing and that would be acceptable to fans and the IRFU?

i understand we have a lot of players who came through from the academy but that's over a span of many years if you look at the age profiles of the players, so if we take the span by the ages of players and say it's over 10 years maybe 1 player a year is coming through and ends up a permanent fixture in the senior match day team. maybe i'm being a bit simplistic and I know the academy is a lot more active now that it was 5 years ago. Browne for me would an example of a player who is not a 1st teamer

clanman wrote: so historically how many players from the academy progress to be 1st team senior players

Bealham, Loughney (1st ever graduate), Buckley, McKeon, Marmion, Carty, Henshaw & Leader played 20+ times last year (Muldoon was near ever present but pre-dates the academy).

O'Halloran, Heffernan, and Masterson played slightly less (as did Browne who again predates the academy).

If you're looking for value for money then look at who played & what they earn rather than some notional idea of who's a first teamer:

- Homegrown players made up 37% (15/41) of last years senior squad.
- No match day 23 had fewer than 9 (39%) home grown players (including players still in the academy).
- The most home grown players in a match day squad was 14 (61%).

Even allowing for the fact that home grown players were more likely to bench than start, they are clearly overrepresented in match day squads when compared to "imported" players.

Given that some of them (e.g. Heffernan, Leader) were on miniscule first year pro contracts, and that the players then still in the academy (Masterson, Delahunt et al) were essentially playing for college fees and expenses, the bang-for-buck provided by home grown players heavily outweighs that provided by the other players in the squad.

Obviously you always need to bring in quality from outside when it's available, but if we want to compete we need to find our own players. Clearly we failed to do this in the past - after Loughney the next oldest academy graduates are Buckley and McKeon (both 24). However there appears to be a production line churning them out the last 4 or 5 years and this is one of the structural differences (possibly the most important) that has propelled us upwards from the league basement.

so historically how many players from the academy progress to be 1st team senior players, maybe 1 player a year would be my guess which is scant reward for all the players that come through the academy. Masterson from last year looks likely to become a 1st teamer this next season or maybe the following. I class a 1st teamer as one who is regularily in the match day team regardless of injuries to other players.

As for the current crop it's hard to say who will make the step up th next level sooner, possibly Peter Robb looking at that list. anyway forwards take a bit more time to develop.

O'Donnell and McVeigh you would assume are in.

Any updates here?
I've heard Pat O'toole lowndes and romaine - unconfirmed though.
Any others?

Would hope O'Donnell And Romaine given academy spots alright
Don't know much about McVeigh tbh

Bayern wrote: Prop
Jamie Dever - Year 3
Jacob Walshe - Year 3
Saba Meunargia - Year 3
Conan O'Donnell - Year 1

Hooker
Shane Delahunt - Year 2
Jack Dineen - Year 2

Lock
Cian Romaine - Year 1

Backrow
James Connolly - Year 3
Eoghan Masterson - Year 3
Sean O’Brien - Year 3
Rory Moloney - Year 3
Marc Kelly - Year 2
Stephen McVeigh - Year 1

Scrumhalf
Conor Lowndes - Year 1

Outhalf
Conor McKeon - Year 2

Centre
Rory Parata - Year 3
Peter Robb - Year 2

Back Three
Ciaran Gaffney - Year 2

Confirmed earlier in the year Masterson moves off an Academy contract , onto a 2 year senior contract...
www.the42.ie/connacht-back-rows-masterso...eon-1903485-Jan2015/

Prop
Jamie Dever - Year 3
Jacob Walshe - Year 3
Saba Meunargia - Year 3
Conan O'Donnell - Year 1

Hooker
Shane Delahunt - Year 2
Jack Dineen - Year 2

Lock
Cian Romaine - Year 1

Backrow
James Connolly - Year 3
Sean O’Brien - Year 3
Rory Moloney - Year 3
Marc Kelly - Year 2
Stephen McVeigh - Year 1

Scrumhalf
Conor Lowndes - Year 1

Outhalf
Conor McKeon - Year 2

Centre
Rory Parata - Year 3
Peter Robb - Year 2

Back Three
Ciaran Gaffney - Year 2