As I am sure a number of you are aware following discussions with the clubs directors, the Knights First Team coaching staff and myself we have made some changes to the structure of the Academy that may be of interest to you.

The reasons for the changes are fairly self-explanatory and revolve around the fact that we want to give our strongest Academy players the very best opportunity of making it to first team level here with the Knights.

The main change to the Academy programme is the number of players in the programme. We did have an Academy squad (under 17 to under 21 players) of approximately thirty players. The reason we had thirty players was to cover for injuries and unavailability’s when selecting a Knights ‘A’ teams. This number of Academy players has been reduced to eleven, which allows a bigger investment in time in these remaining players. This obviously leaves us short when selecting Knights ‘A’ teams and for this reason we have built links with four local clubs. In return for Academy players going out on loan to Harrogate, Hull Ionians, Hull or Sheffield Tigers these four clubs will make players available, in addition to First Team and Academy players, for Knight ‘A’ fixtures.

The other significant change revolves around the structure of the Academy training week. Previously the Academy players trained two evenings per week. This has been changed to four afternoons per week essentially making the Academy as close to full time as we could while still allow Academy players to fulfill their full time educational commitments. This has allowed Scott Pearson (Knights Conditioning Coach) and Anthony Carter (Knights First Team full back) to become more involved with the Academy from a conditioning and backs development / play point of view.

In addition to the Academy the Trainees (under 13 to under 16 players) will continue to train one evening per week as a group. Full time holiday camps for both the Academy and the Trainees will continue.

I hope this puts everyone in the picture regarding the new Academy structure. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.