Chris Thorman has admitted it’s been a tough year for the Huddersfield Giants Academy.
But for the long-term Super League future of the club, the former Giants captain and current assistant coach has still seen plenty of positives.
With Kruise Leeming now playing far more regularly at top-flight level after beginning the year as the Under 19s starting hooker and full-back Jared Simpson having emerged from virtually nowhere to storm onto the Super League scene, Thorman knows he and his Academy coaching team must be doing something right.
And with the likes of Tyler Dickinson and Mikey Wood proving they have the ability to compete against seasoned professionals during successful dual-registration Championship spells, it would be no great surprise if two more teenagers broke into Paul Anderson’s senior side in 2016.
In fact, it’s because of their heroics in 2015 that both Simpson and Wood have earned full-time Super League contracts for next season.
But Thorman still thinks it’s a bit of a shame that so many circumstances prevented his first-choice Under 19s side from playing together on a regular basis.
“If everyone had been available and played together this season, this group could have achieved everything they’d have wanted to achieve. That’s how talented they are,” said Thorman, whose side finished second in the Academy Phase II table following their final-day 40-26 triumph at London Broncos.
“But having a settled full-strength side is something we’ve never had the chance to see.
“On a weekly basis, we’ve had players on Super League standby, turning out for dual-registration clubs or ruled out through injury, which has been the case with two of our senior forwards in Liam Johnson and Connor Redgwick.
“This has obviously made it tough, although that’s just a fact of life in regards to the Academy.
“It’s been a real positive to see Kruise Leeming featuring consistently in Super League and Jared Simpson given an opportunity in the first team and taking his chance so well.
“And the experience the likes of Tyler Dickinson and Mikey Wood have gained from playing dual-reg is invaluable. Even though they’re still Academy age, they’ve shown they’re good enough to compete against grown men.
“This experience has helped them improve their games dramatically, and it’s clearly taken them a step closer to achieving their ultimate goal of playing at Super League level. They’ve shown they have the potential.
“When it’s come to the injuries, there’s also a bit of a positive, too.
“Because Liam and Connor have missed a fair bit of the season, we’ve been forced to blood young forwards like Matty English and Billy Hayes much earlier than we had originally planned.
“They’re both first-year Academy kids – they’ve still got two years left – but have this year played big minutes against senior Academy forwards and more than held their own. They’ve impressed everyone with the way they’ve stepped up.”
And Thorman has singled out other young members of the Academy set-up who have already come to the fore.
“This season, we’ve run with a really young half-back combination in Izaac Farrell and Will Gledhill,” added Thorman.
“Izaac still has two years left in the Academy and Will will be in his final season.
“We wanted to see if they had the potential to lead a side successfully around the field, and they’ve shown they do have what it takes to do just that.
“For Izaac, as a first year, we knew it would be a really big challenge for him. He’s always had the ability and the athleticism, but now we know he possesses a lot more than that.
“To be fair, most of the 10 first years who stepped up did really well.
“We’ll probably be using about 14-16 first years next season, but we’ve really high hopes they’ll go well.
“Because of the quality of the structure we now have in place in our Scholarship set-up, I know that when the kids come up to me they’ll already know all the fundamentals and be as well prepared as they possibly can be to take the next step.
“It’s always exciting when they join us, because we know how much potential there now is at the club.”
