PAUL Crarey hopes the youngsters involved with Barrow Raiders’ youth development programme emerge from it as better players, regardless of whether or not they go on to make the grade at professional level.

Promising stand-off Jake Carter became the second player to graduate from the Furness Raiders under-19s side to the paid ranks after impressing for both them in the College Rugby League competition along with Barrow Island’s open-age side in the National Conference League.

He follows in the footsteps of scrum-half Ryan Johnston, a product of Dalton’s youth system, while Millom’s Charlie Emslie and Walney Central winger Adam Ford have both been invited to train with the Raiders in pre-season after some good performances for Furness.

Several other players who played for Furness have now returned to the amateur clubs in the area and Raiders head coach Crarey is eager to ensure those teams feel the benefit of players having access to Barrow’s development scheme too.

“Like Jake and Ryan, and hopefully Charlie and Adam, they’re coming in and progressing through with us, they keep in touch and it’s not a big culture shock, and it doesn’t put them off,” said Crarey.

“If that’s what they want to do, we’re not going to make it impossible for them to do that and if it’s not for them, they’ve got a chance without signing on the dotted line because they’ve had a taste of it.

“We’ve got a great relationship with amateur clubs in the area and we want to support them with their players in helping them get better.”

While keen to encourage promising young players, at the same time Crarey is cautious of bringing too many into the first-team environment at one time, as he is keen to ensure the standard of training remains high for the club’s senior players as they prepare for the 2019 Betfred Championship season.

One other player who has been involved, though, is Dalton’s Jack Stephenson, who has been getting back up to fitness after a spell out with a broken leg which saw him miss some of Furness’ strength and conditioning sessions.

“We don’t bring too many in at once because we want the quality of the sessions to be really high, but it was beneficial to Jack because he had an injury and missed out on a lot of the physical stuff with David [Cairns, Furness head coach],” said Crarey.

“He came in and did a good job; we were short of back-rowers one Saturday and he slotted in really well, and we want them to have an affinity with the first-team players because they are part of the club.”