From Fan In The Stand
Hey team, look dont get me wrong. Fan In The Stand loves his local footy. I have spent many a saturday afternoon freezing the plums off watching the Mighty Lyttelton Sharks play at the Sacred Acre and down at the nest watching Linwood Keas play. My thoughts are in no way disrespectful to the current players playing in the local Auckland Comp Fox Memorial BUT scrapping the ISP team for the Warriors contacted players to go back and play in Fox Memorial is 54986987023498 steps backwards. The ISP team is a very successful team and have been the best performing team in the club for about the last 3 seasons. Why scrap it???? Its producing 1st graders left right and centre. They need consistant week in week out tough footy against hardened Aussie players, not playing against amatuers who train twice a week. How many 1st graders have we produced from the ISP team, James Bell, Vita Satae, Sammy Cook, Jazz the list goes on and on. Isaiah Papalii is a superstar in the making who starred for the Warriors 20s then ISP then made his 1st grade debut. When he made the Warriors 20s he was playing against Aussie teams who have awesum systems and structures. It took him a while to adjust, but he did and kept improving then was put in ISP playing against Aussie veterans and hardened professionals and now look where he is. Is he going to get that playing in Fox??? You can add Air Fus 1, Bunty and CNK to the list as well.
Lets say their is no ISP team and an estabilished Warriors 1st grader gets injured Ill use Sammy Lisone as an example and he has a knee injury and Coach Kearney says he needs some game time to get some miles in the knee. So he sends him back to Marist Saints in Fox to get some game time and some confidence. He will have a target on his bigger than lake Taupo. Everyone will want to go out and put a shot on him legal or not so they get their name out in the community. How is Lisone supposed to get back into 1st grade when the fields he plays on fields that have a few pieces of glass, couple of smashed DB bottles and a few batches of dog shit. What im trying to say is this is a Billion $$$ industry (NRL) and the Warriors turnover millions every year but if your not in the Warriors 18 every week your off playing Amature footy.
What about trying to recruit players here. How are they going to sell playing Fox Memorial to a potential recruit as a stepping stone to 1st grade. An Aussie player will say "what the hell is a fox memorial" I read a quote from 1 of the new owners Connor or cameron McGregor or what ever the hell is name is saying that they lose 800 kids a year to Aussie. Cmon Connor do u think the 800 are going to stick around saying a major goal is to play Fox???? The kids are getting snapped up at 14 or 15 years old and being put into the Sports schools here in Aussie. I have seen it first hand here in Sydney and the kids when they finish school are guns and are already in NRL clubs systems. Systems that have a million more resources than playing Fox footy. All the top talent that will come through will be spotted by the scouts of the 15 other NRL teams and signed early and taken to Aussie. Warriors will get the leftovers. Again im not slagging off the players playing Fox Footy im just keeping it real. This season the ISP boys are going along nicely and the 1st grade team are killing it. FINALLY the whole organisation is stable and now 1 day after the sale Connor McGregor scraps the 20s and then says the ISP team is probably going to follow suit. The Warriors should be contending for premierships not trying to make the Auckland comp better. To make $$$ you gotta Spend $$$. Every man and his dog and cat knows you need a reserve grade side to maintain and provide depth within the club. Losing one will kill the other, all us league fans know that.
Rant over
Enjoy your weekend peeps and good luck to the ISP boys who take on the Mounties down in Canberra on Saturday
Fan In The Stand