"At the end of the day, it's Newcastle. I don't really like that side anyway."

[Joker's Wild]

Maybe it is a sign that the club is on the nose and maybe it isn't. Point is its a long bow to draw based on one guys opinion/sound bite macca, especially given the circumstances on why he wasn't picked up by the club.

I would be surprised if no other young players have said something similar about other clubs.

 

[slotmachine]

Yep, everything is fine. We're definitely not the joke of the NRL.

 

[Alex28]

Your point is valid and we do need to be the club that our catchment area aspires to play for - that is agreed by everyone I am sure. It is pointless having a juniors strategy if the cream of the juniors would rather play elsewhere.

This tosser had his chance with us and didn't impress. Simple as that.

 

[Noname36]

Who cares? Haven't we always known the club is unattractive to players that have never played/lived here?

The Knights will never be "cool"...even if the side is going well. Newcastle the area is viewed as extremely lame, especially by younger generations.

 

[aqua_duck]

Honestly mate - what do you want us to say? It's the clubs fault that a gun junior who had his chance with us but was perceived to be lazy is glad he isn't with us?

I see your agenda - this argument just doesn't stack up.

Well it is abit of a concern that a bloke who could've made his 1st grade debut at 17 if not for age restriction rules was deemed not good enough for our Matt's team only 2 years earlier......

 

[Allstar Knights]

Every team makes mistakes with juniors, to be fair.

Look at Penrith getting rid of Austin and they are a very well run club.

Broncos didn't rate Cameron Smith as a junior and now at the Storm he's probably going to be a potential Immortal of the game.

It happens everywhere

 

[Knight Vision]

The argument is, no recruit would say that about Brisbane, Souths, Melbourne, Easts, Canterbury....

To dismiss his words as sour grapes and not indicative of how our club is viewed in the "recruitment marketplace" is kidding yourself.

A club that bases itself on junior development needs to be seen as a "first choice" for juniors.

That's because they arent stone ( pun intended ) rudderless last and heading for the spoon

 

[macavity]

Well it is abit of a concern that a bloke who could've made his 1st grade debut at 17 if not for age restriction rules was deemed not good enough for our Matt's team only 2 years earlier......

Yes.

Can't believe some of you have an "oh well" approach to this.

The Broncos probably kick themselves about Smith, but at the end of the day they can sort of afford to miss the odd one. We can't.

 

[aqua_duck]

Every team makes mistakes with juniors, to be fair.

Look at Penrith getting rid of Austin and they are a very well run club.

Broncos didn't rate Cameron Smith as a junior and now at the Storm he's probably going to be a potential Immortal of the game.

It happens everywhere

sure there's guys that kick on and you say "oh well, he was better than I thought", but Latrell Mitchell is someone who has obvious talent, I mean the guy gets rejected for out Harold mats (under 16s)team than goes on to make the nSW under 16s origin team; is then named SG ball player of the year, Australian schoolboys best player in their tour of the Uk and nSW under 18s the very next year. Even if he was lazy, how does one not see the potential in a kid with his size and speed?

 

[Whats Doing]

i don't know the local situation currently but i bet the talent scouting at the junior level is run on the smell of an oily rag.

The big clubs have scouts everywhere and every competition. This is how they identify talent early and put them in their systems. You will find a lot of the so called juniors of the bigger clubs actually originate from outside of their district area but are brought into junior clubs within their districts and come up through the system.

It is likely why we have lost a number of good young players in our catchment area to the bigger clubs.

If the club wants to have juniors as their main feeder group for their NRL side, they will need to invest more in talent identification to compete with the bigger clubs.

 

[aqua_duck]

Yes.

Can't believe some of you have an "oh well" approach to this.

The Broncos probably kick themselves about Smith, but at the end of the day they can sort of afford to miss the odd one. We can't.

Tbh I can forgive a scout for overlooking a bloke like Smith, I mean even after 12-13 years of full time training he still looks more like an accountant than a first grade footballer, same with JT who weighed about 70kg when he was 16-17, but when a young indigenous bloke rocks up to a trial and has the speed and skill most kids dream of and is built like backrower as well, how do we let him walk?
Again I could forgive them if the kid didn't do anything for a few years after we rejected him, but after he couldn't get a crack with us, he goes on to play for the CC Centurions and makes the nSW under 16s team 6 months later.

 

[betcats]

This kid played against penriths nyc on Saturday. Still pretty young for that comp he has apparently had an up and down season which you could see this weekend but it was also easy to see he was the most talented kid on the field. He scored one 60m try that so was so GI like its scary, athletically he is a freak and he looks pretty skilled with the ball. Lazy or not this kid should of been picked up. As for those comments it probably is him just being hurt at being overlooked or not liking the club for whatever reason.

 

[eozsmiles]

Not a missed point at all. Of course he's going to say that. He's a kid with an ego.

Where do you think he got the ideas? From the senior players at his club probably, and his coach, and his agent, and junior rep players he knows from the club. Anyone that has heard the comments made by Johns regarding Bedsy's assessment of the players training efforts would say that the kid is right.

It's not just kids though. When Tinks took the wheel, he was going to get Idris and Ennis and Bird and anyone else that was on the market. We got Smith through family reasons, BJ because he was in the doghouse, Gagai likewise, Snowy because of Tinks, and Scott because of Wayne. We have signed Hodko for next year because he had a choice between here, England, or the titans. He made the right choice!

Wayne only came for Tinks, too. He arrived, said the club needed a few years of hard work, left when the money left and said the same thing. It would be hard for him to argue that the club had anything he wanted other than money. The junior base is still here, the fans are here, the challenge is still here.

It seems that players/coaches of all ages and abilities aren't joining the knights if they have other decent offers.

 

[eozsmiles]

Maybe it is a sign that the club is on the nose and maybe it isn't. Point is its a long bow to draw based on one guys opinion/sound bite macca, especially given the circumstances on why he wasn't picked up by the club.

I would be surprised if no other young players have said something similar about other clubs.

They probably do say similar things about the sharks or titans or tigers. But not broncos, storm, Souths, roosters, manly, dogs. And that's the whole point. If a kid has two choices then his agent is going to push him towards the smart one.

 

[Burwood]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...dogs-first-offer/story-e6frf3pu-1227491835706

Mbye was twice rejected by the Broncos in his teens, but says there is no bad blood with the club.

“Every young Queenslander wants to play for the Broncos,” he said.

“It would have been great to have an opportunity there, but I wouldn’t change this for the world.

“I wasn’t good enough. There’s no grudge and never will be. People operate their business in different ways.

“The Broncos didn’t want me so whatever, big deal, the Bulldogs did and I am very grateful.”

Just compare Mybe's comments and maturity to that of Mitchell...

 

[macavity]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...dogs-first-offer/story-e6frf3pu-1227491835706



Just compare Mybe's comments and maturity to that of Mitchell...

Might have something to do with the perceived level of respect the two clubs deserve...

 

[aqua_duck]

I still don't understand how our junior coaches didn't see the potential in a bloke who had very comparable physical attributes to a young Greg Inglis, I mean he wasn't exactly a diamond in the rough either, he made NSW under 16s a few months after we deemed he wasn't good enough for our Mats team

 

[voltron]

perhaps they think that he will be one of those young players who have all the ability and potential in the world, but piss it away with a bad attitude
or maybe we need new recruitment managers....
who knows

 

[Whats Doing]

I still don't understand how our junior coaches didn't see the potential in a bloke who had very comparable physical attributes to a young Greg Inglis, I mean he wasn't exactly a diamond in the rough either, he made NSW under 16s a few months after we deemed he wasn't good enough for our Mats team

I would suggest that there is not enough talent scouts at the junior level that are engaged by the club and as such they do not get around no where near as much as other clubs. Some clubs have quite a number of talent scouts.

 

[The Showstopper]

Newcastle juniors have a history of being selected on a who you know not what you know criteria. Our skipper is one of those. I know people who's kids were way more talented but for left out back then. The U20s is waste of time. Most of them are cast aside before they mature enough. that is why the NRL are so amateur. They know the issues but their arrogance and greed for money means the kids in HC are just commodities at the mercy of salary caps and being underdeveloped through no fault of their own. A little proper reserve grade will lead to afar better game depth wise. I used to love reserve grade. The passion was always there as each bloke wanted a first grade jumper.