Under the old 13 import rule, an import was someone who did not play junior football for a team in the junior area funded and run by the senior club. Peter Sterling for instance was never a Parra junior, even though he played for Fairfield Patrician Brothers - because he joined Fairfield Pats when he was 17 after Parra brought him up from Wagga.
The problem is that clubs like the Broncos came on top of senior clubs in Brisbane. Petero Civoniceva may be classed as a broncos junior, but by the 13 import rule - where the defenition of "junior" came from - he's a Redcliffe junior. Juniors - players who played their junior footy within a club's junior district - were exempt from the 13 import rule. And that rule sprang from the old resident rule - where a player had to grow up in that clubs junior district.
The 13 import rule was brought in for two reasons. Obstensively it stopped players all moving to one area like Manly with it's nice beaches so get a gig with the Sea Eagles. It did this by allowing 13 of it's 39 (or so) players in their 3 grades to live elsewhere.
The second reason was to stop existing corruption of the residential rule. I can think of 3 examples:
- Harry Caples, who was an international in the 1920's, lived in Souths area and played for the Bunnies. When St George came in, hius house was in the new Saints area, so he had to move clubs
- Frank Hyde lived at The Rocks, once part of Newtown's area. The NSWRFL changed the boundaries, so he had to play for Balmain
- Johnny Raper lived at Revesby and was a Canterbury junior, but Newtown officials registered a bodgey address for him and graded him.
I guess it's fair to say that Brisbane based players who came up through the juniors of Brisbane clubs and were graded at the Broncos are now called Bronco juniors. The problem exists where players are graded at clubs with an afilliation and not a geographical similarity to the area. Inglis, for instance, entered his first NRL club from Brisbane (Brisbane Norths), and is therefore called a Storm junior. However he played senior football in the Knights system at Hunter Sports High. Technically - if he is a junior of Melbourne, how can he be a Queenslander?