Summary of article from today's CT:
The Canberra Raiders may have recruited high profile players Jason Smith and Matt Adamson for 2005 but it is within the local region around which the club has based its future.
During the glory days of the early 1990s, Canberra had players knocking at its door to be given an opportunity to play alongside the likes of Mal Meninga.
But in recent years, the club has switched its recruitment focus to the ACT, the Riverina and surrounding regions to fill the majority of its playing roster.
Today, the Raiders head back to the bush to thank the fans of the regional grassroots areas of league in the annual Regional Raid day. Players and coaching staff will spread themselves between Queanbeyan, Goulburn and Cooma for a skills and autograph session before having lunch with fans.
74 per cent of the players on the Raiders books across all five grades have come from the local regions, including Canberra, the Riverina and the South Coast.
In the top grade alone, 12 players come from the local regions.
In recent years, the Raiders conducted a study to find out which NSW NRL team had produced the most players in the senior competition. Newcastle (with 800,000 people) came out on top, followed by the Riverina and Canberra.
The Raiders focus on the region is deliberate. "This is such a fantastic catchment area for us and we make the most of the talent in the areas as much as we possibly can" said Dave Hamilton, the club's junior development officer. "We identify the young kids and get them to adapt to our way and try to elevate them, eventually to the top level of rugby league."
Troy Thompson, one of 8 first graders to progress from the Canberra Raiders Cup (with West Belconnen Warriors) to a regular first grade position is pleased with the regional recruitment focus.
"A couple of years ago, the Raiders were really focussed on just trying to buy guys from Sydney, but now they are trying to get their homegrown kids which I think they should" Thompson said. "Around the region there is so much good talent and I think they went away from that a few years ago. Now the kids from the country teams are awesome and I'd like the club to give Sydney a miss and focus solely around here for a couple of years."
Simon Woolford said "It's always good to see young guys from the bush come up and play for the Raiders. The more country guys we get here the better, I reckon."
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Suck a lemon Cogburn
:lol:
