Chipmunk
Coach
- Messages
- 17,379
As was pointed out above Canberra isnt the most exciting place for a young person in their 20's, but it is what you make of it.
Except for a warmer climate, Townsville has far less to offer someone than Canberra.
On a down side the minimum salary of an NRL player is actually below the average salary for a Canberran, so it's not the cheapest place to live either. But having said that, either is the Eastern Suburbs, North Shore or the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
I know I would rather live in Canberra any day rather than live in the scumbag central that is Western Sydney.
Canberra has traditionally struggled to get players to come from Sydney. If someone has grown up in Sydney, Canberra would be very quiet I am sure.
There was an article in the paper the other day that said the Raiders were considering no longer funding Souths Logan in the Qld Cup competition, but I think for a Club like Canberra this is not a good idea, unless you can attract players from elsewhere.
The Raiders attracted all those young guys from the country, like Daley and Mullins, to the Club in the late 80s because there was no other non-Sydney club except for the Steelers and they got all those Superstars from Qld (Mal, Jacko, Gary Belcher and the Walters brothers) because Wayne Bennett came down and there was no Broncos team. As there was no NZ side they also got hold of some pretty decent young Kiwi players in Wiki, Pongia and Lomax. Guys like Croker, Lazarus, Clyde, Furner, Chris O'Sullivan and Sticky were essentially local juniors.
The difficult issue for the Raiders is that some of their better home grown talent in Carney, Joel Monahan and Dugan have been shown the door for off field reasons. Their two biggest recent signings from Sydney also, Ferguson and Earl, obviously have departed as a result of off field issues.
The Raiders must be regretting letting go a player who turned out to play 300 NRL games, 10 State of Origins for NSW and 14 tests for Australia, as well as win a Clive Churchill medal (Brent Kite), before he even played first grade at the Club. I'm sure in hindsight they wouldve also preferred to have kept Michael Monahan and Michael Robertson rather than let them go to Manly. Jamie Soward is essentially another one that got away, although he did leave Canberra at a young age, but I believe his father was still living here when he went to the Roosters.
I think Sticky is going to find it alot harder to get players to come to Canberra than he did Parra. After all, if he was chasing guys like Tedesco, Ennis and Mansour to come to Parra they wouldnt even have had to move house! I think the Raiders need to be more strategic in the actual players they're looking at. I think Procter was a good target in that respect, but once Hoffman left the Storm were probably favourites to keep Procter. Hoffman was probably someone the Raiders should have seriously looked at with such a young side. Especially with his father being part of the inaugural Raides team.
Except for a warmer climate, Townsville has far less to offer someone than Canberra.
On a down side the minimum salary of an NRL player is actually below the average salary for a Canberran, so it's not the cheapest place to live either. But having said that, either is the Eastern Suburbs, North Shore or the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
I know I would rather live in Canberra any day rather than live in the scumbag central that is Western Sydney.
Canberra has traditionally struggled to get players to come from Sydney. If someone has grown up in Sydney, Canberra would be very quiet I am sure.
There was an article in the paper the other day that said the Raiders were considering no longer funding Souths Logan in the Qld Cup competition, but I think for a Club like Canberra this is not a good idea, unless you can attract players from elsewhere.
The Raiders attracted all those young guys from the country, like Daley and Mullins, to the Club in the late 80s because there was no other non-Sydney club except for the Steelers and they got all those Superstars from Qld (Mal, Jacko, Gary Belcher and the Walters brothers) because Wayne Bennett came down and there was no Broncos team. As there was no NZ side they also got hold of some pretty decent young Kiwi players in Wiki, Pongia and Lomax. Guys like Croker, Lazarus, Clyde, Furner, Chris O'Sullivan and Sticky were essentially local juniors.
The difficult issue for the Raiders is that some of their better home grown talent in Carney, Joel Monahan and Dugan have been shown the door for off field reasons. Their two biggest recent signings from Sydney also, Ferguson and Earl, obviously have departed as a result of off field issues.
The Raiders must be regretting letting go a player who turned out to play 300 NRL games, 10 State of Origins for NSW and 14 tests for Australia, as well as win a Clive Churchill medal (Brent Kite), before he even played first grade at the Club. I'm sure in hindsight they wouldve also preferred to have kept Michael Monahan and Michael Robertson rather than let them go to Manly. Jamie Soward is essentially another one that got away, although he did leave Canberra at a young age, but I believe his father was still living here when he went to the Roosters.
I think Sticky is going to find it alot harder to get players to come to Canberra than he did Parra. After all, if he was chasing guys like Tedesco, Ennis and Mansour to come to Parra they wouldnt even have had to move house! I think the Raiders need to be more strategic in the actual players they're looking at. I think Procter was a good target in that respect, but once Hoffman left the Storm were probably favourites to keep Procter. Hoffman was probably someone the Raiders should have seriously looked at with such a young side. Especially with his father being part of the inaugural Raides team.
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