W
What happened after 86 to their juniors ?
barring injury Nathan Cleary can play close to another decade as the best half in the nrl. The guy is levels above anyone else
it shows the benefits of strong juniors it’s going to take years for the other clubs to catch up
Some of them, like the Adamson's (for example) went to Penrith. Others just could not make the cut when they made it to first grade. As they'd had players like Kenny, Grothe and Ella come thru from their junior systems, they thought they didn't need to recruit from outside that they could just keep developing players of that quality all the time. It didn't change until the "Canterbury four" defected to them in 1996 as part of the fallout from the SL war.
As Phil Gould said at a Roosters event I attended back in 2002, about 1 in 3 players who are in Jersey Flegg won't make it to have a successful first grade career.
Having strong juniors is a boon, but it is not the be all and end all in ensuring success.