Maybe if other clubs either establish a junior development pathway, or ramp their own junior development pathways up to the extent that they don’t have to poach another club’s juniors, then we can talk.
Ha ha. Stop sniffing your own farts.
These articles come out every year or two from the likes of Canberra, Penrith, Tigers, Eels, Dragons, etc. It just suits the Panthers this time as they have lost a lot of talent over the past 2-3 years and they want to tout that and also provide a smoke screen for their play at Fifita.
Until there is a draft, restricted free agency or the NRL takes over junior development to aide a more even distribution of top talent, then development will be the burden of teams located in the geographical areas that have the most young kids wanting to play the great game.
And the NRL aint going to put in the cash or pay for infrastructure if it doesn't have to.... what, a club with massive juniors is going to tell kids and parents to get lost, or are they going to help maintain social cohesion by having local kids actively engaged and participating... and for Penrith, it maintains an endless line of parents of these kids into Panthers to get pissed and punt, generating profits that more than compensate for the investment in kids footy.