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http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/sport/nrl/story/0,26799,23784555-5006066,00.html
BEN Jones is a wreck. Burnt out and busted. The Roosters' emerging halfback is just 17, but his body is scarred like an NRL veteran one game away from the scrapheap.
Jones has played a staggering 98 games in just two years. Thirty-eight rep games, 60 school games and all the club games no one has counted.
With sufficient healing time and the benefits of youth, he should recover. But for now, he has been banned from playing schoolboy rugby league.
And Jones is not alone.
An investigation by The Saturday Daily Telegraph into junior football has revealed teenagers across the country are breaking down, with elite players at this week's NSW CHS carnival playing six games of football in just eight days.
Some kids, like Mitchell Pearce did last year, are playing 60 games a year. A war has erupted between NRL clubs and the Education Department - teachers want their best players playing, and NRL clubs want to protect their investments.
"The end result is we have tired, broken-down footballer on our hands,'' said Roosters recruitment boss Peter O'Sullivan.
"Jones, for example, has back injuries, groin injuries and broken bones. It is just because he has played so much football. We can all read it in his body language. He has just had too much football.''
Noel "Crusher'' Cleal rushed to a Catholic school trial last Saturday and went off like a Chinese fire-cracker. The Manly recruitment manager's prized under-20s halfback, Kieran Foran, was playing in a schoolboy match just 14 hours after turning out for the Sea Eagles in a Toyota Cup match.
He had a fat lip, a bruised jaw and, according to Cleal, should have been in an ice bath - not on the football field. Foran had been told not to play, but he took the field anyway.
Our best teenage footballers are playing in up to nine bone-breaking competitions. Here is the worst-case scenario for a public school student:
The University Shield (NSWCHS, nine games); The Arrive Alive Cup (Australian Combined Schools, 10 games); SG Ball (NSWRL, 12 games); Toyota Cup (NRL, 29 games); NSW age (NSWRL, 1 game); Sydney Combined High Schools carnival (1 game); NSWCHS Carnival (3 games); Australian Schoolboys Carnival (6 games); and the Australian Schoolboys tour (4 games).
Emerging Sea Eagles prop James Cunningham could end up playing in every one of them: 73 games.
"It is not healthy for these kids,'' admits Knights coach Brian Smith, a former school teacher. "It is not just all the games but it is the training that goes with it. I am a big supporter of school football, I haven't forgotten my own background, but getting the balance right between all the people who want a piece of them needs to be worked out.
"The kids are playing way too much. Their bodies are under great pressures because they are teenagers and their bodies are developing, and then there is mental fatigue. Everybody has to realise the best thing for the kids isn't to be playing 70 games a year, they need to be selective.''
Professionalism has created big boys. Giant teenagers with frames dripping muscle. A schoolboy game is now almost on par with an NRL match, with 100kg wrecking balls clashing in impacts akin to a car crash.
And the stars of the future need timeto recover. "When all the schoolboy football started 20 years ago, the kids were 60 or 70 kilos,'' O'Sullivan said. "Now they are in professional NRL systems doing weights every day. They are men and they are playing a high standard of football, sometimes four or five games in three days.
"They just can't do it. NRL players couldn't do it. It is getting to a stage where we are going to lose players out of the game, at young ages. They are just going to walk away.''
Rising schoolboy star Brad Murray was last week summoned to a meeting at Matraville High School. With his manager Sam Ayoub in tow, last year's Arrive Alive Cup winners attempted to poach the young halfback from his Catholic School, Holy Spirit, Lakemba.
It shows how serious schools take winning. With $10,000 on offer for the winner of the Arrive Alive Cup and a surge in enrolment common the following year, rugby league can put a school on the map.
Sport is being taken very seriously. But some, at least off the record, say schoolboy football is no longer relevant. That it should only be played by kids not signed by NRL clubs.
Or not at all.
"All the best kids are in systems by the time they are 13,'' said one Sydney club official. "In terms of their development, they get everything they need in the NRL system. They are just getting taught bad habits and getting injured. And for what?
"Some kids are knocking back NRL contracts because they want to play Australian schoolboys instead of Toyota Cup. They will end up missing out on the NRL because they are behind the eight-ball.
"Schoolboy football is just doing them harm. Take the schoolboy tour, it's a wasted two months. The kids should be with an NRL club having a pre-season and preparing their bodies.''
St George Illawarra star Chase Stanley played football for Endeavour Sports High School from Year 7 to Year 11. Teachers at the school were left fuming when the Dragons banned him from playing in his final year.
All of a sudden they were without their star player. A player they had developed. Australian schoolboys coach Brendon Barlow is adamant that it should be the powerful NRL clubs that miss out.
"When they are at school they should be playing for their school,'' Barlow said. "Obviously some kids are playing too much football. We need to handle it. There isn't one body that controls it. Each body has their own agenda. The ARL need to step in and set some rules. We need a cap set and it needs to come from them.
"I do think the kids should be playing for their schools and you can't every take anything away from the Australian Schoolboys. Making that side is a very big honour.''
Some schools have even accused NRL clubs of using them as baby-sitters. "They have welfare requirements and rather than helping them find a career path, they dump them in school,'' said a Sydney PE teacher. "It is the easy option for them.''
Craig Miller spent Wednesday night watching his son cover his body with ice. Jacob Miller had just played his seventh game in eight days. "It is very unreal to be honest,'' Miller said. "He should only be playing once a week but he is playing three or four games.
"He plays rep football and then goes back and plays for his school and local club. He feels like he has to. He won't listen to me when I tell him not to because he wants to keep all of his coaches happy. He actually came back last night and I had to give him a massage, he was sore everywhere. Not in good shape at all."
O'Sullivan has re-ignited the weight-for-age debate, saying some of the game's best potential talent is being forced out of rugby league. "The islander kids are very big at a young age,'' O'Sullivan said.
"And they are dominating teams because of their size. Smaller kids, with very good skills, are being overlooked or quitting because of the threat of injury. There needs to be a weight limit, and kids who are over should go up one age group.''
BEN Jones is a wreck. Burnt out and busted. The Roosters' emerging halfback is just 17, but his body is scarred like an NRL veteran one game away from the scrapheap.
Jones has played a staggering 98 games in just two years. Thirty-eight rep games, 60 school games and all the club games no one has counted.
With sufficient healing time and the benefits of youth, he should recover. But for now, he has been banned from playing schoolboy rugby league.
And Jones is not alone.
An investigation by The Saturday Daily Telegraph into junior football has revealed teenagers across the country are breaking down, with elite players at this week's NSW CHS carnival playing six games of football in just eight days.
Some kids, like Mitchell Pearce did last year, are playing 60 games a year. A war has erupted between NRL clubs and the Education Department - teachers want their best players playing, and NRL clubs want to protect their investments.
"The end result is we have tired, broken-down footballer on our hands,'' said Roosters recruitment boss Peter O'Sullivan.
"Jones, for example, has back injuries, groin injuries and broken bones. It is just because he has played so much football. We can all read it in his body language. He has just had too much football.''
Noel "Crusher'' Cleal rushed to a Catholic school trial last Saturday and went off like a Chinese fire-cracker. The Manly recruitment manager's prized under-20s halfback, Kieran Foran, was playing in a schoolboy match just 14 hours after turning out for the Sea Eagles in a Toyota Cup match.
He had a fat lip, a bruised jaw and, according to Cleal, should have been in an ice bath - not on the football field. Foran had been told not to play, but he took the field anyway.
Our best teenage footballers are playing in up to nine bone-breaking competitions. Here is the worst-case scenario for a public school student:
The University Shield (NSWCHS, nine games); The Arrive Alive Cup (Australian Combined Schools, 10 games); SG Ball (NSWRL, 12 games); Toyota Cup (NRL, 29 games); NSW age (NSWRL, 1 game); Sydney Combined High Schools carnival (1 game); NSWCHS Carnival (3 games); Australian Schoolboys Carnival (6 games); and the Australian Schoolboys tour (4 games).
Emerging Sea Eagles prop James Cunningham could end up playing in every one of them: 73 games.
"It is not healthy for these kids,'' admits Knights coach Brian Smith, a former school teacher. "It is not just all the games but it is the training that goes with it. I am a big supporter of school football, I haven't forgotten my own background, but getting the balance right between all the people who want a piece of them needs to be worked out.
"The kids are playing way too much. Their bodies are under great pressures because they are teenagers and their bodies are developing, and then there is mental fatigue. Everybody has to realise the best thing for the kids isn't to be playing 70 games a year, they need to be selective.''
Professionalism has created big boys. Giant teenagers with frames dripping muscle. A schoolboy game is now almost on par with an NRL match, with 100kg wrecking balls clashing in impacts akin to a car crash.
And the stars of the future need timeto recover. "When all the schoolboy football started 20 years ago, the kids were 60 or 70 kilos,'' O'Sullivan said. "Now they are in professional NRL systems doing weights every day. They are men and they are playing a high standard of football, sometimes four or five games in three days.
"They just can't do it. NRL players couldn't do it. It is getting to a stage where we are going to lose players out of the game, at young ages. They are just going to walk away.''
Rising schoolboy star Brad Murray was last week summoned to a meeting at Matraville High School. With his manager Sam Ayoub in tow, last year's Arrive Alive Cup winners attempted to poach the young halfback from his Catholic School, Holy Spirit, Lakemba.
It shows how serious schools take winning. With $10,000 on offer for the winner of the Arrive Alive Cup and a surge in enrolment common the following year, rugby league can put a school on the map.
Sport is being taken very seriously. But some, at least off the record, say schoolboy football is no longer relevant. That it should only be played by kids not signed by NRL clubs.
Or not at all.
"All the best kids are in systems by the time they are 13,'' said one Sydney club official. "In terms of their development, they get everything they need in the NRL system. They are just getting taught bad habits and getting injured. And for what?
"Some kids are knocking back NRL contracts because they want to play Australian schoolboys instead of Toyota Cup. They will end up missing out on the NRL because they are behind the eight-ball.
"Schoolboy football is just doing them harm. Take the schoolboy tour, it's a wasted two months. The kids should be with an NRL club having a pre-season and preparing their bodies.''
St George Illawarra star Chase Stanley played football for Endeavour Sports High School from Year 7 to Year 11. Teachers at the school were left fuming when the Dragons banned him from playing in his final year.
All of a sudden they were without their star player. A player they had developed. Australian schoolboys coach Brendon Barlow is adamant that it should be the powerful NRL clubs that miss out.
"When they are at school they should be playing for their school,'' Barlow said. "Obviously some kids are playing too much football. We need to handle it. There isn't one body that controls it. Each body has their own agenda. The ARL need to step in and set some rules. We need a cap set and it needs to come from them.
"I do think the kids should be playing for their schools and you can't every take anything away from the Australian Schoolboys. Making that side is a very big honour.''
Some schools have even accused NRL clubs of using them as baby-sitters. "They have welfare requirements and rather than helping them find a career path, they dump them in school,'' said a Sydney PE teacher. "It is the easy option for them.''
Craig Miller spent Wednesday night watching his son cover his body with ice. Jacob Miller had just played his seventh game in eight days. "It is very unreal to be honest,'' Miller said. "He should only be playing once a week but he is playing three or four games.
"He plays rep football and then goes back and plays for his school and local club. He feels like he has to. He won't listen to me when I tell him not to because he wants to keep all of his coaches happy. He actually came back last night and I had to give him a massage, he was sore everywhere. Not in good shape at all."
O'Sullivan has re-ignited the weight-for-age debate, saying some of the game's best potential talent is being forced out of rugby league. "The islander kids are very big at a young age,'' O'Sullivan said.
"And they are dominating teams because of their size. Smaller kids, with very good skills, are being overlooked or quitting because of the threat of injury. There needs to be a weight limit, and kids who are over should go up one age group.''
