However, Storm manager of Football Ponissi says it’s a stable time for the roster as they ramp up the investment in bringing pathway players through to the NRL over the next two seasons.
Fa’alogo is one of the biggest stars to come through the club’s junior representatives pathways but they want more.
On Saturday the club’s four grades had an open training day at Pakenham, in Melbourne’s southwest, where of more than 120 players, 70 were Victorian.
A mass exodus of players in 2023 was a massive wakeup call for the Storm, who realised they needed to turn their attention to growing their own talent.
“As a club we knew we had to do something because we weren’t getting players coming through.”
As a policy, the Harold Matthews team (U`16s) is now entirely made of up Victorian players, and the goal is to bring them through to the NRL over the coming seasons.
“We’ve decided we want to give our players from Victoria the first crack at junior representatives with the Storm,” he said.
“We’ll select from the junior league down here. We’ve got a good crop over the next few years develop and the best of those can get an opportunity to continue up the pathway.
“There’s a few who might be considered this year but we had a strong NRL side this year.
“I’d say from 2026 onwards you’ll start to see players. Definitely 2027 and 2028.”
“It’s the transfer of players coming from the juniors into the NRL, that’s an area we have to improve. We haven’t done that as well as we can.
“That’s going to take time.”
Victoria would have one the smallest junior bases in the nrl and yet they are focusing on producing locals
The warriors covering nz would have potentially one of the largest junior bases in the nrl if they focused on being a development club
And png will be the biggest of all and they have been set up as a development club from day one
