proactive junior recruitment

[aqua_duck]

just reading the telegraph about the storm and roosters heading over to South Africa for a junior rugby carnival kind of got me thinking, is it time to look outside the square in terms of recruitment. I assume we are active in the Hunter Valley, country NSW, emerging states teams, and in NZ, problem is we have to compete with everyone else. Was thinking about some areas that we could potentially exploit that could be untapped goldmines.
Obviously I'd prefer to have local kids first and foremost but we need the best team regardless of where players come from.

Some potential areas:
Pacific Islands-cook Islands, Fiji in particular due to players from those backgrounds at the club. Guys like Aku and Wes are celebrities in Fiji and same with Zeb and Keith Lulia in the Cook Islands. Would give us abit of leverage

NZ Sth Island-Most NZ league players come from either Auckland or Wellington in the Nth Island. Sth Island has been a traditional rugby stronghold, might be an opportunity there

Argentina-Rugby Union is pretty big over there, the Pumas finished 3rd in the 2007 world cup, would be a similar challenge to South Africa

I'm probably living in fantasy land but I guess reading the article about O'Sullivan in SA made me think

 

[macavity]

All good in theory... but we hardly have the money to recruit properly in our own backyard, let alone forming networks (read: paying people) in new frontiers.

If we were going to really take a shot at a new frontier, the USA would be the place to start. Thousands of great athletes either dont make it to college or dont make the pros every year. We may not discover the next great halfback, but we could uncover potentially very good outside backs, props and backrowers.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

As well its pretty much a waste of $ buying someone for Flegg and such these days you get them ready for first grade and then the piss off somewhere else more often then not. Atleast sticking in our own backyard they feel some loyalty to the area.

 

[Pika]

You will not get a high school kid with dreams of College and NFL to quit his sport and come to Australia and enter a system at age 16-17.

By the time he hits College and reralises he will not make NCAA Div 1 or 2 or NFL is out for him, he is already 20-22.

How do you teach someone that age how to play Rugby League at an NRL level?

Mark T has taken 2-3 years to come along. I would argue his Rugby background and exposure to Rugby League has helped him get to NRL.

The College system produces elite athletes the like of which we will never see here in Australia. How long it takes to turn them into NRL players is a real unknown.

 

[Newie is God's Country]

South Africa have such incredible athletes. It is plausible that league's next superstar will be from SA. League could be a massive hit in SA if promoted correctly. Worth a shot. Good on Roosters and Storm for thinking outside the square. I agree. League has really got to start growing some balls and just go all out and promote itself for what it is. The greatest sport on earth.

 

[otori]

Argentina would be interesting but hugely expensive. All their best players play in the Euro comps though so we'd effectively be signing people outside of the Pumas which isn't really the best goal in my mind.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Argentina/South Africa.

Sorry lads but LOL hard!

 

[roopy]

We got some kids from the Cook Islands and PNG to come over for the pre season juniors trials, but i don't think any are still here.
I think that was a waste of time - they would not be able to adjust to the inside plumbing in 5 days, let alone step into a training camp with dozens of other hopefuls and shine.
Next year our firstgrade squad is doing a pre season training camp in Fiji. It would be great if our junior coaches went as well, and we looked hard at all the junior talent available and offered a few footy scholarships for some 16 year olds.

 

[roopy]

The kid the Roosters signed from South Africa seems to be working out well, to the point where some think he'll play firstgrade this year. He was the Springbok equivalent of a junior Kangaroo and handpicked as the guy most likely to take to league (a winger). The beauty of it is that South Africa is a sh*tty country and offering a kid from their a 50k contract and a chance to live in Australia will get you every promising junior in the country - but only a few would be worth 50k because Union players don't swap to League that easily.

 

[Yosh]

Got to get em young if we do. Like 12 or 13ish. We probably don't have the facilities to really do anything of this scale.

The NRL as a whole would have to change its scale for something like this imo. If the NRL activity supported bringing in kids from Argentina/South Africa/Pacific Islands etc and we had a system for it I am sure the Knights would love a peice. However as an organisation right now I don't believe we can sustain such a system, unless we get a sugar daddy that is.

 

[roopy]

The thing about Fiji is that the national sport is Rugby 7s, and every kid in Fiji practices the running, passing and individual defence skills needed in 7s in the playground.
Those skills are directly transferable to League, as shown by the fact that many of the players who took Fiji to number 4 team in the world at the last WC had played just one season of League.
The ballskills of the Fijian 7s players are freakish, and every kid in Fiji practices that stuff in the playground.

 

[aqua_duck]

Argentina would be interesting but hugely expensive. All their best players play in the Euro comps though so we'd effectively be signing people outside of the Pumas which isn't really the best goal in my mind.

I'm not thinking elite guys from the Pumas, but more 16/17/18 year olds, similar to J.P Du Plessis from the Roosters. Rugby Union has the same core fundamental skills as league (tackling, kicking, passing, catching, running, etc) so the task isn't as difficult as taking someone from Gridiron.
Argentina is very similar to Sth Africa, both rugby union strongholds that have no exposure to league. I guess money would be the only issue, but hopefully if the privatisation plans work out that shouldn't be a problem.
Fiji would be one of the 1st places I would go. There's no reason at all why we can't find the next Petro, Lote, or Noa Nadruku in Fiji.
People might laugh and think its a waste of time but when/if J.P Du Plessis makes 1st grade, the roosters won't think so, and the storm obviously don't think its a waste of time to send their recruitment man over to Sth Africa

 

[Newie is God's Country]

What about a SOO 4th game like they did in US in the 1980's? Given SA rugby is provincial it could be a big hit.

 

[roopy]

I think Fiji is where we should be looking.
I think we need a development officer permanently in Fiji.
It would be a dirty job, but i'd volunteer.

 

[macavity]

I think Fiji is where we should be looking.
I think we need a development officer permanently in Fiji.
It would be a dirty job, but i'd volunteer.

Nice in theory, but the problem is that your record of talent spotting isn't too flash, old mate.....

 

[roopy]

Nice in theory, but the problem is that your record of talent spotting isn't too flash, old mate.....

I did think Aku would be a star from the first time i saw him. I don't know how i saw the potential in a 6'3", 100kg, fastest kid i've ever seen - but right from the start i could see something.

 

[macavity]

and kurt?

 

[roopy]

and kurt?

I liked Kurt from his first touch of the ball - but I spent about two season thinking Pato was a big cat - and to be fair, he was a big cat when he was learning to be a forward after we signed him as a fullback from WA. Big, fat, soft bastard he was - but very athletic.

 

[Misanthrope]

Nice in theory, but the problem is that your record of talent spotting isn't too flash, old mate.....

To be fair, outside of the Brian Smith era, neither is the club's, really :lol:

 

[Hanscholo]

Any cent we spend overseas is better spent at home imo. We have produced the jnrs over the last 10 years, they just dont play for us.