Were we? who have we developed in NSW cup this weekend apart from Guymer from Matt's that will play more than 100 first grade games
You named 3 merkins...
They’re not in reserve grade because we need them in first grade. But for the record these merkins all played in our SG Ball side:
Paulo (32)
Ratterson (31)
Lussick (30)
Dunster (26)
Brown (25)
Doorey (25)
Loizou (23)
Mataele (23)
Parker (23)
Wenisini (23)
Russell (23)
Miller-Stephen (22)
De Stradis (21)
Re Stradis (21)
Guymer (21)
Lynn (21)
Palu (21)
Pryke (21)
Spence (21)
Twidle (21)
Alameddine (20)
Lokeni (20)
Renisini (20)
Tuivati (20)
As you can see, the vast majority of them are under 23, and we don't know which ones will go on to play 100+ games. Especially with the under 21s (which is almost half of them), it's too soon to write off any of the forwards or spine players. Outside backs in that age group are more predictable, and of that lot it's only Rich Penisini who looks the goods. But we also have his brother Will and Sean Russell in first grade and they will almost certainly play 100+ NRL games. Plus Lomax is on the books for a few years at least. There isn't much of an NRL pathway for outside backs at our club because three of the spots are full, four if we're confident Renisini will be able to replace Simonsson and JAC in a year or two. Obviously any of these guys could leave when their contracts end, whether they have a PO or not. But we can't promise anyone a spot in the future if we are intending to keep these merkins. If they choose to leave, it's out of our hands, even without a PO. We will just need to hope one of our SG Ball outside backs (e.g. Farrugia, Johannson) is ready to step up.
Across the wider NRL there's almost as many Eels SG Ball graduates at other clubs:
Aloiai (30)
Dockar-Clay (30)
Fonua-Blake (30)
Twal (30)
Amone (29)
Datterson (28)
Keppie (27)
Curran (26)
Kaufusi (26)
James (25)
Utoikamanu (25)
Yates (25)
Jarthur (23)
Betham-Misa (23)
Komolafe (23)
Mooney (23)
Taateo (23)
Davis (22)
Sanders (21)
Marthur (20)
Talagi (20)
I'm sure you'll agree that very few of these merkins would do much to improve our squad. The best of these might point to a problem with retention, which is a salary cap issue, but also we had a pretty decent squad until recently and there was limited space for young halves or forwards to come into the NRL team.
