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http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/roosters-strut-their-focus-on-development-with-pride-20140616-zs9dr.html
Sydney Roosters are the first club to commit to a new NRL strategy of formalising a secondary affiliation with an area outside their traditional territory in a move the premiers believe further proves their focus is on development rather than recruitment.
Roosters officials and supporters bristled at what they perceived as a slight on the club's development programs when this column reported last week that 12 of their starting line-up in the recent match against Canberra were either Test or Origin players.
The Roosters provided statistics to show that 22 of their 32-man fulltime squad had spent time in the club's junior system before making their NRL debut.
Sonny Bill Williams, Michael Jennings and James Maloney are obvious exceptions but Roosters recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan says that Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Sam Moa had played little NRL elsewhere.
In addition, the Roosters have won three of the last seven under 18s SG Ball competitions, including 2014, and also made the semi-finals this year in the under 16s Harold Matthews Cup with a team comprising 80 per cent of home-grown talent.
"We are a developmental-type club and it is disrespectful for people to think otherwise," O'Sullivan said. "I have a strong belief that you win comps by developing players in SG Ball and under 20s and bringing that culture into first grade.
"We recruit heavily with our under 18s and that is where it starts for us. We bring them through the under 18s, under 20s and then into first grade. As a club we take great pride in the way the coaches have got them to the level that we had 12 representative players in our starting line-up against Canberra."
With Sydney-based NRL clubs still confined to boundaries drawn up by the premiership's founding fathers in 1908, the Roosters have just 760 registered players in the local Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League competition that can be officially classified as juniors.
But a newly formed relationship with the Central Coast Rugby League has given the Roosters access to a further 4500 juniors and the club hopes to get the first shot at players of the calibre of boom Newcastle fullback Jake Mamo, who is from Ourimbah.
Roosters chief executive Brian Canavan said the partnership, which will see the premiers contribute more than $100,000 per year towards development, promotion and education of players on the Central Coast, was in line with the NRL's plan for all clubs to form an affiliation with a regional area.
"I believe we are the first NRL club to do this from top to bottom," Canavan said. "The NRL is keen for clubs to form a secondary affiliation with regional centres and we have entered into an agreement with the stakeholders in the Central Coast area, which are the juniors, the senior body, the under 16s and 18s [Central Coast] Centurions junior representative program and Wyong, who are a senior open-age team in the area.
"The reason we decided to look at a secondary affiliation was to increase the size of our junior base and also, if we are going to have talent identification at a younger age, which is the way we are going under the current rules, what we would like to do is identify the players early, educate them while they are still at home and when they are ready they can come through to us."
Once players commit to the Roosters they tend to stay, with the club retaining 62.5 per cent of those who have come through their junior development programs in the past five years.
The Roosters also have five players eligible for the NRL's long-serving player allowance for those with eight years' continuous service at the same club and that figure will rise to eight next season when the qualifying period is reduced to six years.
"I am not crowing but I doubt if there is another club with those sort of figures," Canavan said. "The notion for us is to be a development club and then selectively recruit.
"If you have a development model, you have the players in your club, they are cheaper, they are encultured, they know your history and then you selectively recruit when a Michael Jennings becomes available or a Sonny Bill Williams becomes available."
Sydney Roosters are the first club to commit to a new NRL strategy of formalising a secondary affiliation with an area outside their traditional territory in a move the premiers believe further proves their focus is on development rather than recruitment.
Roosters officials and supporters bristled at what they perceived as a slight on the club's development programs when this column reported last week that 12 of their starting line-up in the recent match against Canberra were either Test or Origin players.
The Roosters provided statistics to show that 22 of their 32-man fulltime squad had spent time in the club's junior system before making their NRL debut.
Sonny Bill Williams, Michael Jennings and James Maloney are obvious exceptions but Roosters recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan says that Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Sam Moa had played little NRL elsewhere.
In addition, the Roosters have won three of the last seven under 18s SG Ball competitions, including 2014, and also made the semi-finals this year in the under 16s Harold Matthews Cup with a team comprising 80 per cent of home-grown talent.
"We are a developmental-type club and it is disrespectful for people to think otherwise," O'Sullivan said. "I have a strong belief that you win comps by developing players in SG Ball and under 20s and bringing that culture into first grade.
"We recruit heavily with our under 18s and that is where it starts for us. We bring them through the under 18s, under 20s and then into first grade. As a club we take great pride in the way the coaches have got them to the level that we had 12 representative players in our starting line-up against Canberra."
With Sydney-based NRL clubs still confined to boundaries drawn up by the premiership's founding fathers in 1908, the Roosters have just 760 registered players in the local Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League competition that can be officially classified as juniors.
But a newly formed relationship with the Central Coast Rugby League has given the Roosters access to a further 4500 juniors and the club hopes to get the first shot at players of the calibre of boom Newcastle fullback Jake Mamo, who is from Ourimbah.
Roosters chief executive Brian Canavan said the partnership, which will see the premiers contribute more than $100,000 per year towards development, promotion and education of players on the Central Coast, was in line with the NRL's plan for all clubs to form an affiliation with a regional area.
"I believe we are the first NRL club to do this from top to bottom," Canavan said. "The NRL is keen for clubs to form a secondary affiliation with regional centres and we have entered into an agreement with the stakeholders in the Central Coast area, which are the juniors, the senior body, the under 16s and 18s [Central Coast] Centurions junior representative program and Wyong, who are a senior open-age team in the area.
"The reason we decided to look at a secondary affiliation was to increase the size of our junior base and also, if we are going to have talent identification at a younger age, which is the way we are going under the current rules, what we would like to do is identify the players early, educate them while they are still at home and when they are ready they can come through to us."
Once players commit to the Roosters they tend to stay, with the club retaining 62.5 per cent of those who have come through their junior development programs in the past five years.
The Roosters also have five players eligible for the NRL's long-serving player allowance for those with eight years' continuous service at the same club and that figure will rise to eight next season when the qualifying period is reduced to six years.
"I am not crowing but I doubt if there is another club with those sort of figures," Canavan said. "The notion for us is to be a development club and then selectively recruit.
"If you have a development model, you have the players in your club, they are cheaper, they are encultured, they know your history and then you selectively recruit when a Michael Jennings becomes available or a Sonny Bill Williams becomes available."
