Pomoz
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That is exactly what we do and I don't see why you have a problem with it. It was Gus's strategy to develop locally and recruit outside of the local area when we had shortages in the local pool of talent. Kikau being the most obvious example of that.Is that how a team in a developing state should be doing things? If us and Canberra took that same attitude we'd have no kids left
The Storm's local pool of talent is so small they have to recruit juniors elsewhere. I don't understand why it matters whether they are developed from St Marys or from Wellington NZ. We put the effort into training them and bringing them through the grades. That's development.
It's exactly what the Storm do too. How often do the Storm announce a big name signing? Usually they are announcing releasing another player due to the salary cap. They turned Bryan Norrie into a respectable metre eating prop who won a premiership. With us he was meh. They are absolutely a development club in every sense of the word and in fact, they do it so well they even develop established first graders into better players. Genius.
If you analyse the Roosters line up, most of their players were developed by them as well. They sign the best juniors they can to top up their own local talent and put them through their systems.
Clearly, the Storm and the Roosters have the best player development of any of the clubs. That is why they continually produce quality players and remain competitive. It is lazy to say they get the chequebook out and TPA's allow them to buy the best talent. They have quality development systems which produce plenty of juniors and juniors are signed for a lot less than external recruits. This lowers the average salary of their players. That then allows them to sign the best talent if it becomes available. Tedesco is an example of that. They let their own junior, RTS, go to the Warriors where he won a dally M and they replaced him with Tedesco. He is now close to being the best player in the game now. Would he have been as good at the Tigers with their terrible coaching, training methods and back office chicanery?