Sons of guns forced to pack their bags
* By James Phelps
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* December 23, 2009 12:00AM
BORN into rugby league royalty, Nathan Wynn and his cousin Tim should be playing for the Dragons. Or maybe the Eels.
But the sons of 1980s legends Graeme and Peter Wynn have been forced to fly 17,000km around the world to get their rugby league fix as the Toyota Cup threatens to wipe out a generation of footy players.
Without a proper reserve grade since the introduction of the under-20s national competition, the Wynn boys packed their bags and headed to France to get a competitive game of rugby league.
Their dilemma saddens Graeme, who owned the 1980s while playing in the forwards for the mighty St George Dragons.
"It has really closed up for blokes like Nathan with the under-20s now," said the 193-game veteran.
"You will find about 2000 promising players heading overseas now because there is no opportunity left in Australia. It is a massive issue.
"If you haven't made it by the time you are 20, then there is just nowhere to play."
Nathan's story is not uncommon. A promising junior with the Bulldogs, the 91kg halfback was left with few options when reserve grade made way for the Toyota Cup in 2008.
Good, but not good enough for the NRL in his earlier 20s, he was spat out of the rugby league system.
But there is nothing to say that, after a few years with hardened players in an old-school reserve grade competition, young Wynn would not have developed into a player capable of following in his dad Graeme's famous footsteps.
"I went over to the Bulldogs and was playing reserve grade in 2007," Nathan said.
"I was going well and then they announced the Toyota Cup would be coming in the next year. They just stopped offering contracts and it was the same story everywhere. And that was pretty much it because there was no real pathway for anyone over 20."
So Nathan and his merry band of mid-20s rejects went and played glorified park football in the NSW Cup. The new reserve grade.
"I ended up playing a year for the Sydney Bulls," he said.
"You would play in front of a couple of hundred fans and at some pretty ordinary grounds."
Frustrated, Nathan looked abroad. If he wasn't going to be an NRL player, maybe he could make football his passport to the world.
"An opportunity came up to go over to Toulouse and play," Nathan said. "I thought it would be a good way to see the world and make some money but it has turned out to be more than that.
"We play in a competition which is like reserve grade to the Super League, and we have a real good shot of getting into that competition.
"We are now getting about 4500 people to our games and it could prove a real pathway. That's why Tim [Peter's son] came over, and why we have blokes like Brendan Oake in our team who should still be playing in the NRL now."
Graeme would still like to see his son play in the NRL, but it appears that may never happen. But Australia's loss will be Europe's gain.
"They are getting some good young Aussies over there," Graeme said. "All because they can't get an opportunity here."
