Goulds argument doesn’t seem to make sense to me. Dont all nrl clubs use qrl or nsw clubs to develop their 16-20 year olds? If the successful clubs are doing this then how can that be the problem?
You will find all NSW clubs run their own U17 U19 and U21 teams in NSW. Canberra and Newcastle opted out if 21s post covid but I expect them to return
3 Queensland NRL clubs spread this across 3 or 4 clubs
Warriors have started their own U20s national comp. But used to play in the NSW Comp pre covid
Melbourne play U19 & U21 in the NSW comp
So its only the 3 NRL Qld clubs effectively not playing
Reserve Grade or NSW Cup is effectively operating in a similar manner. But its interesting, if you get a few injuries like Cronulla did at NRL level, we saw Newtown have 60 put on them when they fielded local contracted players. I doubt this would have happened if Cronulla were in charge of the RG team and U20 team. Where better U18 or A grade district(multi club) players would have stepped up
But spreading the takent across multiple clubs like Qld is trying to do will geberate a overall lower standard RG player and this eventually impacts NRL
Its no coincidence that this started to become a issue 4 years after NYC ended in Qld
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