Some interesting reading and it does amuse me somewhat when people start quoting "facts" especially when it revolves around Roosters juniors. Yes some clubs were poached, but some went to Souths juniors voluntarily. No one at the Roosters or Roosters junior club level has asked them to come back, yet....
On junior development, there have been some very lean years but the last few under Canavan, Noyce and now Canavan again there is great support for the junior clubs from the Roosters.
There are 2 main reasons the local kids don't progress though the ranks, obviously the number of local players, although that is growing. The other is because traditionally the Harold Matts coaches come from out of area and don't know the local kids and the focus has been on bringing in outside kids at that level. This has backfired recently with the last two years results being very poor. Would have been better off picking a lot of locals, the results would not have been worse. Because the locals have not had the HM opportunity they either leave and/or miss out on SG Ball etc.
Now that is all changing, with a very good crop of U15s coming out of the local clubs this year, the HM side should contain mostly local players and over the next few years this will propagate upwards.
Don't kid yourselves, having local kids in the NRL team is very important. it gets more kids playing and gets more people to the game.
But we all know that its not just $s that gets you a premiership its ticker, heart and soul. Souths have tried to buy one big time and although they are getting closer it hasn't worked. The reason that the Roosters won is that these players, both bought and developed love the place.
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