I'm out of touch with the number of junior clubs still currently standing in our area (hey, forgive me - I'm living in China fer feck's sake), but since we came back in Premier League, I believe the increase in junior clubs has been, on a percentage basis, pretty impressive.
Currently, within our old boundaries, I believe we have:
Camperdown Dragons
Marrickville RSL
Newtown Jnr Jets
Earlwood Saints (St. George comp)
St. Peters
The creation of the Junior Jets and re-activation of St Peters mean our old district has had a dramatic resurgence in youth participation in RL. Most of it is no thanks at all to Souths (the seniors, especially).
The better question is how amazingly crap a job Souths and the other clubs who were handed our junior area after 1983 have done of maintaining junior participation in our sport.
Former Newtown junior clubs were treated as expendable by Souths, Canterbury, St George and possibly Balmain (I'm unsure whether the Tigers got any of our clubs) once they got them in their clutches post our suspension from the top grade.
Can anyone list all the clubs they let go under on their watch? A list of clubs pre '83 Vs post 2000 would be very revealing. I believe they all failed dismally in their stewardship of the junior game over that time.
I've met parents of Junior Jets players who are overjoyed with the experience of having their kids able to play RL in their home area and the social/developmental benefits they and their kids have received.
If it had been left up to Souths and the others, our area would have no RL clubs still standing - much less the current resurgence of the game in Bluebag territory.