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School sporting scholarships/recruitment

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Quick Hands

David Wilson (68)
And what about the school leavers who choose to play rugby instead of league.
There are a lot of Colts players in the competition.
Should I name the full list of Colts players?

On scholarships/bursaries/otherwise recruited at league schools, depriving other boys of the opportunity to play schoolboy rep league?
 
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sidelineview

Guest
I'm contemplating statistics as well.

Every player in all three Colts teams from each Club has a reason why they chose rugby post school. About 600 of them.
What is it?

How many had played league but decided to choose rugby?

And why did they choose rugby? because they went to rugby playing school and/or played Club rugby?
Followed their mates from school?

I remember a few kids playing in a Primary School league State Championship and all went on to play rugby post school.
Bayley Kuenzle was one of them. I'm not claiming he was on a scholarship but he went to a rugby playing school and made a choice. Coincidence?

Whether students are on a scholarship or not they make choices.
If some schools make bad choices on granting scholarships to certain players doesnt mean they will all be bad choices.

And when Fairfax went to league so did a lot of other rugby players. There was no money in the game then.
There's more money in league today still but rugby players have a better chance of making money out of the game today.
 

Inside Shoulder

Nathan Sharpe (72)
Kuenzle’s Dad played for southern districts and he played union for burraneer and made NSWPSSA for rugby and cricket.
His older brother went to new.
This is a scholarship thread and the thesis being disputed is that scholarships generally weaken rugby.
Next.
 
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sidelineview

Guest
The subject's broader than that.
He's not the only player who represented in school league but chose rugby post school.
A certain percentage of rugby schoolboy players each year get scouted by league clubs. That wont stop.
Schoolboys also get approached by rugby Clubs and Gen Blue personnel, whether they're on school scholarships or not.
Randwick and Sydney Uni get bagged every year for attracting too many Colts players but they're keeping players in the game by offering them educational, employment opportunities ... whatever else ...
It's a shame other Clubs cant match their offers and distribute the playing talent more evenly, but still they're doing their bit for the game.

No, I dont necessarily agree that scholarships weaken rugby. I wont throw a blanket over it.
 

Kenny Powers

Ron Walden (29)
The NRL is rolling money, is a tax free entity and receives plenty of government largess well at least when it comes to stadiums.

Why do private schools also see the need to support league player development they have enough money to do that themselves and private schools dare I say could find disadvantaged students to support whose potential future contribution to Australia extends beyond a time limited sporting career in sport the school doesn't even play.

Easily regulated by various school associations, by exclusion from 1st and 2nd grade comps players who are contracted to or have been contracted in the proceeding 12 months to an NRL club. I'm sure this would be an easy thing to regulate as the NRL would record these contracts. Priorities and loyalties would become visible to all.

Schools place a requirement on students to participate in extra curricular activities and I don't understand how that would fit in with having obligations to an NRL Club and how schools can have two sets of standards for their students.
 

Spieber

Bob Loudon (25)
The NRL is rolling money, is a tax free entity and receives plenty of government largess well at least when it comes to stadiums.

Why do private schools also see the need to support league player development they have enough money to do that themselves and private schools dare I say could find disadvantaged students to support whose potential future contribution to Australia extends beyond a time limited sporting career in sport the school doesn't even play.

Easily regulated by various school associations, by exclusion from 1st and 2nd grade comps players who are contracted to or have been contracted in the proceeding 12 months to an NRL club. I'm sure this would be an easy thing to regulate as the NRL would record these contracts. Priorities and loyalties would become visible to all.

Schools place a requirement on students to participate in extra curricular activities and I don't understand how that would fit in with having obligations to an NRL Club and how schools can have two sets of standards for their students.
Kenny, herein lies the dilemma. Rugby in schools has atrophied to the private schools. Do we want them or don’t we want them (the professionals)? My view is that the AAGPS should remain an amateur competition (ie no boys on league contracts). RA can work out their own pathways.
 
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sidelineview

Guest
Kuenzle’s Dad played for southern districts and he played union for burraneer and made NSWPSSA for rugby and cricket.
His older brother went to new.
This is a scholarship thread and the thesis being disputed is that scholarships generally weaken rugby.
Next.

Jordan Morris: Trinity/Southern Districts played in a Primary School league Rep carnival.

I'd like to see a list of scholarship kids who are playing rugby.
Kurtley Beale would top that list.
 

BAR

Chris McKivat (8)
I’ll declare up front that in principle I am no fan of scholarships but I have to agree with previous posters that rugby scholarships aren’t inherently the problem.

Rugby’s declining number of junior players is the issue. Offer scholarships in a world where there’s a large number of players spread across clubs as well as (public and independent) schools and the impact of scholarships would be negligible. After all, there can only be so many scholarships. But, in a world of declining participation where the sport isn’t healthy enough to maintain itself in public schools, or the western suburbs of Sydney, or over U14s in clubland, the sport will feel the loss of good players from the struggling clubs and schools that remain (both in terms of player numbers and the attraction that those good players provide to other kids who want to play alongside them).

If we choose to subscribe to the delusion that the saviour of rugby will be in the independent schools because their participation levels are healthy and the schools are investing in players then, scholarships or not, we’re in trouble ‘cause our eye is definitely not on the ball.
 
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sidelineview

Guest
The solution's simple. RA needs to ask Julie Bishop for some of that cash she splashes around and invest it in grassroots development.
I dont mean SS; i mean public schools and junior clubs.
But without the cash it's pushing s**t up hill to state the obvious.

Sponsorship/recruitment is not all bad. It's been abused out of self interest as per usual human behaviour if allowed to go unchecked.
I just brushed up on the Kurtley Beale story and it’s a good one. He was given an opportunity at Joeys from Year 7 and it worked out well (understatement).
Another Koori kid and league player Tristan Reilly, went to Joeys in Year 11 and he has decided to play rugby post school and I believe he is contracted as a Sevens player.

Another kid I'll mention at random is Jordan Morris who went to Trinity and if I'm not mistaken, started in Year 7. He was an excellent young league player; one of the most punishing tacklers I’ve seen as a primary school player.
But he enjoyed a very successful schoolboy rugby career and chose to continue with rugby post school.
I'm not exactly sure if he was on a scholarship or recruited by Trinity; I suspect so, but it’s worked out well for him and the game nevertheless.

I've mentioned Waverley players who were league players but have chosen to play rugby post school after enjoying successful and enjoyable schoolboy rugby careers.
None of them were recruited specifically by the school but if you laid odds in Year 7 as to whether they’d be playing league or rugby after Year 12, league would have been at short odds in the betting.

Ideally, schools should be providing opportunities to some students whose parents couldn’t otherwise afford the school fees and if they’re good rugby players it’s a bonus; and if they pursue rugby post school it’s a win. I realise there'll be all sorts of arguments against that simple statement.

Rugby playing schools should be establishing strong relationships with local clubs to encourage students to play rugby post school. There is a bit of money and incentive to do so these days. All or most independent schools may already be doing this with success. I'm not sure.

But rugby isnt being played in public schools and therein lies the real problem.
The President of Penrith JR said '"We don’t have the rugby schools out here, we don’t have an independent or private school rugby pathway so we’re dependent on players coming out of our junior clubs.”





 
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sidelineview

Guest
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has confirmed she is spending $320 million on scholarships.
 

Spieber

Bob Loudon (25)
Interesting article from October 2015 on an impressive young man, who has already signed with the bunnies (yeh - my team). I note he started playing league at age 4 and by October was still uncertain as to which sports high school he would be attending the following year. Must have forgotten that his parents already had him on a waiting list for an almost local school.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/n...t/news-story/29f21a96cb547cef122790157b8a3235
 

Up the Guts

Steve Williams (59)
Interesting article from October 2015 on an impressive young man, who has already signed with the bunnies (yeh - my team). I note he started playing league at age 4 and by October was still uncertain as to which sports high school he would be attending the following year. Must have forgotten that his parents already had him on a waiting list for an almost local school.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/n...t/news-story/29f21a96cb547cef122790157b8a3235

He is the very young sensation on the wing for Kings isn't he?
 

ruckman7

Peter Burge (5)
Interesting thought if each school, GPS or CAS were to have a complete first XV of boys in 2018 who hadn't joined the school after say year 9 would they still be competitive in their own competition? For instance, Riverview with Easy and Barker with Reimer etc.
 
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