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The case for holding them back (and a second tier comp)

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spectator

Bob Davidson (42)
Yeah I know.... that old chestnut.

It's been really good to see the likes of the Fainga'a brothers and Rod Davies show this year that they really do belong in S14. Up until this year, most of us wrote them off as useless and not up to it. Now punters are suggesting them as possibilites for higher honours (2010 Wallabies thread).They are very lucky to have had a year to go on contract or they would more than likely have been forever banished to clubland. From what I understand Will Genia was a bees dick from not having his Reds contract renewed at one point. Now he's the toast of the rugby world and 'the next best thing'.

They're the lucky guys.

Pete Betham has already been discarded by the Brumbies at the age of 21. A year on and given a semi lifeline by the Tahs, his form is suggesting that maybe all he needed was time. Hope he gets a second chance at the rebels and makes good.

How many other talented young players are lost to elite rugby just because they were too young and weren't ready when opportunity presented?
 

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
Staff member
Spot on speckie. You're singing to the choir here - preaching to the converted and rooting for the brothel - we start our guys much too young.

The knee jerk reaction would be, as usual, what about this guy and that guy that did OK not long after leaving school but they are exceptions. You could see at school that Pocock and TPN could be thrown in professional rugby pretty quickly but one couldn't be sure about most others.

There is not only the physical danger to a lad who is still growing, it's a skill thing also. I am appalled at watching Oz Super14 players who can't pass the ball as well as their dad's could. It used to be a Oz speciality but now other nations are better.

Too many lads are learning their trade on the park in the Super14.

With the 5th Oz Super team the situation will be worse. There will be a scramble to sign up lads who were schoolboys in 2009 and even 2010. We don't have enough decent senior men players who can step into Super rugby. Any new ones coming in that haven't been involved in Super squads before will be high maintenance.

The situation will be improved in a few years time as the effect of players not going overseas in the first place kicks in; but it is an old song I sing.

We all know the answer and it's similar to the ref situation I mentioned on the Marks thread. We need an ARC to provide a career path for players into Super rugby. If they are young and are too good to be held back in Colts or Grade let them learn their trade there; if they are older let's use the ARC to filter out the best ones for Super rugby.

Ditto for refs and coaches who want to earn a living in rugby.
 

RugbyFuture

Lord Logo
the biggest problem i see is the attraction to money for youngsters. whilst the NRL and AFL sign contracts with 17 year olds for when they get outta school, the state sides don't provide the same seen opportunities. There are what, gonna be opportunities for 300 rugby players or so, whilst there is Mungoball providing ten times that.

this is a huge problem especially for dual code juniors being lost to league. the Mungoball scouts are everywhere (even though mungos claim they dont want any rugby players).
 

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
Staff member
Exactly so RF; exactly so.

I get a bit of a laugh out of Hugh Bladen the SAffer commentator who can't recognise overseas players unless he sees their jersey number. He seems to take some pleasure mentioning that so and so was obtained from rugby league as though we had committed a crime.

What he doesn't mention, and to be fair he probably doesn't know it, as most SAffers wouldn't know, that we lose a heap of our rugby juniors to the 15 professional league clubs and we lose some of the best ones whilst they are still at school. By contrast we have only 4 professional teams; soon to become 5.

Some of the boys play both rugby codes as juniors but we lose an big percentage of the good 50/50s because they can get grocery money a lot sooner in league. We do our best in identifying the school stars and getting into them into the professional academies and now and then a S14 rookie spot the year after leaving school, but there are very few paying spots for a lad leaving school compared to league.

Some kids even concentrate on league a few years into high school to get a league CV to stand them in good stead for a league job. Some play the 15 to 4 percentages that way even though they like both codes equally.

This is particularly true for boys at state schools. There is a bit of well deserved criticism of the NSW and Qld rugby unions for not spreading the game enough in the state school system, but we are lucky to have private schools rugby because their players seem to stay in our sport more than other kids.

But I digress.
 

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
Looking at the Sydney club thread, it has become near the de-facto second tier comp.
 

RugbyFuture

Lord Logo
fatprop said:
Looking at the Sydney club thread, it has become near the de-facto second tier comp.

nowhere near profitable, proffesional or wide reaching enough to actually build to that.

also too much politics involved
 
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