Here comes Reverend Jarse's sermon. I'll try to keep it brief.
A super team like this is generally assembled by one club or district each year. They sweep all before them and win lots of certificates and cheap grand final medallion trinkets to clutter up the Focker Wall of Fame.
In doing so, they destroy all competition and one by one all the other clubs fold as they refuse to participate in this cancerous arms race. Come Under 16 these buffed up superboys do not play club footy but somehow end up at Junior Club state champs because there is the carrot of selection for the Aust U16 champs dangled in front of them.
Having demoralised all their competition in the Under 14's and 15's our U16 ghost players disappear behind the walls of their School Opens Rugby programme for Under 17's, and can't even be bothered to turn up to State U17 champs. Representing Sydney Juniors is no longer important to them, because they see that there is nothing in it for them. All the development opportunities at Under 14 - u16 through rep programmes end up going to the super team boys, with the true village club heros left languishing in their wake. Come Under 17's there is no competition for the battlers as the Rockstars abandon clubs and the rep programme en masse.
Assembling these super teams is as bad as if not worse than what certain schools are doing to the AAGPS competition.
There should be scope for the elite to advance, but why do we tolerate this happening at the expense of the overall growth and expansion of participation numbers in our game. These may make club and district administrators feel good about themselves, but it does nothing for the long term growth of our game. Not many sports survive for long that only cater to the elite.
