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Both Sam Connor and his older brother Tom were both Hawkesbury juniors!!!
So why are kids not staying "local" and what can the ARU/NSW RU do about it?
It seems to me that kids are going to Wicks, Buildcorp, Norths, Hobbits etc because of the strength and reputation of their Colts programmes. The old WII-FM radio station (What's In It For Me).
Perhaps the "Powers that Be" need to have to look at the club structures and processes at the above Clubs and assist the Emus and Rats of this world to put similar in place to make those clubs attractive. While there are some awesome volunteers at Emus and Rats that keep their programmes going on the smell of an oily rag, how much better would they be if they had S&C staff, a Colts Director/Head Coach and other Coaching staff with "connections" to the inner sanctum, a strong culture based on discipline and an expectation of success, and career mentoring programmes?
If the ARU and NSW RU are fair dinkum about grass roots development and growing the game, then you can't get more grass roots in a potential growth area than Nepean Rugby Park, Andrews Road, Cranebrook, 2750 with the Emus.
It can be done if the will is there. The Mighty 2 Blues have also recently implemented a successful Colts programme turnaround (without any help from Rugby Central IIRC).
It is not about the "unfair" advantage of having access to campus facilities that the Corporation has. There are many young men, some even in the Camperdown residential colleges, who are enrolled at Sydney University that choose to play rugby with clubs other than Buildcorp. Wicks seem to have finally realised that there are potential benefits in having a strong partnership with UNSW, but again many UNSW students do not play with Wicks or the UNSW subbies Club. Gordon is doing likewise developing a partnership with UTS and the rugby section of their EAP.
Some will claim that it is all about player payments and scholarships that Buildcorp, Wicks and others have established. Having recently attended a careers expo I know that UTS, UNSW, Sydney Uni, UNE, ACU, CSU, UOW UWS and Macquarie all have Elite Athlete Programmes, or Assistance schemes in place. I also know that most "scholarships" are of very low value ($2k or less) with much of those in excess of $2k being in the form of contra rather than cash. @Cattledog recently said that he noted that The Corporation had 40 players on their injured or reserves list. As wealthy as The Corporation is rumoured to be, no club could afford to be offering payments, or incentives to 85 (3 teams of 15 and 40 reserves unavailable) young men. The Wicks have had to advertise pretty heavily and aggressively fund raise to support their scholarship programme (36 last year with target of 50 this year).
Players and parents are going to select clubs that they perceive will be in their best interest to join. I keep coming back to the ARU and NSW RU needing to help some clubs establish and maintain programmes that assist them to attract and retain players. Paying Development Officers to run lots of one day school carnivals that help to fudge the participation figures for the Annual Report will not achieve that.
