Another thing to be pissed off about..

[Deleted member 26876]

Your smart to get out now Harry,unless you are assured of a contract at 16 assured and with the size of the islanders,injury is a major possibility for young bloke in later life,my boy was pretty handy lock and played on for fun till he was 24,he is rooted now with a bad shoulder and bum knees.

My thoughts exactly. Now was the time, i'd moved back at the wrong time to make a true impact and had missed the boat so to speak. Not too bummed about no longer continuing but it's wrong the extent they're taking to get massive sides. As shown in des's days at the dogs that is not a good plan and in this case it is damaging participation from locals. The Manly culture and passion is slowly but surely disappearing

 

[Top End Eagle]

My thoughts exactly. Now was the time, i'd moved back at the wrong time to make a true impact and had missed the boat so to speak. Not too bummed about no longer continuing but it's wrong the extent they're taking to get massive sides. As shown in des's days at the dogs that is not a good plan and in this case it is damaging participation from locals. The Manly culture and passion is slowly but surely disappearing

Mate what position do you play?

Get in a good gym and have someone do a programme for you and come back in a year. Size and speed will never beat nous skill and heart. I have a five year old who is a monster and with his family lineage will be a great player but with our history of knee injuries I won't let him play the game. It's addictive and one of the few sports left where determination and strength of character can influence your performance but the games heirachy and coaches aren't looking for that any more.

My young fella will be guided towards crickey and- this may surprise some- BJJ. Cricket purely for the skill aspect but BJJ for the purity and the positive environment it entails. AFL NEVER!!!!

 

[Bearfax]

Ah Harry, I remember playing Union and aspiring to greater things. It wasn't to be. But on reflection, seeing the damage done to most of these players bodies, and the commitment required that often closes the door on other professions, I am glad I never was good enough to play it at the standard first graders now play. They truly are gladiators and so many of them end with life long disabilities that limit their options in later life. Play it for fun at lower levels Harry, but consider yourself fortunate not to be travelling the course of graded football. Islanders and even indigenous Australians play it with vigour because it gives them access to a better life than what many of them would otherwise face. You sound like the sort of person who has many options available. Grab the one that offers you a comfortable future. Forget playing Rugby League professionally. It offers very few a long term future

 

[Mr Manly 007]

.. I understand the logic behind your comments .... but I question the success of the whole juniors system ....

for example Penrith and Parramatta have enormous junior ranks .... Parramatta have won and still win just about every age rep comp going .. and have done for decades .... yet .... this does not see to translate into success in 1st grade ......

Is the money spent on attracting these 16 year olds to the club worth it or wasted? ....

On the other hand .... Manly with no juniors .... and almost always last in rep comps .... has excelled for decades .... take the early 70's ... I played in the then u/21 rep team (Presidents cup) .. we had no imported players and had to chose a rep team from only 7 local B-grade teams ..... Penrith in the same year had 3 divisions of B-grade to select a team from ...... we went ok, but got belted by the better sides .... also at that time the u/23's were routinely poor .... BUT ... 1st's and Reggies always excelled .....

Problem is .... you can spent years and dollars bringing these kids on with absolutely no guarantee they will play for your club ...

I often think the best thing to do is save the money .... and buy them when they are ripe ... eg Ponga

Parramatta Junior system supplies more NRL players than any other area.
Paul Gallen : Jorge Taufua ; Jamie Buhrer :Trent Hodkinson Manase Fainu: Moses Suli : Junior Paulo : etc.
The problem is , Parramatta have enough money to buy senior players and marquee players because they can’t identify their best juniors and don’t often give the juniors an opportunity at NRL level. And the club needs to lock in the best juniors not let them go somewhere else .
8 of Parramatta’s 17 for this week came through the Eels juniors.

 

[Bearfax]

Manly have generally been able to hold the best players from their juniors, probably because they stand out in a smaller number available. Parramatta have never been good with their juniors. Penrith are beginning to show an interest in theirs. Of course Manly has go some good ones in recent years, which is disturbing.

 

[yokahontas]

Manly have generally been able to hold the best players from their juniors, probably because they stand out in a smaller number available. Parramatta have never been good with their juniors. Penrith are beginning to show an interest in theirs. Of course Manly has go some good ones in recent years, which is disturbing.

I think sometimes having too many juniors can make it into a ‘can’t see the forest for the trees’ situation. Penrith have, from what I’ve seen, done better at it than Parramatta over the years (and I grew up in a Penrith catchment area and went to high school in a Parramatta one) - but they’ve still made the mistake of stacking kids into certain teams and putting them on the ‘rep pathway’ at 11 or 12 (around the end of primary school, basically). Two counterproductive things happen out of that - kids who are late bloomers get missed (or kids who are standouts in otherwise poor teams); and kids who don’t have much to offer beyond size are put on the pathway because they’re steamrolling littler kids, but have zero advantage at all when those kids either catch up to them in size or get over their fear of tackling giants (and realise they can run rings around the big, less mobile kid). They’re made to look better than they are for a while because they’re in a team full of talent. Then someone realises there’s not much to them except size and it all comes crashing down at 17 or 18 years of age.

A kid in one of my brothers’ junior teams never got a look in for Penrith reps, but was an absolute standout in a team full of physically small boys coming up against giant Islander kids from u/6s onwards. Won a lot of games pretty much on his own, not only because he was fast and hard to tackle, but he was savvy even as a little kid -he set up just as many tries as he scored. They were Div 2 premiers one year, which got them moved up to Div 1, where they duly got easily beaten most weeks, but Pat was still a clear standout in that division as well. Could have made it at the top level I reckon, but ended up joining the army - and was captain of the Army rep side for several years (there are pretty handy players getting around in the ADF, just quietly). He just didn’t play for the right clubs or go to the right schools to get noticed.

I think sometimes you would do better to leave kids at their local club for longer (instead of stacking them at the ‘future stars’ club/s), let the good ones shine on their own merits for a bit longer, and let the later developers have a chance to show what they can do before all the ‘rep pathway’ teams are filled.

 

[mave]

Like most things in life, it is often a case of who you know, not necessarily how good you are.

 

[ricardo]

I like our Pac Islander friends. Generally speaking the nicest, warmest bunch of people you'd ever meet!

 

[niccipops]

I like our Pac Islander friends. Generally speaking the nicest, warmest bunch of people you'd ever meet!

Like this one.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

Oh no I don't disagree with that, just saying that this is damaging (taking players from West) and impacts on the clubs amount of true local juniors. These players that are taken from the West are often given preference to more deserving locals (not suggesting im more deserving or anything) and feel as though they have to try less. Then, they carry that attitude through the ranks until they one day make the Manly side. Culture issues are visible enough at our club, and the difference in passion and effort from the Trbo bros compared to players such as Suli and Fainu who in my opinion have this lazy vibe alluded to is strong. We have damaged our club from the top down, and the last thing we'd want is to start damaging it from the bottom up as well.

I like our Pac Islander friends. Generally speaking the nicest, warmest bunch of people you'd ever meet!