Development players for 2022 are Henry O’Kane, Fonua Pole, Apisalome Saukuru and Brandon Tumeth.
Recent development players have included Reece Hoffman, Zac Cini, Kane Bradley, William Kei that haven’t made a great impact on first grade.
A few like Mikaele, Simpkin, Talau and Madden have played consistent first grade but it’s probably fair to say we haven’t had an outstanding first grade player come out of this crop for several years.
Is this unusual? Do other teams have a similarly low strike rate? You would think your development contracts go to the absolute best of the best coming through your junior pathways but we have had very little success. What is causing such poor development?
Development players for 2022 are Henry O’Kane, Fonua Pole, Apisalome Saukuru and Brandon Tumeth.
Recent development players have included Reece Hoffman, Zac Cini, Kane Bradley, William Kei that haven’t made a great impact on first grade.
A few like Mikaele, Simpkin, Talau and Madden have played consistent first grade but it’s probably fair to say we haven’t had an outstanding first grade player come out of this crop for several years.
Is this unusual? Do other teams have a similarly low strike rate? You would think your development contracts go to the absolute best of the best coming through your junior pathways but we have had very little success. What is causing such poor development?
That is an excellent point. Surely guys on development contracts are the next cabs off the rank, but it seems we have a poor success rate here.
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The worse thing about development players not progressing is that we seem to have a penchant for signing development players with a garuanteed progress into the top 30. Which means every year we have 3 or 4 players who don't seem to be up to first grade chewing into our depth.
I couldn't find any NRL rules about development players - but it does look like other clubs guarantee development players top 30 spots.
Does any know if this is industry standard or have we been doing it as a means of attracting talent?
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