I totally agree! Perfectly said mate!Problem with NRL, the toss pots who ran the game in the late 90's up to mid 00's, thought we were like America.
Except America has a massive collegiate system for its basketball, NFL and massive minor leagues for the baseball.
They draft these players in to their comps, or buy them in.
The NRL, and for many years before, ignored Country RL and schoolboy RL. You reap what you sow. The NRL want the talent coming through but don't really want to invest in the grassroots, and couldn't because of the conflicts of interest Gallop has as NRL leader and News Ltd lackey.
The U20's came in after Reserve Grade has faded and teams had shared reserves - a la Souths/Norths, Easts/Newtown, Canberra/Souths Logan (of all friggin' places!). Even then, most astute RL people think it's too young. I remember when Dogs fans where howling to the moon that Barba should be playing back in 2008. But the kid was too young. And it was proven. He's still green now, but it's ok because he's a STAR!!! Yes...he is a good player, but freakish talent doesn't get you everywhere without a sound knowledge and grounding of the basics.
Which is where the U20's fail IMO. Too much flair and being told their good but when the grind comes, so many fail. And then they hit 20 and there's no in-between U20's and First Grade (hence Reserve Grade is needed to groom these players so they can learn and go up and down from 2nds to 1sts for experience).
Plus, you're seeing every Islander kid under the sun filling these sides. But one of the telling issues here is many of them don't have birth certificates. So they're hulks at 14/15 but they're really 16/17. So these hulking kids smash the smaller, younger kids out of the game...cause let's face it, which kid wants to get smashed to pieces by a hulk (and which parents want to see their sons rolled by the Titanic). And when the other kids who do hang around naturally catch up in size, it's not so easy any more, and a proportion of the Islander kids shift away from the game also.
Now the ARLC has their billion dollar booty, hopefully proper grassroots footy is attended to and it's not splashed in to Cam Smith or Jonathon Thurston's pockets. I'd like to see proper school kid footy, proper junior pathways in all states, proper training etc and a proper reserve grade, with overhauls in the country/state cup leagues as well as social footy where participation rates have been dropping off because part time footy players and social players seem to have dried up in many areas too.
It's a lot of work, and it can be done. And maybe they can put to bed some of the BS myths the AFL keep sprouting about their grassroots.
Now we are talking but can we do anything it as I am sure that this is what a lot of people are feeling.I am enjoying this discussion but there are few out there that havent said their piece yet.
Not having a go at you Steve and i'm sure you are a great coach, but to say all your boys were scared should have had someone give them a pep talk and develop better tackling technique. Bringing these big blokes down around the ankles isn't going to hurt your boys. There are a lot of big islanders around these days but i think the parents are more concerned than their sons and this why we lose a lot of the anglo kids from the game. My boy played under 14's last year and he is a short arse hooker and some of the boys in these other sides you swear they are at least 18.Unfortunately this is where you hit the dead end street and i dont want to sound racist or derogatory. The juniors are dominated by Islander kids and they exceed the weight, size factor by at least 5 to 1, at 12 years of age they are 60-70kgs and 5'10, i saw this 1st hand as a coach last year and my boys were scared and this was only division 2 in Brisbane, so they will always dominate at the junior level, which deters most anglo kids from playing the game or having a real go, so to speak.
I must add that all parents and me included thought that we should be in Division 3 so that the boys would not get hurt but we were denied that request by the League and luckily none were in Division 2.
I watched Newtown win the NSW CUP and noticed the Islander participation in that club which answered most questions but how many of them actually make 1st Grade regularly, not many, so there size/weight comparison dwindles in comparison as the age increases.
Tony Williams for example is massive and when he played for NSW he was absolutely useless due to the fact that he had stepped up a grade and QLD did not care in the least but NSW kept wanting to give him the ball to do something but he has no class at that level.
Soccer and Cricket is purely skill based no matter what your size so only the best do well eventually given the opportunity!
My opinion only!
But what happens Blade when you get a skinny number 7 ready to take the step up ? He is always going to come up against someone much bigger, it's inevitable. Might as well get them used to it.Based on what Steve (Carter) just said, is there a need to bring back the old system of weight instead of age groups to even out the playing field a bit and entice more participation that way. If younger boys up until the age of about 16 are put into weight groups instead of age, a child wouldn't be as scared to take the field against these oversized islander kids and would enjoy the game much more knowing there was less wrisk of injury.
I totally agree Brett!Not having a go at you Steve and i'm sure you are a great coach, but to say all your boys were scared should have had someone give them a pep talk and develop better tackling technique. Bringing these big blokes down around the ankles isn't going to hurt your boys. There are a lot of big islanders around these days but i think the parents are more concerned than their sons and this why we lose a lot of the anglo kids from the game. My boy played under 14's last year and he is a short arse hooker and some of the boys in these other sides you swear they are at least 18.
After watching him go around at training for a few weeks and being told to go high to wrap the ball up he went out trying to do this in games. Don't know how many times he was left on the ground looking foolish from trying to take these big guys high and i swear he got bumped off so hard one day he looked like superman flying through the air. Anyway, i had enough after about 3 weeks and told him that i don't care what they are told at training that he has to tackle low. He has a great technique and this is how he knows to defend. Finished the year with most consistant and a few MOM's throughout. Old motto...the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
But back to the thread, yes there should be reserve grade as this is a stepping stone to A grade and a kick in the arse for A graders not pulling their weight or out of form.
But what happens Blade when you get a skinny number 7 ready to take the step up ? He is always going to come up against someone much bigger, it's inevitable. Might as well get them used to it.
That is the problem with the game these days Steve. Too many so called experts who probably never had a lot to do with league in the past. How many times do you hear parents ( who know about the game ) on the sideline say "great tackle" when a young bloke does a copybook tackle ?I actually went to 2 coaching seminars last year in Brisbane because i had too. The major point i got from the so called teachers was that you DO NOT tackle around the legs which i found offensive as i saw 1st hand 1 of my boys get fended right on his ass due to tackling high on a big guy, which happened quite often or they would not tackle at all, yet i instilled in them that tackling around the legs produced better results but who was i to change the correct procedure!
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