In the wake of the Raiders much publicised flame out in the recruitment market in recent weeks, Canberra fans are hearing two types of comments.
Firstly, the club is being blamed for its own predicament. Whether it’s the allegedly toxic Ricky Stuart, or the ‘culture’ of the side – a concept never further explained – it is the Raiders’ fault the club can’t attract top talent.
The second types of comments Raiders fans are hearing are horrible platitudes masquerading as advice. The Raiders are being told to search out ‘hard-working and honest’ footballers who ‘want to be there’ and most commonly to continue to ‘invest in junior development.’
While no doubt well intentioned in most cases, these comments are essentially useless. The Raiders are already loaded with hard working types like Shaun Fensom, Joel Edwards and Dane Tilse. Raiders fans love Shaun Fensom but no one is winning a premiership with a tackle machine as their best player.
As for the call to focus on junior development it seems like some folks have missed the point. That is what the club has been doing and look at where it has got them.
The Raiders squad for Monday night’s thumping by the Broncos included 13 Raiders juniors. Of the 24 players to appear in lime green this year, 16 are Raiders juniors and the club is third last and going nowhere.
So you can forgive Raiders fans for being a little sceptical that this is the pathway to premierships
Most galling of all though was a recent newspaper column from the Penrith Panthers General Manager Phil Gould. In the piece on Sunday, Gould accused the Raiders of being irresponsible when offering James Tedesco big money to sign with the club and then harped on about the importance of junior development.
Here is what Gould had to say under the heading “What is the point of junior development?”
Look at this from Wests Tigers’ perspective. They develop James as a player from school and junior league ranks through to the point he becomes a 25-game NRL player. Just when he starts to show his potential, another club comes and blows them out of the water with a massive offer.”
Do they raise their offer to keep the player, affecting their ability to pay or retain other players, or suffer the wrath of their fans for letting him go? Think of how many players Wests Tigers invested time, energy and development dollars in, to produce a player of Tedesco’s potential.
For every junior that makes it through to the top grade, there are hundreds who fall by the wayside in the process. A James Tedesco sits at the top of a pyramid, where the club starts with a large number of hopefuls, before they get to the pointy end, producing an NRL standard player.
The cost of this development pyramid is getting more expensive by the year. The cost of this pyramid explodes at the top end when rival clubs start their bidding for players of potential after all the hard work has been done by the developing club.
There is no compensation for the developing club when they lose a player of NRL status. In fairness to the Raiders too, the same thing happened to them with Anthony Milford and many other hopefuls over the years. They were just doing what has happened to them on a number of occasions.
Under salary cap and second tier competition systems, there is no incentive or reward for investment in player development. Clubs are prepared to invest in junior development because they know this is the lifeblood of our game. However, the system does little to encourage or reward such efforts.
This was an interesting thing for him to say given the Panthers recent history. Gould’s words may say ‘invest in juniors’ but his deeds say ‘let someone else do it.’
Since arriving at the club Gould has allowed, and in some cases pushed, home grown players like Luke Lewis, Michael Jennings, Lachlan Coote and Tim Grant to leave the club.
At the same time the Panthers have invested heavily in other teams’ junior talent and in particular juniors who have just crossed that threshold from junior with potential to ready for a regular first grade role.
James Segeyaro (Cowboys), Elijah Taylor (Warriors), Tyrone Peachy (Sharks), Josh Mansour (Rabbitohs) Dean Whare (Sea Eagles) have all played critical roles for the Panthers this year and next season they’ll be joined by Api Koriasau (Souths again). These are all players who were developed elsewhere and then brought to Penrith between 21 and 24 years of age.
Naturally Gould’s column generated a wave of antipathy from Raiders fans on social media. In a reply to a tweet about his column, Gould said “we at Penrith have gone through what the Raiders are going through. It’s tough but there are solutions.”
For the Panthers the solution has clearly been to poach other teams’ young talent.
So the lesson is you can focus on junior development like the Raiders and be 14th with a bullet, or you can poach 21-year-olds and be top of the ladder like the Panthers.
Lachlan Bickley
Roar Guru
Hi Folks, Thankyou all for reading and commenting. We put the piece to Gus on twitter and he replied #More than happy for fans to have their say. Love their passion, but quite often they don’t possess all the facts. All good though (thumbs up)” Could be he was referring to the background material referred to above. Personally think that's all fine but its still pretty insulting to tell Raiders fans we should just keep plugging away with juniors when we already have way more juniors in our team than anyone else Cheers
millsy of perth
Guest
How much does an NRL club pay to their junior feeder clubs that bring them through. Secondly what has happened to the Riverina that is closer for the raiders have we dropped the ball there? A draft and club development regions the way to go but nationally.
AdelaideWill
Guest
Not a heartland? Carney, Dugan, Brett white, and Croker have all come through the local Canberra system
Johnno
Guest
Phillip Ronald Gould is the man, he gets results where ever he goes a winner Gus.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Lachlan, You've done an amazing job of missing the point of what Phil is saying, he's stating that clubs with junior development programs (which he considers the life blood of the game) don't get enough support from the NRL in keeping their players once they get to first grade level, meaning poaching is effective. I'd also comment that most of the players "poached" from other clubs couldn't get a game in first grade regularly.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Lachlan, Well written mate and you made some valid points (also should include Kevin Naiqama from Ncle), but the fact is that Gus and his crew have implemented the "money ball" recruiting methods very well. Someone there has a very astute eye for what is required and have the sales skill to get them signed "for "Money Ball" money. Wonder what would have happened to the juniors if Thurston did not knock them back?
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
Too true. There is nothing better than watching a kid who grew up in your town go on to become a star. When I think of Penrith 1991 I get a warm glow remembering the fantastic local juniors Geyer, Cartwright, two Alexanders, Carter, Walker, Izzard, Fittler, Smith. I hope that Gus can return the club to those days where we built the team from within. Happy days.
Daniel Szabo
Roar Guru
was about to write a similar comment before I read this. Penrith bought the likes of Wallace (a local junior but only played 20 games for them over 2 seasons prior to his move to Brisbane in 2008), Soward, Segeyaro, Whare, Idris and others for the purposes of immediate success. The halves combination especially of Wallace and Soward are giving them that, but they are not a long-term solution. Penrith will not form a dynasty around these two men. They will form a dynasty around the new crop of local juniors that will be unearthed in the next 2-4 years. Let me say that as a Dragons fan, nothing is more satisfying than winning a premiership with a side stacked full of local juniors (it'd be quicker for me to list the players who weren't local juniors than the ones who were).
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
Lachlan, in an interview with a Panther news forum, Gus explained his ideas on junior development a bit further. Firstly, the club's aim is to copy the Broncos and get to a point where Penrith produce 80% of its team from juniors. However, when he took over he said that the juniors had not been resourced and organised correctly and their were significant gaps in the development production line. Therefore, he would have to recruit externally until the juniors are up and running properly. A quick glance at the juniors who have come through prior to Gus getting on board shows that the few (and it was only a few that were any good) good ones left and joined other teams (Wade Graham, Peter Wallace being two examples). In part of his explanation he highlighted the fact the club had failed to bring on players properly and that had stalled the development of a few players and led to them getting injuries. He quoted Harry Sjeiika, Blake Austin and Moylan as examples of that. In the last two seasons (including this one), we are finally seeing juniors getting blooded and given a chance to develop. Moylan, Yeo, Dallin Watene- Zelezniak and Cartwright spring to mind. I agree, he appears to be saying one thing and doing another, but that is only because you aren't across the full detail. I expect in a few years the club will reduce its external recruiting significantly. In the last 12 months Penrith have made the u16, u18, u20 and reserve grade grand finals.
Normyzee
Roar Rookie
I found Gus' article to be concise. He wasn't being hypocritical. The question the Raiders have to ask themselves is if they have actually picked the best juniors? Perhaps their scouting has left a little to be desired.
Pete
Guest
Mushi, To retain players, first you must have players worth retaining. Canberra isn't exactly the heartland of Rugby League that pumps out quality first graders every year. So this forces the Raiders look outside the region (Queensland) for quality juniors. These young kids come in, establish themselves and despite the Raiders offering more money than other clubs, they go back home because, well, it's their home.
Mushi
Guest
Seriously this again are we really this mentally challenged as a fan base? How can any person with a functioning brain think it is more effective under a salary cap to recruit than retain. We may be the dumbest fan base in all of sports
Nordburg
Guest
I totally agree with the statement of the system doesnt allow teams to develop players.Manly will be faced with the same prospect soon when somehow the Broncos will come knocking with a bucket load of cash for DCE,a player they brushed as a junior.Whilst my statement may seem a bit ironic considering Manly's past,the last ten yrs Manly have tried to cut out the big name purchases and developed young players no one had heard of -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
dubblebubble
Guest
"Gould’s words may say ‘invest in juniors’ but his deeds say ‘let someone else do it." I disagree with your interpretation of Goulds' comments. He seems to be saying to me that it's great that clubs do invest in junior talent but that the system does not reward it adequately. I see nothing two faced about him going out and taking other teams juniors.
parrafan
Guest
I understand your pain Lachlan but a couple of the young players you mention were shown to have good potential without having shown the depth of their talents before being bought by the panthers. Mansour, segeyaro and share fit in that mold. The others who were ousted especially Jennings were wanting too much cash for inconsistent performance or performances that were regularly not of 1st grade performance. Whilst Gould's comments are somewhat hypocritical (he does seem to always push an agenda) he illustrates the tightrope walk of investing in juniors whilst still being able to recruit players in positions which haven't been covered by the junior base. This is what all teams have to do. The Raiders are in for a tough couple of years as they try to find this balance by retaining juniors and attracting talent. Let's just hope there arent any more players who pull a Dugan, Ferguson or Carney. (How Dugan was allowed to play for dragons and NSW last year after what he did to the Raidrers is behind me.)