For aspiring players from all clubs, this year may one of waiting for their chance in the NRL while playing in either the NYC, Cup leagues or lesser leagues.
For Fijian winger Eto Nabuli his chance has come after good performance for the Dragons in the Nines and Charity Shield, after sitting behind the Panthers’ NRL wingers in the NSW Cup last year.
He is in England with the Dragons squad for the World Club Series this weekend after a slight visa glitch.
Other juniors have seemingly gained quick promotion from the NYC, such as Jack Bird (Cronulla) and Euan Aitken (Dragons), but face a season full of challenges they have yet to fully comprehend. Others will be injected into a sink or swim NRL cauldron mid-season as injuries occur.
So how can clubs best encourage and promote their young talent? Indeed how can they keep their more experienced fringe first grade players keen for when the opportunity comes?
Turnover of players in the NRL, either from injuries, retirements or transfers, opens up opportunities which can attract players from other teams and help retain junior players and fringe NRL players. If certain positions in the squad are set in stone then talent will not be attracted, or will wander.
Penrith adopted this approach to free up its salary cap with impressive results. The Dragons seem to have taken a similar, if not so radical, approach this year.
With former coach Wayne Bennett claiming the Dragons spend over $1 million a year on junior development, retention of junior talent is a serious concern at the Dragons particularly after the loss of Bird to Cronulla. Josh Dugan’s shift to fullback from the centre also saw the late off-season departure of Dragons junior Adam Quinlan (Eels). The promotion of Euan Aitken to centre and Nabuli to wing ahead of talented centre Charly Runciman will place pressure on the Dragons to retain his services unless they give him a chance during the year.
While the forwards always seem to have a regular turnover during the year, due to injuries and more spots on the bench, in the backs fewer injuries lead to lower-grade players being frozen out, particularly in the halves.
The key to attracting players and retaining juniors is not simply to give them a go in the preseason trials, it is to maintain an aggressive team selection policy during the year which rewards performance in the lower grades and punishes lapses at the NRL level – essentially the policy Bennett adopts with his teams.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
The commentator says with the talented roster, players should be putting in more effort each week rather than waiting for next season when Bennett…
Dion Teaupa was also sin-binned for the infringement, but Val Holmes couldn't capitalise, only kicking one of the two conversions.
Trying the short kick, he kicked it completely wrong sending it bouncing over the dead-ball line!
Jeremiah Nanai thought he'd extended the Cowboys' lead, but his teammate got in the way denying the try.
From the sublime to the ridiculous. It’s a fair assessment of Saturday at Magic Round, where one of the games of the season, a…
The South Sydney fullback was shoved back more than 10 metres!
