Good luck Dolphins, you're gonna need it: Munster blow latest proof that NRL new boys have been set up to fail

It would be great, but not if they are going to get beat by 40 each week. they have 4 or 5 that they have given train and trials and some of them will graduate. I will be disappointed if there aren't half a dozen by say year 7, when the 13 year olds are 20. They might also get a couple back that have signed elsewhere over time.

For so many reasons, in their inaugural year in the NRL, would be great to see a few local products on the field. I wouldn't care if they weren't established 1st graders. Draft a few from the current team into the NRL squad. Just doing that would provide an important link from the old Redcliffe to the new.

He shopped himself around, then took his quotes back to the Storm to have them top it. What works out as good for him, means less to go around for the rest of the team. Not good when they are desperately in need of another back, and a couple of forwards, and now obviously less to spend.

I smell a rat - Murdoch have recently done a deal with Tripp (Storm Chairman) to jointly run betting app (after years of negotiation) so I assume Munster has received a 3rd party deal. Remember when the NRL was going to review 3rd party deals after Storm big three retire (Smith, Cronk and Slater) because of the inequity but lo and behold no review and Storm are the major beneficiaries of 3rd party deals

Would be a much better look to have at least 3-4 or more local players struggling out on the field alongside bigger names, rather than the 100% transplant do-over of a team that, as you say, currently exists.

Melbourne have only developed a handful of players because the NRL refuse to take responsibility to develop the game. If you were Melbourne, would you spend your effort and resources developing the game from the ground up in Victoria, or tap into an existing developed market in Queensland? This is exactly the problem; leaving teams to develop talent themselves encourages them to put the most into areas that need the least. People don't want to spend in areas that need more work, and who can blame them? If the NRL develop the players, it encourages a more even spread of effort into development. I live in NRL heartland (FNQ) and you should see the coin and effort that the AFL put into the region. They now have players entering development pathways for AFL; one girl has been offered a scholarship to a footy school in South Australia (Scotch College). If the NRL takes development away from clubs, then serious money can be spent in new markets. Then ALL those players the NRL develop go into the draft, and everyone gets a chance to get them. Teams like Wests can be given draft concessions to encourage equalisation (which is a massive problem in the NRL). To say the NRL development system needs an overhaul is understatement of the year - it inhibits both equalisation and growth

We are so so far apart in our views it's not really worth continuing . 25 years in the game and ONE local player in the Storm. A generational task. Well a generation is about 30 years. So five more years to grow a ' club ' full of players . ? Maybe 34 generations ( 1000 yrs) will do it. All that happens with this BS expansion is the quality of the game drops with each new club . If the club has no local juniors it drops more and quicker. I'm lucky I enjoy watching any RL. But the majority don't.

Not all the good ones. Plenty of the kids that are 95% as good would come along if given the chance - particularly the ones that are maybe a hair off on talent but are mentally and emotionally more developed

The second version of Manly entered the comp in 2003 and didn't have enough money to spend the full cap. If anyone thinks the Dolphins roster is a bit average , have a look at Manly in 2003. Manly finished 14th but took some decent scalps. A few years later they were in the finals and 5 years later it was a 40 nil win in the GF. could do it with nothing in their favour then I'm sure the Dolphins can do O.K.

NRL need to be serious about building a team if they want to grow. A new team in a new area is a generational task, not some tick and flick. If team 18 is in Adelaide for example, give them 7 years minimum of salary cap exemption, the ability to approach contracted players, the ability to gazump any club making an offer to a junior or lower grade player etc. Make sure they win at least 3 premierships in their first 15 years. Free club memberships for local juniors to build a supporter base (which takes a good 20 years). Do this and you increase the value of NRL by increasing the viewing market. Not many new sets of eyes in Redcliffe for NRL, and no extra games per week; this means that Redcliffe do not actually add much, if any value to the NRL product. The fact that Melbourne is the westernmost club in a national competition us shameful. And the only way to grow the pool of local players is for NRL to take charge of growing the game and implement a national strategy to encourage juniors instead of some local hodgepodge. Which is why you need a draft :/

Heaps of other talented kids out there ? I see a fair bit of junior league . All the good ones get scouted . . Maybe they are all sitting there in Altona where the scouts don't get to.

If they walk then get the next best. No junior is irreplaceable. If they are that mercenary then you wouldn't want them anyway would you? I wouldn't have made an offer for Suaalli for example. Screw him. Heaps of other talented kids out there. And in AFL plenty of first round draft picks do their time, build their value and trade to a destination club later on.

People say Bennett will be the one to get them competitive, even though he's never gone to a team in the bottom half. Dragons were finalists in '08 before he joined in '09. Newcastle were finalists in '11 before joining in '12. Broncos were finalists in '14 before joining in '15. Souths were finalists in '18 before joining in '19. He's always started with a team that was mid-table or better. Got his hands full here. Anticipating some very short press conferences for some time.

Had success not arrived for Penrith in the early 90s, would be fair to say, they may have been gone shortly after Souths got the flick, and wouldn't have had any evidence to support in the courtroom, given wooden spooners in '01, and 12th in '02. Gold Coast have had a much longer time down the bottom, more incarnations than the holy trinity, been bailed out by the NRL 30$M, who took control of the club, then once the salary cap scandal with Scott Prince exposed, imposed a suspended fine upon themselves. Conflict of interest to the 'N'-th degree. I can't imagine a team that just looks like a second Gold Coast, who themselves have been treated so leniently since forever, has any survival worries.

And what recruit players from the provincial leagues.? Do you watch much footy. ? I reckon there are about 14 teams worth of NRL standard players ATM at best. Team in Perth, team in Adelaide , team in Tassie ? No worries but the players still come from QLD, NSW country and Western Sydney and NZ and they are a rung below those already playing in quality. Now I go to Q cup matches so I can watch lower standard footy but no one who goes pretends it's the same as an NRL game.

I am a lot more cynical than you Panthers. Guys like uncle Nick, Tripp and the Landrys didn't get where they are by being weak negotiators. There is cash and then there is cash plus opportunity. I will follow Munsters post Storm career closely.

You shouldn't generalise the specific to the general. Your area is not representative of the whole. In Sydney, Brisbane and NZ ( by far the three biggest recruiting areas for NRL players ) it will be an issue. League was very lucky to get Suaalii and we just missed getting Max Jorgenson whose is a League boy but played Union at school. There are numerous guys ( Murray, Chrighton, Ponga, Keary , Frizelle, NAS etc etc etc ) who were courted by Union. They all signed with us A draft will guarantee they will walk . Trust me league should close the curtain on a draft.

Complete opposite. To tap new markets, they should have expanded into another AFL heartland location

Union is no competition for NRL at all. No-one plays it and the sport is a basketcase. Kids in my area seem happy to go to whichever NRL club they can. 95% move at least once anyway, the age of 1 club players is long gone

I think other clubs were waiting for him to get to a NSW Cup sought of level . Before trying to sign him. If they’d seen this season before offering a contract, I think he’d have had plenty of bigger offers. It’s not often that clubs go in to buy SG Ball aged players from elsewhere. Especially offering a lot of money. Anyway, that’s done & I only wanted to comment ‘that he’s a good player’. Looking forward to see how good Jett Cleary is next SG Ball season. :stoked: