THE BOSS Maguire Stomped The Naysayers! But...8 Months Later, Here We Are.

Just as reminder before everyone continues glazing penref. They have had 1 major injury(to a key player) this year with Mitch Kenny and the lowest amount of overall injuries across the board in the comp by a landslide. I guarantee we'd be in a much better position if we had their "luck".

Just don't ask how they stay so fit/healthy and injury free 🤡

Edit: also his injury was due to an illegal tackle, so it wasn't like a random soft tissue injury either.
 
I mean it was a risk for the club too i.e. handing a 18 year old a 5 year deal. Lots of superstar kids fall off early.
Except this “kid” was twice the size of anyone else his age.
 
I don't think the termination of the Hasting Deerings Colts had that big an impact. Brisbane largely ignored that competition and if a player was above the age of 20 and was still playing the competition it was a bad sign. Players would typically leave and go play Flegg unless they were on an NRL deal.

I think the only exception was Plath and it wasn't like the club were in a rush to sign some positive signs.

I thought the Broncos could have always done better with the National Youth Competition but I'd say the dissolution of that competition actually had an impact. Especially on depth because usually once players would age out they'd get a pre-season with the NRL and actually play a role in the season.
I don’t agree. I think the pathways dynamic has evolved significantly over the last decade to where it is now. The Storm strongly disagreed with you that there wasn’t a requirement for an u21’s team and went and found it as a development pathway for players in the NSWRL long before they moved cup down there.

I can’t fathom it for the life of me. It should be the backbone of the Qld development pathway. You invest properly in the colts. It’s a ****ing disgrace that a governing body of a sport can’t even provide an opportunity for kids in there home state to have a satisfactory platform to chase there dream. It’s the biggest sport in the state for **** sakes. That’s strictly from a social responsibility imo. It was completely a cost cutting exercise.

John Radels of the world don’t have a pathway up in QLD anymore and that’s just not good enough.

Broncos:
Gundry
Tupuse
Poese
Morcom
Kendall
Patterson
Vunipola (not with us anymore)
Tonihi
Innes (not with us)
Black (undoubtedly would have played colts)
Toko Owen
Gifford
McConnell
Scott
Cassidy
Waqa
Sefo (gone)
Bryce
Turner
Allen
Shibasaki
Larner
Williams
Schultz
Saunders
Igasan
Kleijn
Martin
Horne
Feaunati
Ford
Tauaa (gone)
Koina (gone)

Like wtf. That’s one club that’s coming last in NRLQ…. I dont think any if many of them play NRL in QLD with the current development system. That’s not good enough. All because they lose significant opportunity after NRLQ. I hate the product. It fills a gap for now but it can’t be the long term solution.

Dolphins:
Luke
Sabine
Bowles
Nonu
Naufahu
Pouniu
Figota
Batten
Fien
Fineanganofo
Wynard
Oloapu
McSherry
Tait
Starr
Lavender
Dickson
Kailahi
Symonds
Garton
Finigan
Donald
Carpenter
Warradoo
Rasmussen
Marsh
Ford

Titans:
Pauling
Pereira
Puru
Stephenson (retired)
Kama
Javon Andrews
Zane Harrison
Sharpley
Bai
Harrison
Hau (at some stage but not the last 12 months)

Plus every kid who plays schoolboy rugby league on the coast that isn’t in an academy… plus the ones I haven’t named who are that don’t stand out off the page

Do I waste my time with North Qld? I feel my point has been proven… The blackhawks have been a mainstay in the finals and development of players in CC, MM and colts for the last decade and have a strong NRLQ team once again. North Qld account for a large percentage of development of Qld state of origin talent and prospects as well.

Not to mention PNG Chiefs will be filtering their development list of players through as well.

NRLQ isn’t big enough to house or develop these players. They all either get lost to NSW clubs or lost to the game completely. It’s not good enough.

You can’t stand there and tell me that NRLQ as it stands is good enough.

I think it’s really poor. If q-cup was treated like an u23 to u25ish comp predominantly then fair enough you can get away with it but it’s filled with hulking, unremarkable players that don’t provide a good competition or development pathway beyond physicality. Not to mention all these mid to late 20’s and 30’s blokes take away all these opportunity for younger guys with far more talent and potential. BRL is the adequate and appropriate place for at least 50% of q-cup players and yet conversely widely inappropriate for nearly all the players I just named to be finding themselves in trying to develop at the sport.

It’s a mess. I can understand if the expectation is an u20’s national comp and they are getting the infrastructure and programs ready for that but the QRL have done **** all for rugby league development and the q-cup in closing the gap to NSW. In fact it’s bigger than ever.
 
Except this “kid” was twice the size of anyone else his age.

So was Karl Filiga and most probably don’t even remember him. He was the pre-Haas Haas. What Haas had that made him more likely to be successful than most was a completely unusual engine for a guy his size. He was coming in like top three in long distance team runs. A guy his size shouldn’t be able to do that.
 
He was stupid for signing a 5yr contract before he had barely played.

It was a ridiculous contract for him. He wasnt worth the money for the first few years, Then he was once he settled in. Overall i dont think he could complain really. He sort of went from being paid huge overs, to getting his market value, to being underpaid. You sign a 5 year deal thats the risk he took.
 
The Storm strongly disagreed with you that there wasn’t a requirement for an u21’s team and went and found it as a development pathway for players in the NSWRL long before they moved cup down there.
That wasn't my point.

My point was that the termination of the Hasting Deerings Colts didn't impact the Broncos. The Broncos didn't put the work in and effectively said once you turn 20 if you're not getting a look in at QCup see you later.

I believe the NRLQ is a step in the right direction because it's forcing the Broncos to put that work in. They have to sign 25-30 young players and give them that opportunity and actually get some perspective. Ideally they would expand Flegg and get involved there but if the plan is for a National Youth Competition which is the working theory all the better.

Like I said, despite Brisbane being found wanting in the NYC the dissolution of that competition had a big impact and the Broncos aren't getting anywhere near the same volume of players. That's the direction they ought to head in instead of relying on their affiliates and their pathways.
 
We can't have a junior system like the Panthers because of the QRL. they won't allow NRL clubs to enter teams into their comp like the NSWRL do.

admittedly we are on record as preferring the current affiliate arrangement ... the Cowboys however are desperate for entering their own reserve grade team in the QLD Cup comp, but have so far always been denied.

Rubbish. 90a and early 00s our junior system pumped. The club is just a bunch of useless ***** who accept mediocre shit now.
 
We can't have a junior system like the Panthers because of the QRL. they won't allow NRL clubs to enter teams into their comp like the NSWRL do.

admittedly we are on record as preferring the current affiliate arrangement ... the Cowboys however are desperate for entering their own reserve grade team in the QLD Cup comp, but have so far always been denied.

What made up rubbish- they had the Young Guns and didn't want it anymore; they wanted the Pride and Cutters, now they want the Young Guns back.

The QRL are in charge of the whole of Queensland not waiting by the phone waiting for the Cowboys and changing six comps when the Cowboys want something new.
 
Colts' games played by the premiers.

Walsh-0
Karapani- 15 Flegg games
Staggs-2
Shibasaki-0
Mariner-1
Hunt-0
Reynolds-0
Jensen-0
Paix-12
Haas-0
Piakura-0
Riki-13
Carrigan-0
Mam-2
Hetherington-20
Willison-3
Smoothy-31

Hetherington and Smoothy are half and eight played 0. The data showed that it was a completely unnecessary step in development. More players were going straight from Meninga to Cup.

Verhoeven has gone from Meninga to Cup to NRL in less than 12 months- what would three Colts games have gained?

Coates- Meninga, Cup to NRL.

Bukowski- Meninga, Cup NRL

Duffy is the only debut this year that played Colts-17 games for Townsville and is he any greater prepared than the other three after those 17 games?
 
The same coach who has gone and paid stupid amounts of money for our star prop?

Don't believe a word that old dude says.

His figure was $300k-$350 which in 2000 was great money. The cap was 3 million.

In 1985 he was probably saying he'd only pay $45k for a front rower.

The figure has to go up but the stance is still the same.
 
On mozer he has looked great in q cup in 2024 consistently and after his injury in 2025 go watch his games in q cup

Great is a massive massive stretch, he played 13 games and didn't play after July with his shoulder.
 
I think we're on the same page re: investing in affiliates as per my previous post.
As for keeping them with their affiliates when they're young and moving them across once done, I think that's something that I would personally change.
Get them into the system as early as you can. I'd liken it to academies in european football teams - get them in early, have them come up through the system as early as you can, playing and developing them in the way that's akin to the way we want to play. Obviously Soccer and NRL are completely different sports with tactical formations and so on, but I think the fundamentals would still ring true no matter what.

The Broncos do this already, you have guys on full-time training deals, you have guys that come in on Friday until they finish school or just when they finish school- Mozer was on a one day a week training, Te Kura was a full time training deal.

Broncos U17 just played the Cowboys.
 
Forgot about this part, but was it @Big Pete that was raising some red flags about some of the young guys choosing to head down to NSW Cup for development instead of staying in Qld... and if that should be a concern to QRL.

Was it after that broncos second rower went to Penrith a couple years back?

I think he was a gun coming through, but chose to head to Penrith... no idea if he's debuted or anything at this stage though

Armstrong- and no. He's still bouncing between Cup and Flegg. Playing more Cup this year than Flegg.
 
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