Broncos Junior Development

[Renegade]

The problem with junior development is a couple of issues imo

1) We no longer have the leverage we used to. Once upon a time we were the team that everyone wanted to be, everyone wanted to play for, we had the galaxy of stars that would make it very enticing to come and play for us. I think it is fair to say that isnt the case anymore, probably partially because of a lack of success in the past decade.

2) We are competing against 15 other clubs for the same talents. The argument that Broncos had all of QLD to choose from may have had some degree of truth to it in the 90's, but not present day. Scouts are spread far and wide from all clubs, we no longer have the inside running on some under the radars that we used to. Why would a kid in Cairns sign for Brisbane when they could sign for NQ, and stay closer to home? If Hodges, Thaiday, Hunt were 10 years younger, they might've played for the Cows their entire career.

3) Cyril Connell. Not only was he a fucking gun scout, but he had connections to schools, being a former headmaster and so on - so he often knew of players before anyone else. This sorta ties in with 2), but he on his own deserves a separate entry because of the impact he had (All members of the 2006 grand final had been scouted/recommended by Cyril at one stage or another)

4) Because we dwarf the resources of most other clubs, our approach to scouting seems to be a 'sign them all, shake them up, see what comes to the top' - except that's really difficult to do when you can only play in so many teams. There's no point signing the best 10 young halfbacks in Qld, for example, if realistically there is only playing spots for 2 of them in the assorted teams. That's why other clubs like Melb can swoop in and take player of their choice, because they devote their resources seemingly to scouting, identifying, signing and developing the right guy, rather than taking them all and seeing what sticks.

5) A lack of success highlights other areas. If we were winning things like we did in the 90's or the first half of the 2000's, junior development would become less of an issue. Both because 1) if we were winning things, we would be more focused on celebrating the present than being pensive about the future, and 2) if we were consistently winning things, it would indicate our junior development is doing its job because you would imagine most of the players in the team would have been developed in house, not signed from elsewhere.

 

[1910]

You're delving too deeply into the specifics that I'm raising when my original point is about broncos seemingly having to depend on market availability rather than development of our own juniors.

Looking at the 2006 premiership team every one of those players debuted with the broncos. Looking at today's team I can see a far greater portion of bought players and in my opinion bought players are much harder to retain (Moga, Ese and Roberts from this year alone) compared to a junior in Sam who has turned down larger offers to stay.

Is our apparent dependence on the market due to Wayne having no faith in the juniors, our junior recruitment guys bringing in a horrible bunch or broncos changing their overall strategy to buy over develop?

As a member I love seeing a broncos team full of juniors and one club players over a group of ring ins and significant turnover of the roster

Hannant and Perry didn't debut for the Broncos.

Ennis was injured too or he would have been the hooker.

 

[BroncsFan]

What about the 2015 broncos squad? Out of that team, only Milford and Blair had been purchased, and one was a castaway. Not exactly a bad return either.

Not sure if that is a shot, but I was more referring to the majority of the team being juniors, etc.

In today's team there is legitimate chance for the majority of players being imports from other teams in any given week:

Jet, Moga, Milf, Sims, Blair, TPJ, Ese, Mead, Benji, even Waddell

Not saying they're bad signings, with some buys clearly an astute piece of roster management, but how often in years gone by has a broncos team been majority import.

To me it is pretty astounding considering we as the club's fans love to harp on about the amount of juniors we have in our starting 17 every year

 

[barker]

I am really concerned if the rumours and reports are true that we are about to have an exodus of players like Ese Ese, Arrow, Fai and Ofahengaue. With Thaiday and Blair in the last year or two of their careers and guys like Gillett and Glenn turning 30 next year, it is vital that the Broncos have a succession plan in place because it is so important to have a group of 'middle tier' players, the players in their early to mid 20's who have a couple of years of ISC under their belts.

Right now those four players I named are our squad of middle tier players but if you look below that into our junior ranks the cupboard is fairly bare. Matt Lodge may turn out to be a good player but he is only 22 years old and has played less NRL games than Ese Ese or Ofahengaue. Barr, Boyce, Dodds, Funaki and Rockley don't strike me as being future superstars, Sua has been out of the limelight this year so I don't know how he's progressing, Payne Haas is not even 18 years of age and Whitbread and Carrigan are under 20 years of age.

It's hard to see where our short term forward stocks are coming from without buying players in and I think that is a disastrous tactic. TPJ is a boom player but he comes from the Newcastle area so there's no doubt Newcastle will throw ridiculous money at him when he comes off contract. Without an upbringing in the Broncos culture Ese Ese put money before culture and Roberts may be about to do the same thing. Bought in players are more likely to chase the dollar than show loyalty to the Broncos culture.

Sadly, I would rather see Sam Thaiday get the tap on the shoulder so we could keep one or two middle tier players and ensure they have game time opportunities. In my opinion we really needed to keep Ese Ese and Arrow.

 

[Danoz Direct]

I think we are in trouble long term.

 

[Smokin' Joe]

I think we are in trouble long term.

Have some faith Danoz!

 

[winslow_wong]

Premiership windows don't last long unless you're the storm

 

[Unbreakable]

Have some faith Danoz!

I'll start having something faith once we've established a long-term plan in the halves.

We can make do with our juniors and the occasional signing for the forwards & outside backs, but if we don't have a real Halfback lined up within the next 18 months, we're in deep shit.

 

[Danoz Direct]

Have some faith Danoz!

Will try!

Anyone coming through to look out for?

 

[Morkel]

Have some faith Danoz!

He's just being direct.

 

[john1420]

If you will remember I was using Arrow as an example of the current state of our recruitment i.e. a junior brought through the ranks but has been shafted because we've bought outside our system and he doesn't have a pathway.

What I want to know is what is our actual recruitment plan?? We seem to be a scatter gun approach in the market. Spending large money on Bird, but no one knows where he fits into the squad.

Not signing any halfbacks at all, not just top line players but juniors from other clubs as well. We have a hole there.

Letting juniors go and signing depth guys from other squads rather than bringing ours through.

Is it because our junior recruitment and retention is shithouse and they can't identify a talent?? We've been screaming for outside backs for years but for some reason none of our juniors make the grade whilst clubs have 20's wingers coming in every year. I'm not counting Oates who is a second rower and was put on the wing due to an absolute wasteland of wingers at the club.

FWIW I don't want Lodge coming. He will be straight out the door the second a Sydney team comes knocking... and I would prefer we focus on bringing Joffa and Fai through instead

Highlighting this as it seems to keep coming up over and over.....in no way targeting you particularly BF

There is no way on earth that Paul White and Wayne Bennett throw large coin at a guy and not know why they are buying him and where they are playing him

The public may have no clue where Birdy will play next year, but WB sure as hell does

 

[barker]

Here's an interesting story about a Kiwi kid we've signed but it gives a good insight into the Melbourne Storm's philosophy when it comes to signing juniors. It's all about quality not quantity and a more personal development approach.
I've always suspected the Broncos sign large numbers of kids and hope the cream rises to the top. However, I think the bigger problem is that a lot of kids sign with Broncos because the Broncos have one of the better development programmes. They take advantage of the Broncos system knowing their value automatically goes up in the eyes of the other NRL clubs then go off to the highest bidder.
In an age where money is more important than loyalty, I think we are going to see more and more junior players take advantage of the Broncos system and move on. I have no faith that youngsters like David Fifita or Payne Haas will stay with the Broncos for love of the team and all round development over money.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/leagu...ids-heats-up-as-warriors-continue-to-struggle

 

[Taylor1921]

Here's an interesting story about a Kiwi kid we've signed but it gives a good insight into the Melbourne Storm's philosophy when it comes to signing juniors. It's all about quality not quantity and a more personal development approach.
I've always suspected the Broncos sign large numbers of kids and hope the cream rises to the top. However, I think the bigger problem is that a lot of kids sign with Broncos because the Broncos have one of the better development programmes. They take advantage of the Broncos system knowing their value automatically goes up in the eyes of the other NRL clubs then go off to the highest bidder.
In an age where money is more important than loyalty, I think we are going to see more and more junior players take advantage of the Broncos system and move on. I have no faith that youngsters like David Fifita or Payne Haas will stay with the Broncos for love of the team and all round development over money.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/leagu...ids-heats-up-as-warriors-continue-to-struggle

Not what I wanted to see, I rate Haas and Fifita big time :(

 

[Sproj]

Surely you look at the young guys coming through and you say to yourself, 'Alright we lost Tino but Haas, Carrigan, Fifita and Su'a are the four non-negotiables, we keep them at all costs.

 

[Danoz Direct]

Surely you look at the young guys coming through and you say to yourself, 'Alright we lost Tino but Haas, Carrigan, Fifita and Su'a are the four non-negotiables, we keep them at all costs.

You'd think so.

 

[Taylor1921]

Surely you look at the young guys coming through and you say to yourself, 'Alright we lost Tino but Haas, Carrigan, Fifita and Su'a are the four non-negotiables, we keep them at all costs.

It's the broncos we lost Slater, Cronk and smith. What makes you think they won't loose Haas and Fifita they've already lost Tino

 

[Cult]

Don't worry guys, opposition fans are certain that we get to keep every Queensland player we want. I'm sure it won't be different this time.

 

[Alec]

It's sad, because we used to be arguably the best at bringing in debutants and keeping them. Now Melbourne and some others seem to have surpassed us.