They gradually increased Luai's involvement iirc every year, which isnt a bad way to integrate a player if you can and i think he did get a fair amount of games when one of their halves got injured iirc. They clearly had the plan to have him just replace Maloney and they must have felt the way they were doing it was the best long term plan for them. I do think there is a difference between blooding a player and putting them in the NRL 17 regularly at a young age.
Burton i still think is a bit different as he had young halves around him and Penrith obviously chose Luai and Cleary in front of him. I think if they didnt have those two at the age they are he would be staying at Penrith. He wants to play 6.
I think the main point though is Penrith allowed these players to develop and didnt just pick them to get them to sign a contract. There are probably good examples at others clubs as well. I just dont see any club successfully developing an 18-19 year old by playing him week in week out in the NRL unless he is a very, very special talent. I'll always be of the opinion that these players need at least one good year in ISC to aid them in their development. Thats the reason i think we did the right thing with Walsh even though we lost him.
Maybe it just becomes as simple as the club via the coach, etc. set a mandate with juniors that they will do an "apprenticeship" in the ISC for at least 1yr or a certain number of games before they will be picked in NRL.
The only caveat being if the injury toll is absolutely horrendous, but as soon as the injuries subside the senior player comes back in.
That way there is no favouring of players and there is a set directive from the club as to why young guys are promoted, demoted, etc.
"Why has Cobbo been dropped?"
"He hasn't been dropped, he's back in reserve grade because that is a philosophy that we have at this club. As a young player you serve your time in the lower grades before being promoted to first grade. There is no reward without first putting in the work and the young guys have to work hard to push those senior guys out of the position and earn the right"
If you go in with that mantra you can quite easily spell that out to any young player coming through. If a player chooses to leave because they want the reward before earning it you sure as shit spell that out to the playing group and anyone who asks... "player x wasnt keen on spending time in ISC to earn their place... we dont tolerate that kind of mindset here and so we were happy to let them go"
It becomes a mentality thing across the group where earning the jersey can actually mean something at the club (juniors trying to unseat the seniors and seniors trying to keep the kids at bay).
We seemingly have a conveyor belt of talent coming through each year (Atay>TBoyd>Paix>Dearden>Mam), so if a player doesnt want to bide their time then cya later we'll work with the next ones that do.
