Broncos youngsters under threat from poachers.

[ivanhungryjak]

Five of Brisbane Broncos’ best young players being headhunted by NRL clubs

George Fai is one of the players headhunted. Pic Renae droop



CRADLE snatching NRL clubs are targeting the Broncos nursery with five of the club’s best young players headhunted.

The Courier-Mail can reveal the Gold Coast Titans have made a formal offer for Brisbane’s best emerging prop, 18-year-old giant George Fai.
The Titans are also interested in poaching rookie sensation Joe Ofahengaue and have made inquiries about the availability of teen half Ashley Taylor.
Two Sydney clubs have set their sights on 18-year-old utility Jayden Nikorima and the
the Melbourne Storm have shown interest in Broncos 20-year-old centre Tom Opacic.

Sydney clubs have Jayden Nikorima in their sights.



The Broncos are quietly confident of keeping all five players on their books.
They believe that Wayne Bennett and his coaching staff offer the young players the best environment to progress their football.
Under Bennett, the Broncos have lost very few players to rival clubs they wanted to keep with Justin Hodges’ departure for the Roosters the rare exception.
Until recently, Brisbane didn’t have many young players that rival clubs considered worth targeting.
From 2009 to 2013, Brisbane had a lean crop of juniors with few graduating from their under-20 ranks to the NRL.
They now lead the NYC competition, following on from their grand final appearance last season.
Their impressive performances under coach Craig Hodges have put their young guns on the map.
Rival clubs believe Brisbane’s teens are vulnerable because the Broncos have too much talent and some of their list will have to find a first-grade career elsewhere.
Brisbane Broncos press conference

The New Zealand Warriors have battled the same issue in recent seasons with gun under-20s players like Peter Hiku poached by Manly.
Fai made almost every representative league team growing up including Australian Schoolboys and under-18 Maroons.
He is highly rated at Red Hill.
Brisbane’s long-term investment in half-back Ben Hunt could see them lose rising playmaker Taylor, who has piqued the interest of Titans scouts with his performances in the under-20s.
Taylor was handed a three-year deal last year by former coach Anthony Griffin but will struggle to break into a Broncos NRL side piloted by halves Hunt and Anthony Milford.
When Taylor was a teen the Titans chased him but he chose the Broncos.
Meanwhile, the Storm have previously expressed interest in Opacic but the Broncos are determined to retain the rookie centre after tabling a one-year deal in recent weeks.

The Storm have expressed interest in Tom Opacic. Pic Chris Higgins



“There is certainly interest in Tom, but the Broncos are keen for him to stay,” his manager Shaun Pyne said.
“He almost joined Melbourne last year. The Storm showed some interest but Tom got a pre-season with the Broncos and he’s impressed Wayne Bennett with his attitude.”
Simon Mammino, manager of the younger Nikorima brother Jayden, revealed his client had already knocked the Broncos back.
“The Broncos tried to extend him last year and we wanted to wait because there was instability,” Mammino said.
“I’d like to hope by the middle of the season we can do something for Jayden.
“The indication is Wayne (Bennett, Broncos coach) wants to see a bit more of Jayden before he decides whether to sign him.”

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...ted-by-nrl-clubs/story-fniabm4i-1227312475182

You can't keep them all but it's annoying that some clubs don't spend anything on development and can just poach away at will.

 

[mitch222]

This was always going to happen especially with a club 100kms down the road with a piss poor development program. You cant keep them all but Bennett will select the few that he will keep and want to mould into first grade players. I feel some of the excess fat will be cut this year like Vidot, Stagg, Lowrie etc to keep some of these youngsters

 

[Battler]

The nrl should bring in a sizeable cap allowance for juniors and a loan system like the epl. It's a disgrace that parasites like the roosters benefit from clubs with excellent junior systems in place.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

You would wonder why Taylor would be any better off at the Titans being stuck in line behind DCE and Elgey.

 

[Foordy]

Nothing new there ... rival clubs have always tried to raid our nursery ... let us do most of the work developing these kids then come in with massive offers that we can't get near.

You would wonder why Taylor would be any better off at the Titans being stuck in line behind DCE and Elgey.

Elgey has far from cemented his position and DCE is still a chance of a backflip. however Taylor is under contract for 2 more years so we would have to release him first..

 

[Renegade]

Well, the flipside is that we're obviously producing/developing/scouting players of higher quality now than a few years ago.

So although we can't keep them all, if we can keep the right ones for the positions that we need, it's good signs for us.

 

[pennywisealfie]

I'm going to be pretty upset if we lose Jayden.

 

[Nashy]

Has happened forever. Will happen forever.

 

[broncos4life]

All this shows is how blind the NRL is.

Would like to keep them all but realistically that's not going to happen, so would rather we keep the ones that address our needs.

It's in situations like this that I'm glad we didn't end up getting Gagai and some of the others we were rumoured to be chasing.

I hope we can keep Joffa and Fai as we need props and Opacic could come onto the wing, moving Copley into the centres for good and Reed to the backrow or Q cup.

Really, really hope we can keep Jikorima because he is so versitile so even if he can't work his way into the spine he could come off the bench (if Kikorima isn't there or he proves to be better) or could give us some speed on the wing.

At this stage I can't see us keeping Taylor as I can only see him working in the halves and if milford kicks on there is no place for him. The upside is having him contracted until the end of next year means that we can give Milford the year to prove himself in the halves, and if it is a complete failure can turn our attention to Ash.

 

[Cult]

Ah, just like the good old days.

 

[Renegade]

so let's do a bit of a list on who's supposedly going to become a gun player in first grade and are either off contract or are part of the logjam

feel free to correct me or add other names

K Nikorima
J Nikorima
A Taylor
T Opacic
G Fai
F Molo
K Hipgrave
L Collins
B Greinke
J Offa
J Arrow

11 players, 2 utilities, a half, a center/wing, 7 forwards.

Unlikely either of our halves are going anywhere anytime soon, so barring a serious injury or a dramatic fall from grace/form, we're unlikely to see Taylor or J Nikorima in first grade this year. Hunt is 25 this year and Milford is 21. Taylor is 20, Kodi is 21, Jayden is 19. (ages based on what they're turning or have turned this year)

Opacic has a bit of a fight on his hands with Kahu, Maranta and Oates all seemingly in front of him, with Reed Hodges and Copley certs. Opacic is 21, Kahu 24, Maranta 23, Oates 21 (though you would assume he will move into the back row eventually so take that into consideration at the bottom of the page), Reed 27, Copley 24, Hodges 33

Fai, Collins and Hipgrave have a few years on their side as they're only 18-19 from memory

Arrow is 20, J Offa 21, Molo 21, Greinke 21.

Our current forward pack consists of Mcguire 25, Thaiday 30, Glenn 27, Gillett 27, Parker 33, Blair 29, Wallace 24, Dodds 26, Garbutt 26, Gavet 26.

If you were in charge of the phasing in and out of players, assuming these players continued on their current trajectory - who'd you choose to replace whom? and who would you phase out, and when would this process start?

 

[rnabokov]

Has happened forever. Will happen forever.

Yep. Especially when you import superstars like Milford and Boyd

 

[lionred]

so let's do a bit of a list on who's supposedly going to become a gun player in first grade and are either off contract or are part of the logjam

feel free to correct me or add other names

K Nikorima
J Nikorima
A Taylor
T Opacic
G Fai
F Molo
K Hipgrave
L Collins
B Greinke
J Offa
J Arrow

With the way the 20s are going you could throw them all in that list, but for my mind, players that have caught my attention to stay are:

K Nikorima- without a doubt- will stay
J Nikorima - cant see there being room - to similar to Kodi
A Taylor - same as above with positional room - and a shame
G Fai - has the goods for sure, needs a bit more time though
K Hipgrave - young gun for sure and I hope stays. Tough as nails
J S'ua - another young gun backrower, already giving 80 mins a game at 17
B Grienke - for sure, This guy is special and hopefully will see him around soo time
J Offa - should stay - cant seem them blooding him into NRL for nothing
J Arrow - great prospect, work horse hopefully will keep intensity out of 20s - needs some ISC time
J Berrell - this guy is tough - but not sure if room due to positional reasons

 

[Foordy]

so let's do a bit of a list on who's supposedly going to become a gun player in first grade and are either off contract or are part of the logjam

feel free to correct me or add other names

K Nikorima
J Nikorima
A Taylor
T Opacic
G Fai
F Molo
K Hipgrave
L Collins
B Greinke
J Offa
J Arrow

With the way the 20s are going you could throw them all in that list, but for my mind, players that have caught my attention to stay are:

K Nikorima- without a doubt- will stay
J Nikorima - cant see there being room - to similar to Kodi
A Taylor - same as above with positional room - and a shame
G Fai - has the goods for sure, needs a bit more time though
K Hipgrave - young gun for sure and I hope stays. Tough as nails
J S'ua - another young gun backrower, already giving 80 mins a game at 17
B Grienke - for sure, This guy is special and hopefully will see him around soo time
J Offa - should stay - cant seem them blooding him into NRL for nothing
J Arrow - great prospect, work horse hopefully will keep intensity out of 20s - needs some ISC time
J Berrell - this guy is tough - but not sure if room due to positional reasons

if we can only keep one of them, then we should be trying to keep Jayden, because IMO, he is the superior player

 

[Mr Fourex]

so let's do a bit of a list on who's supposedly going to become a gun player in first grade and are either off contract or are part of the logjam

feel free to correct me or add other names

K Nikorima
J Nikorima
A Taylor
T Opacic
G Fai
F Molo
K Hipgrave
L Collins
B Greinke
J Offa
J Arrow

11 players, 2 utilities, a half, a center/wing, 7 forwards.

Unlikely either of our halves are going anywhere anytime soon, so barring a serious injury or a dramatic fall from grace/form, we're unlikely to see Taylor or J Nikorima in first grade this year. Hunt is 25 this year and Milford is 21. Taylor is 20, Kodi is 21, Jayden is 19. (ages based on what they're turning or have turned this year)

Opacic has a bit of a fight on his hands with Kahu, Maranta and Oates all seemingly in front of him, with Reed Hodges and Copley certs. Opacic is 21, Kahu 24, Maranta 23, Oates 21 (though you would assume he will move into the back row eventually so take that into consideration at the bottom of the page), Reed 27, Copley 24, Hodges 33

Fai, Collins and Hipgrave have a few years on their side as they're only 18-19 from memory

Arrow is 20, J Offa 21, Molo 21, Greinke 21.

Did any of the above players play SOO NYC last year.....(Molo did I think)

 

[Brozilla]

Did any of the above players play SOO NYC last year.....(Molo did I think)

Joe Of did too.

 

[1910]

Did any of the above players play SOO NYC last year.....(Molo did I think)

Greinke, Molo, Ofahengaue, Nikorima made the 20's.

While Hipgrave, Fai, Nikorima, Weiss Pati, Alick, Collins, Duffin and Lavea made the Under 18's.

 

[1910]

The nrl should bring in a sizeable cap allowance for juniors and a loan system like the epl. It's a disgrace that parasites like the roosters benefit from clubs with excellent junior systems in place.

That's just grandstand rhetoric.

The Roosters have a very good system; look at the side that played the Broncos a few weeks ago. Jennings, Maloney, Waerea-Hargreaves and Moa are it for playing for another NRL club.