It's been an issue that's plagued the game for years and it's something that should have been addressed in the early 2010s when the Tigers and Raiders fell into hard times.
The dream is that everything turns out like it did at the Panthers, where a club develops enough talent that eventually they can't all be poached and they start playing quality football together.
However, it still hasn't resulted in a premiership after a decade of hard work and it's backfired spectacularly on teams.
The Wests Tigers are a good case study. After they parted way with Sheens they went in with the idea of doing a rebuild where they'd endure some lean years but in the long term they'd have some of the best players in the competition at the club.
They brought through players like James Tedesco, Mitchell Moses, Aaron Woods, Luke Brooks, Nathan Brown, Curtis Sironen, Moses Suli, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Marika Koroibete, Josh Addo-Carr, David Nofoaluma, Taniela Paseka, Te Maire Martin, Matt Lodge etc. only for the majority to be swayed by successful clubs, large sums of money or this perception that they were the titanic.
I don't know how a team like the Wests Tigers can compete in any other way. It's not like there's another Nick Politis who can come in and use his influence to make them successful. They've had quality coaches at the club and it didn't make a lick of difference. In fact they had Ivan Cleary and he made the situation worse because he went in a completely different direction and used whatever cap he could to build the best squad of free agents possible to at least make them competitive.
That got them to 9th placed but Madge has had to pick up the pieces of signing Russell Packer, Moses Mbye, Josh Reynolds etc. on these huge contracts with little wriggle room.
I'm worried about the long term viability of the Panthers as well. They're flying right now, but if the market keeps driving up the prices of their players they could easily find themselves in the middle of the pack or even outside the eight.
I still can't believe the Matt Burton situation. I find that whole story to be completely unfair on the Panthers who have been painted as arrogant and selfish for wanting to keep a quality player. When the Bulldogs offered Burton that contract they were completely desperate and Burton's management figured that was the only way he was going to play first grade. However we've since discovered he's one of the best centres in the competition and Penrith could have offered him something had they been given the time.
It's similar to the Reece Walsh situation. Walsh was obviously a quality young talent but nobody had seen him play since he was 17. He spent most of 2020 injured and there wasn't a reserve grade to bring him through as a 18 year old. The Broncos deserved a fair opportunity to make an assessment of his talent before he's signed before a single QCup game. That's just a club taking an absolute punt on a player because they desperately need a win after losing the last fullback they poached.
It doesn't always work out either, look at Ash Taylor. The Gold Coast took a punt because they needed something and it completely ruined a career and set their club back a few years in the process.
I just hope the NRL are serious about having a national reserve grade and under 20s football. If they're willing to put the money into it, at least it would put a system in place that would make it easier to give clubs dispensation. Say if a club brings through a player from 20s to first grade only half their salary counts towards their cap.
The idea is that clubs should be rewarded for 'making stars' and there should be an incentive for clubs to stick loyal to their players and for all three grades to be strong.
Where did it all go wrong for the Broncos? For mine, they're guilty of making the same mistake Penrith made when the NYC was first introduced. Penrith were always one of the stronger reserve grade team, that was a key element behind their unlikely 2003 premiership. They were still doing well in that regard until 2008 when they were calling up players like Wade Graham, Lachlan Coote, Tim Grant, Sam McKendry etc. before they were ready.
Like Penrith, players like Tom Dearden, Xavier Coates, Tesi Niu, Tom Flegler, Cory Paix, Jordan Riki, Ethan Bullemor etc. skipped a grade before they'd even proven themselves. They were learning on the job and it just prevented Brisbane from forming a solid identity as a team creating an environment of doubt.
You have to build that pathway and you have to accept that you can't keep them all. You have to be willing to lose a Jai Arrow to gain a Tevita Pangai Jr.