davo_ said:
Few of the Roosters first graders are Roosters bred, and few of the Roosters juniors come from the Roosters area. The Roosters let other clubs develop players and then poach them when they are primed. I feel sorry for clubs like the Eels who have such a strong jnrs base, but lose many of their players.
Firstly on Roosters juniors, or lack thereof.
Easts' lack of juniors is due to a lack of junior clubs. They have the smallest junior area in the competiton. They only have the four clubs, in St. Charles, Bondi United, Clovelly Crocs and Paddington.
The lack of junior clubs is due to Souths stealing most of the Roosters clubs in the 1950s when the boundaries of each club were redrawn. Souths got all the clubs south of Alison Road, so now areas like Coogee and Randwick, which are clearly in the eastern suburbs, are now Souths juniors. The Roosters don't do too badly, considering this. They also have an excellent development program, when they bring in young players who are 17 and 18, and develop them into better players, e.g. Anthony Tupou. He came to the club from Newcastle at around 125kg, and now is a lot lighter, and a much better player.
If you go through the Roosters team, there is only a few players who you could claim are actually "poached" as established first graders from other clubs.
Minichiello - came to the Roosters as an SG Ball player
Roberts - "poached"
Soliola - signed with the Roosters after being spotted playing for a junior NZ rep team
Cross - Roosters junior through and through
Monaghan - "poached"
Soward - came to the Roosters after being treated like dirt at Canberra
Finch - "poached"
Cayless - signed as an Eels reserve grader
Wing - signed after Souths were kicked out of the comp
Morley - came to the Roosters looking for an opportunity to play in the NRL
Fitzgibbon - signed as a bench player at St. George
Crocker - came to the Roosters as a junior
Ricketson - Roosters junior through and through
Flannery - came to the Roosters as a junior
L'Estrange - came to the Roosters after being cut by Parramatta (Smith said he was too small to play NRL)
Tupou - came to the Roosters as a junior
Fa'aoso - came to the Roosters due to more opportunities for first grade
The only players you could say were poached as established players were Finch, Roberts and Monaghan.
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The Eels are one of the worst offenders when it comes to signing players.
For this season alone, they bought Morrison, Stringer, Riddell, PJ Marsh, Tahu, Henderson and Robinson.
If you go through this week's team, only around 4 players are proper Eels juniors, and that's despite having an enormous juniors base.
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For those saying Ian Schubert's in the Roosters' pocket, he also played for Wests and Manly, and coached at the Bulldogs.
Why don't you suggest he turns a blind eye to their goings-on?