First of all did you just respond to yourself?
Secondly I don't buy into all this "keep all your juniors" stuff. Or at least buy into the idea that clubs are not doing it or are indifferent to their junior bases. Of course clubs with decent junior bases should and will try to develop those regions. It's not as if Tigers don't do it and it's not as if Tigers lose tonnes of Macarthur juniors to other clubs.
I don't believe Penrith did anything magic in development to build a 3-peat team. They had the fortune of having a bunch of top-tier junior talent all come through together, all at once, having played in junior teams together. But what they did do was manage to bond all those players together, keep them going through the system with a clear pathway from juniors to seniors. It's not that they developed more juniors, it's that they were able to keep so many of them in a single and clearly-defined system - something Tigers have been replicating the past few years.
But Penrith also specifically unearthed some generational talent - they don't win the 2023 GF without Cleary.
Penrith also happen to sit on the biggest league base in the country, much bigger participation than Macarthur, so if any club is going to see a wide number of juniors it's them.
So if the argument was simply "teams get good by investing in their juniors and develop their talent" then teams like Roosters would never do well, which is clearly not true. There's a delicate balance with the larger junior bases and the funding is not infinite.
Even look at Tigers - got a good crop coming through Macarthur like Da Silva, Galvin, Miller, Large brothers, Laulli'i bros etc. But some of the most prominent juniors we have we headhunted - Faagutu from QLD and Fainu brothers from Parra juniors via Manly. Josh Feledy is from Manly.
So to me it's pretty clear Tigers have been consistently mining Macarthur for players for many years, but that top-level talent does not always eventuate. Some of that will be the general lack of talent, some will be Tigers inability to coach those kids to the next level. But I can barely think of a Macarthur junior who didn't end up in the Tigers juniors system, even if he was eventually headhunted by another club; I don't think it's so dire and I don't think we needed any part of the independent review to look at juniors (it wasn't part of their remit and it makes sense they didn't issue regional recommendations).
I think you’ll find the Roosters have relied on their ‘juniors’ a lot more than it seems. Sure they buy the best to play for them but only if there isn’t a kid within their system capable of doing the job better than a recruit. They may not necessarily be local to the area but Manu, Butcher brothers, Collins, Tupou and the back up forward pack, Wong, White, Baker (Broncos) have all been recruited as young players and brought up in the Roosters system.
Same as we are doing with Feledy, Faagatu, Pole.
Also it’s worth mentioning that the retained core at Penrith i.e the group on the big dollars and longest serving players were all recruited into the club. By chance prehaps? But JFH was picked up from NZ and brought into the Penrith system. Yeo, Edwards and Martin were of the benefit of the Panthers expanding their reach out to Bathurst and the western regions.
And finally the prodigal Cleary only came to Penrith because his Dad was recruited as a coach.
The players that have been offered modest contracts and all left for greener pastures including the soon to be Tiger Luai were all ‘from the area’ a term developed for the local boys that have progressed from the local schools into first grade. This is the important part as it seems that the the local boys are now providing the depth that has become an important part of the panthers remaining competitive despite losing nearly a whole first 17 over the past 3 years.
The best of best get. Identified and developed further by being included into the Penrith panthers JETs program (Junior Elite Training Scheme).
“Panthers established the JETS program in 2013 as a tool to 'fast track' select players with specialist coaching, mentoring and physical development.
The players, aged between 16 and 18, have been identified as standout performers in the club's Harold Matts, SG Ball and development squads.”
Note# Apologies I had to re-edit after reviewing this post as I got some of my points a bit muddled.
