Juniors - Pathways General Discussion

balmain boy said:
So once again, for a club supposedly a "development" club all 4 of our junior rep sides got smashed. All of them posted dumb footy. All of them are much slower, less powerful and less skillful than their opponents.

There are very few first grade prospects across all 4 sides. We can't develop players, but if we don't even have rough diamonds in the first place you can't develop trash into treasure.

Anyone whom has had anything to do with our junior recruitment needs to be sacked. Bronson and Gallant, both utterly rubbish for starters.

HBG forcing the juniors to be run on loose change just come to an end. Yes HBG are directly responsible for our embarrassing sides. We need several full time scouts. We need to pay kids and coaches more money.

We need to be realistic and understand very few players make it to first grade when they're smaller than 6 foot. Very very few, and those that do are explosive. Having 2/3 of our Juniors being undersized has a direct correlation with our inability to win. No we don't need giant oafs that can't move, but every single other club can find backs that are 185cm+, can sprint and bust tackles. So it's possible, we're just deliberately targeting players who are one in a million to make it to consistent first graders. And it shows. Enough is enough. Mielekamp has to put his stamp on our Juniors
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@balmain boy i understand your disappointment and I’m sure everyone involved would be disappointed, but I watched the majority of all 4 games and I saw at least a couple of players in each team really shine and show quality despite the scoreboard.
I will do a more in depth review of the players I’m referring to when I get a bit more time, but as a snippet I thought aside from the higher profile players that Curtis Lakeman continued to show signs of his toughness and quality and I think the 3 for Balmain SG Ball shows signs of having a fair bit of ability once they get him some good ball.
 
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Vicious said:
@balmain boy i understand your disappointment and I’m sure everyone involved would be disappointed, but I watched the majority of all 4 games and I saw at least a couple of players in each team really shine and show quality despite the scoreboard.
I will do a more in depth review of the players I’m referring to when I get a bit more time, but as a snippet I thought aside from the higher profile players that Curtis Lakeman continued to show signs of his toughness and quality and I think the 3 for Balmain SG Ball shows signs of having a fair bit of ability once they get him some good ball.
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Lakeman did make a fantastic one on one tackle to hold up a much bigger opponent over the line. I applauded loudly after that tackle. But then his passing and kicking games are not up to sg Ball level. Which as a half is what he's largely judged on.
CTM was lumbering around and whenever he tried to go harder he'd just drop the ball.
The backs for Wests are not good enough. Glassie had one great run, but that's literally the only thing he did all match. De he touch the ball again?

Balmain SG Ball have no standout individuals but play well as a team when they are switched on.

Wests Matts big Zeph Finau has something about him. Searle works hard. That's about it.

Balmain matts has Iongi, that's about it.

There's just a huge lack of talent in our squads. Yes if you can get 1-2 first graders out of one of each of these sides that's a good result, but to get 1-2 to first grade you need 7-8 standouts, most of whom gradual fall away when they move up the ranks. So having 1-2 decent prospects per side gives us very little chance of developing serious talent.

Of course there can be late developers etc here and there but they're the outlier not the rule.

@Vicious
 
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balmain boy said:
Lakeman did make a fantastic t over on one tackle to hold up a much bigger opponent over the line. I applauded loudly after that tackle. But then his passing and kicking games are not up to sg Ball level. Which as a half is what he's largely judged on.
CTM was lumbering around and whenever he tried to go harder he'd just drop the ball.
The backs for Wests are not good enough. Gkassie
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Yes the overall 1-7 is not up to the required standard.
Have a look at the tries conceded yesterday, mostly out wide.
In saying that it was Glassie’s first game of the season, he showed glimpses of his ability and he’s highly aggressive, he has plenty of upside.
Josh Vella is playing a year up and playing ok, I think he will be a good player moving forward.
I think Curtis Lakeman has enormous potential, he’s only 17 or 18 playing up in u/19’s, but is extremely tough and feisty and I think he plays with good shape, just hasn’t had much help so far this season.
With Balmain not much went wrong in the vicinity of their number 3, it was a disaster on the other side, plus he looks a very dangerous ball runner when given an opportunity.
 
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EllisFan said:
In a recent podcast he was quite honest about this and indicated it’s not a short-term fix.
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Not a short term fix but getting an extra few million in funding from HBG is the minimum requirement, hire scouts, coaches etc that can be done quickly. Pay players to play for us.

Creating a culture of success, that's the long part that we're at least 5-6 years away from
 
balmain boy said:
Not a short term fix but getting an extra few million in funding from HBG is the minimum requirement, hire scouts, coaches etc that can be done quickly. Pay players to play for us.

Creating a culture of success, that's the long part that we're at least 5-6 years away from
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Talent ID and developing the right players through to NRL is not as easy as it would seem.
I’ve watched the Broncos Qld Cup team trials and although they are going well on the scoreboard, they only have a couple of decent NRL prospects coming through, most of their team are journeyman and recruits.
With the recruitment network they would have, they should have a whole team of emerging superstars coming through.
 
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