jirskyr
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2009
- Messages
- 13,885
I agree, but surely players must understand this is what they get with the Roosters? Roosters appear to be very loyal and will definitely take care of you, but it's on their own terms, and those terms may include putting you out to a well-paid pasture when a shiny new toy comes to market.What a bastard of a club though. Offer him a 2 year extension to keep a hold on him even though they know they can't get it ratified by NRL. Then go about getting all their ducks in a row to make big play for Munster and Cobbo. If they are a seroius chance of getting them AC.s extension will be off the table quicker than he can find a pen to sign it.
Also Roosters might talk big about bringing kids into their system and "up-skilling" them once they arrive, but it must be clear to everyone that this consists almost entirely of paying for the boom players from anywhere.
It's not even that Roosters find these kids at 15 or 16 and bring them in, which can reasonably be claimed to be a significant investment in a middle-juniors program (which is what they did with Manu and Latrell). No they barely bother with that any more, they wait for the boom to hit, then swoop. E.g. JWH after Manly identified him, Tedesco after being established at Tigers, Sam Walker stolen from Broncos, Crichton and Suaalii stolen from Souths, Cheese from Melbourne etc. etc. Almost anyone prominently decent were purchased at their prime, not carefully developed since early teens.
You can be angry about it, and it does annoy me, but it's obviously a strategy that also works. They take the lowest possible risks with outlaying for young footballers, and become a desirable destination for having a high-quality roster with lucrative / long-term pay and support options.
I personally think it's soul-less and dislike that club immensely, and it's a far far cry from what the old Easts Roosters were when my Grandma supported them as a kid from Paddington, even in the 1980s. Maybe, however, it's the way many clubs are going, and it perhaps raises an argument for the NRL taking central control of all junior funding.
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