Tim Sheens Returns to Tigers

[Demps]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

Keebra Park was pretty good:

Corey Allan – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[4]
Jesse Arthars – player for the Brisbane Broncos[6]
Jai Arrow – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Queensland representative[7]
AJ Brimson – player for the Gold Coast Titans[9]
Tanah Boyd – player for the Gold Coast Titans[10]
Rangi Chase – player for the Doncaster Rovers and England international[11]
JJ Collins – former Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Canberra player[12]
Greg Eastwood – former Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Leeds player and New Zealand international[13]
Kenny Edwards – player for the Huddersfield Giants[14]
David Fifita – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland representative[16]
Moeaki Fotuaika – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Tonga representative[16]
Payne Haas – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Australian international[16]
Tony Hearn – former North Sydney, South Queensland and St George player and Queensland representative[5]
Delouise Hoeter – former Wests Tigers player and Tonga international[17]
Dallas Hood – former Sydney Roosters and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player[18]
Jordan Kahu – player for the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand international[20]
Connelly Lemuelu – player for the North Queensland Cowboys[22]
Lamar Liolevave – former Wests Tigers player and Fiji international[23]
Isaac Liu – player for the Sydney Roosters and New Zealand international[24]
Jamahl Lolesi – former Canberra, Canterbury, Wests Tigers and Huddersfield player and New Zealand international[25]
Robert Lui – player for the Leeds Rhinos[26]
Te Maire Martin – former Penrith and North Queensland player and New Zealand international[27]
Benji Marshall – player for the Wests Tigers and New Zealand international[28]
Thomas Mikaele – player for the Wests Tigers[30]
Sam Moa – player for the Catalans Dragons and New Zealand international[13]
Tautau Moga – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Samoa international[5]
Ben Murdoch-Masila – player for the Warrington Wolves and Tonga international[31]
Corey Norman – player for the St George Illawarra Dragons and Queensland representative[32]
Agnatius Paasi – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[33]
Jaxson Paulo – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[36]
Leivaha Pulu – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[37]
Tyronne Roberts-Davis – player for the Newcastle Knights[38]
Marion Seve – player for the Melbourne Storm and Samoan international[42]
Tim Smith – former Parramatta, Cronulla, Wigan, Wakefield Trinity and Salford player[5]
Ben Te'o – player for the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland representative and former England rugby union international[43]
Bodene Thompson – player for the Toronto Wolfpack[44]
Reece Walsh - Player for the New Zealand Warriors


You know Keebra Park is in Qld, right?

The point is, they were once aligned with tigers.
I think they have a pathways with the Bulldogs now, yeah?

Either way, yes.
It's in QLD.

So the students/players might make a home there and be more likely to want to stay there and sign with Qld Clubs.


Except that is ***not*** the point at all. The post of @jirskyr that @weststigers responded to simply made a point that Campbo is not a booming nursery based on the number of players coming from it, and @weststigers posts a list of 30 odd players from a school in Qld? How is that relevant?

I think your answer lies in the post you just made ?

We can't just rely on the local players to make it and we must look elsewhere as well?

The list included a few players who were with us and were quite good.
From Lui to TMM, Benji, even Thomas Mikaele.

It's good to have your eyes on all the markets and be able to have a crack at all potential future stars.

 

[Tiger5150]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

Keebra Park was pretty good:

Corey Allan – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[4]
Jesse Arthars – player for the Brisbane Broncos[6]
Jai Arrow – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Queensland representative[7]
AJ Brimson – player for the Gold Coast Titans[9]
Tanah Boyd – player for the Gold Coast Titans[10]
Rangi Chase – player for the Doncaster Rovers and England international[11]
JJ Collins – former Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Canberra player[12]
Greg Eastwood – former Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Leeds player and New Zealand international[13]
Kenny Edwards – player for the Huddersfield Giants[14]
David Fifita – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland representative[16]
Moeaki Fotuaika – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Tonga representative[16]
Payne Haas – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Australian international[16]
Tony Hearn – former North Sydney, South Queensland and St George player and Queensland representative[5]
Delouise Hoeter – former Wests Tigers player and Tonga international[17]
Dallas Hood – former Sydney Roosters and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player[18]
Jordan Kahu – player for the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand international[20]
Connelly Lemuelu – player for the North Queensland Cowboys[22]
Lamar Liolevave – former Wests Tigers player and Fiji international[23]
Isaac Liu – player for the Sydney Roosters and New Zealand international[24]
Jamahl Lolesi – former Canberra, Canterbury, Wests Tigers and Huddersfield player and New Zealand international[25]
Robert Lui – player for the Leeds Rhinos[26]
Te Maire Martin – former Penrith and North Queensland player and New Zealand international[27]
Benji Marshall – player for the Wests Tigers and New Zealand international[28]
Thomas Mikaele – player for the Wests Tigers[30]
Sam Moa – player for the Catalans Dragons and New Zealand international[13]
Tautau Moga – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Samoa international[5]
Ben Murdoch-Masila – player for the Warrington Wolves and Tonga international[31]
Corey Norman – player for the St George Illawarra Dragons and Queensland representative[32]
Agnatius Paasi – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[33]
Jaxson Paulo – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[36]
Leivaha Pulu – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[37]
Tyronne Roberts-Davis – player for the Newcastle Knights[38]
Marion Seve – player for the Melbourne Storm and Samoan international[42]
Tim Smith – former Parramatta, Cronulla, Wigan, Wakefield Trinity and Salford player[5]
Ben Te'o – player for the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland representative and former England rugby union international[43]
Bodene Thompson – player for the Toronto Wolfpack[44]
Reece Walsh - Player for the New Zealand Warriors


You know Keebra Park is in Qld, right?

The point is, they were once aligned with tigers.
I think they have a pathways with the Bulldogs now, yeah?

Either way, yes.
It's in QLD.

So the students/players might make a home there and be more likely to want to stay there and sign with Qld Clubs.


Except that is ***not*** the point at all. The post of @jirskyr that @weststigers responded to simply made a point that Campbo is not a booming nursery based on the number of players coming from it, and @weststigers posts a list of 30 odd players from a school in Qld? How is that relevant?

I think your answer lies in the post you just made ?

We can't just rely on the local players to make it and we must look elsewhere as well?

The list included a few players who were with us and were quite good.
From Lui to TMM, Benji, even Thomas Mikaele.

It's good to have your eyes on all the markets and be able to have a crack at all potential future stars.

I have no problem with that and its where I see the benefit in bringing Tim Sheens back. Just struggling to follow the logic that the Macarthur is a string nursery because,,,.......QLd?

 

[gallagher]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

I tend to agree, the lack of juniors that have come through shows how badly the Macarthur area has been run since Wests went there.
And there no reason why we couldnt have attracted Grothe jnr, the roosters had no problem attracting a Pearce, a son of a Balmain juniour.
Its just more excuses afforded the club.

 

[weststigers]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

Keebra Park was pretty good:

Corey Allan – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[4]
Jesse Arthars – player for the Brisbane Broncos[6]
Jai Arrow – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Queensland representative[7]
AJ Brimson – player for the Gold Coast Titans[9]
Tanah Boyd – player for the Gold Coast Titans[10]
Rangi Chase – player for the Doncaster Rovers and England international[11]
JJ Collins – former Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Canberra player[12]
Greg Eastwood – former Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Leeds player and New Zealand international[13]
Kenny Edwards – player for the Huddersfield Giants[14]
David Fifita – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland representative[16]
Moeaki Fotuaika – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Tonga representative[16]
Payne Haas – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Australian international[16]
Tony Hearn – former North Sydney, South Queensland and St George player and Queensland representative[5]
Delouise Hoeter – former Wests Tigers player and Tonga international[17]
Dallas Hood – former Sydney Roosters and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player[18]
Jordan Kahu – player for the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand international[20]
Connelly Lemuelu – player for the North Queensland Cowboys[22]
Lamar Liolevave – former Wests Tigers player and Fiji international[23]
Isaac Liu – player for the Sydney Roosters and New Zealand international[24]
Jamahl Lolesi – former Canberra, Canterbury, Wests Tigers and Huddersfield player and New Zealand international[25]
Robert Lui – player for the Leeds Rhinos[26]
Te Maire Martin – former Penrith and North Queensland player and New Zealand international[27]
Benji Marshall – player for the Wests Tigers and New Zealand international[28]
Thomas Mikaele – player for the Wests Tigers[30]
Sam Moa – player for the Catalans Dragons and New Zealand international[13]
Tautau Moga – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Samoa international[5]
Ben Murdoch-Masila – player for the Warrington Wolves and Tonga international[31]
Corey Norman – player for the St George Illawarra Dragons and Queensland representative[32]
Agnatius Paasi – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[33]
Jaxson Paulo – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[36]
Leivaha Pulu – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[37]
Tyronne Roberts-Davis – player for the Newcastle Knights[38]
Marion Seve – player for the Melbourne Storm and Samoan international[42]
Tim Smith – former Parramatta, Cronulla, Wigan, Wakefield Trinity and Salford player[5]
Ben Te'o – player for the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland representative and former England rugby union international[43]
Bodene Thompson – player for the Toronto Wolfpack[44]
Reece Walsh - Player for the New Zealand Warriors


You know Keebra Park is in Qld, right?

Yes

 

[weststigers]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

Keebra Park was pretty good:

Corey Allan – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[4]
Jesse Arthars – player for the Brisbane Broncos[6]
Jai Arrow – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Queensland representative[7]
AJ Brimson – player for the Gold Coast Titans[9]
Tanah Boyd – player for the Gold Coast Titans[10]
Rangi Chase – player for the Doncaster Rovers and England international[11]
JJ Collins – former Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Canberra player[12]
Greg Eastwood – former Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Leeds player and New Zealand international[13]
Kenny Edwards – player for the Huddersfield Giants[14]
David Fifita – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland representative[16]
Moeaki Fotuaika – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Tonga representative[16]
Payne Haas – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Australian international[16]
Tony Hearn – former North Sydney, South Queensland and St George player and Queensland representative[5]
Delouise Hoeter – former Wests Tigers player and Tonga international[17]
Dallas Hood – former Sydney Roosters and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player[18]
Jordan Kahu – player for the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand international[20]
Connelly Lemuelu – player for the North Queensland Cowboys[22]
Lamar Liolevave – former Wests Tigers player and Fiji international[23]
Isaac Liu – player for the Sydney Roosters and New Zealand international[24]
Jamahl Lolesi – former Canberra, Canterbury, Wests Tigers and Huddersfield player and New Zealand international[25]
Robert Lui – player for the Leeds Rhinos[26]
Te Maire Martin – former Penrith and North Queensland player and New Zealand international[27]
Benji Marshall – player for the Wests Tigers and New Zealand international[28]
Thomas Mikaele – player for the Wests Tigers[30]
Sam Moa – player for the Catalans Dragons and New Zealand international[13]
Tautau Moga – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Samoa international[5]
Ben Murdoch-Masila – player for the Warrington Wolves and Tonga international[31]
Corey Norman – player for the St George Illawarra Dragons and Queensland representative[32]
Agnatius Paasi – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[33]
Jaxson Paulo – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[36]
Leivaha Pulu – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[37]
Tyronne Roberts-Davis – player for the Newcastle Knights[38]
Marion Seve – player for the Melbourne Storm and Samoan international[42]
Tim Smith – former Parramatta, Cronulla, Wigan, Wakefield Trinity and Salford player[5]
Ben Te'o – player for the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland representative and former England rugby union international[43]
Bodene Thompson – player for the Toronto Wolfpack[44]
Reece Walsh - Player for the New Zealand Warriors


You know Keebra Park is in Qld, right?

The point is, they were once aligned with tigers.
I think they have a pathways with the Bulldogs now, yeah?

Either way, yes.
It's in QLD.

So the students/players might make a home there and be more likely to want to stay there and sign with Qld Clubs.


Except that is ***not*** the point at all. The post of @jirskyr that @weststigers responded to simply made a point that Campbo is not a booming nursery based on the number of players coming from it, and @weststigers posts a list of 30 odd players from a school in Qld? How is that relevant?

If I can clear up my point.

Mention was made of being able to pick 5 or 6 players from any nursery, therefore the argument that Campbelltown, or any other nursery for that matter, is where the talent lies is moot. I.e. no nursery is any better or worse than others. At least that’s how I read it.

Posting the list was my way of saying that some nurseries ARE better than others.

I thought it was relevant. Hope it clears this up.

 

[Demps]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

Keebra Park was pretty good:

Corey Allan – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[4]
Jesse Arthars – player for the Brisbane Broncos[6]
Jai Arrow – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Queensland representative[7]
AJ Brimson – player for the Gold Coast Titans[9]
Tanah Boyd – player for the Gold Coast Titans[10]
Rangi Chase – player for the Doncaster Rovers and England international[11]
JJ Collins – former Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Canberra player[12]
Greg Eastwood – former Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Leeds player and New Zealand international[13]
Kenny Edwards – player for the Huddersfield Giants[14]
David Fifita – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland representative[16]
Moeaki Fotuaika – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Tonga representative[16]
Payne Haas – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Australian international[16]
Tony Hearn – former North Sydney, South Queensland and St George player and Queensland representative[5]
Delouise Hoeter – former Wests Tigers player and Tonga international[17]
Dallas Hood – former Sydney Roosters and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player[18]
Jordan Kahu – player for the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand international[20]
Connelly Lemuelu – player for the North Queensland Cowboys[22]
Lamar Liolevave – former Wests Tigers player and Fiji international[23]
Isaac Liu – player for the Sydney Roosters and New Zealand international[24]
Jamahl Lolesi – former Canberra, Canterbury, Wests Tigers and Huddersfield player and New Zealand international[25]
Robert Lui – player for the Leeds Rhinos[26]
Te Maire Martin – former Penrith and North Queensland player and New Zealand international[27]
Benji Marshall – player for the Wests Tigers and New Zealand international[28]
Thomas Mikaele – player for the Wests Tigers[30]
Sam Moa – player for the Catalans Dragons and New Zealand international[13]
Tautau Moga – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Samoa international[5]
Ben Murdoch-Masila – player for the Warrington Wolves and Tonga international[31]
Corey Norman – player for the St George Illawarra Dragons and Queensland representative[32]
Agnatius Paasi – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[33]
Jaxson Paulo – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[36]
Leivaha Pulu – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[37]
Tyronne Roberts-Davis – player for the Newcastle Knights[38]
Marion Seve – player for the Melbourne Storm and Samoan international[42]
Tim Smith – former Parramatta, Cronulla, Wigan, Wakefield Trinity and Salford player[5]
Ben Te'o – player for the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland representative and former England rugby union international[43]
Bodene Thompson – player for the Toronto Wolfpack[44]
Reece Walsh - Player for the New Zealand Warriors


You know Keebra Park is in Qld, right?

The point is, they were once aligned with tigers.
I think they have a pathways with the Bulldogs now, yeah?

Either way, yes.
It's in QLD.

So the students/players might make a home there and be more likely to want to stay there and sign with Qld Clubs.


Except that is ***not*** the point at all. The post of @jirskyr that @weststigers responded to simply made a point that Campbo is not a booming nursery based on the number of players coming from it, and @weststigers posts a list of 30 odd players from a school in Qld? How is that relevant?

If I can clear up my point.

Mention was made of being able to pick 5 or 6 players from any nursery, therefore the argument that Campbelltown, or any other nursery for that matter, is where the talent lies is moot. I.e. no nursery is any better or worse than others. At least that’s how I read it.

Posting the list was my way of saying that some nurseries ARE better than others.

I thought it was relevant. Hope it clears this up.

I knew what you were getting at brother.
It all made sense.

???

 

[cochise]

We are no longer just looking in our nurseries for talented juniors, the aim is to attract the best juniors in the country to the club and develop them. With improved pathways hopefully we will get more kids come through our traditional sources and also attract the better juniors from other regions throughout the country.

 

[Geo]

We are no longer just looking in our nurseries for talented juniors, the aim is to attract the best juniors in the country to the club and develop them. With improved pathways hopefully we will get more kids come through our traditional sources and also attract the better juniors from other regions throughout the country.

Sheens when it comes to juniors use to spread the net fairly wide to target ..Fitzhenry was a Souff's Jnr. Laffranchi North Coast, Galea Paramatta, Heighnington Central Coast Benji QLD.. he was blessed that the likes of Fulton, Gibbs, Skandalis, Halatua Farah all came through at the same time ..he was able to mould and develop them together ..similar to the Pamfers now..

We already have a valuable crop at the Club..this is where Sheens with show his value and Why he has been signed IMO..

 

[pawsandclaws1]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

Keebra Park was pretty good:

Corey Allan – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[4]
Jesse Arthars – player for the Brisbane Broncos[6]
Jai Arrow – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Queensland representative[7]
AJ Brimson – player for the Gold Coast Titans[9]
Tanah Boyd – player for the Gold Coast Titans[10]
Rangi Chase – player for the Doncaster Rovers and England international[11]
JJ Collins – former Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Canberra player[12]
Greg Eastwood – former Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Leeds player and New Zealand international[13]
Kenny Edwards – player for the Huddersfield Giants[14]
David Fifita – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland representative[16]
Moeaki Fotuaika – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Tonga representative[16]
Payne Haas – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Australian international[16]
Tony Hearn – former North Sydney, South Queensland and St George player and Queensland representative[5]
Delouise Hoeter – former Wests Tigers player and Tonga international[17]
Dallas Hood – former Sydney Roosters and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player[18]
Jordan Kahu – player for the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand international[20]
Connelly Lemuelu – player for the North Queensland Cowboys[22]
Lamar Liolevave – former Wests Tigers player and Fiji international[23]
Isaac Liu – player for the Sydney Roosters and New Zealand international[24]
Jamahl Lolesi – former Canberra, Canterbury, Wests Tigers and Huddersfield player and New Zealand international[25]
Robert Lui – player for the Leeds Rhinos[26]
Te Maire Martin – former Penrith and North Queensland player and New Zealand international[27]
Benji Marshall – player for the Wests Tigers and New Zealand international[28]
Thomas Mikaele – player for the Wests Tigers[30]
Sam Moa – player for the Catalans Dragons and New Zealand international[13]
Tautau Moga – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Samoa international[5]
Ben Murdoch-Masila – player for the Warrington Wolves and Tonga international[31]
Corey Norman – player for the St George Illawarra Dragons and Queensland representative[32]
Agnatius Paasi – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[33]
Jaxson Paulo – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[36]
Leivaha Pulu – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[37]
Tyronne Roberts-Davis – player for the Newcastle Knights[38]
Marion Seve – player for the Melbourne Storm and Samoan international[42]
Tim Smith – former Parramatta, Cronulla, Wigan, Wakefield Trinity and Salford player[5]
Ben Te'o – player for the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland representative and former England rugby union international[43]
Bodene Thompson – player for the Toronto Wolfpack[44]
Reece Walsh - Player for the New Zealand Warriors


You know Keebra Park is in Qld, right?

The Keebra Park School is a fantastic nursery but it must be remembered many of the players listed were recruited by the school, WTs or other NRL clubs from NZ, NSW regional areas and other areas of Qld to attend the football programme. Robert Lui came from near Townsville to attend the football programme. So the figures are a little misleading.

 

[AJ1]

We are no longer just looking in our nurseries for talented juniors, the aim is to attract the best juniors in the country to the club and develop them. With improved pathways hopefully we will get more kids come through our traditional sources and also attract the better juniors from other regions throughout the country.

Given Sheens has spent the past 5 years in the UK I would say he's not just looking at attracting the best juniors in the country to WT. He would have a few names from the UK in mind to bring across.
Exciting times ahead.

 

[jirskyr]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

No I'm not missing the point. There are two points: (1) are kids in Macarthur playing league and (2) are those kids ending up in Wests Tigers colours.

On (1) that's as much the NRL's issue as Wests Tigers - the overall number of kids playing League country-wide. It's not just about Macarthur, it's about League uptake in all regions, particularly league "heartlands" where it has been historically and culturally easier to get kids to play League. A significant part of that issue is if your population growth is mostly driven by immigrants, they are the least likely cohort to be putting their kids into junior rugby league until several generations of assimilation. I could barely point to a single Asian or Subcontinental or African immigrant / heritage rugby league player despite those being boom immigrant regions.

(2) was my point about missed players, which was in direct reference to @TigerBlood93 talking about "Campbelltown kids".

I personally don't buy the argument that Macarthur is some magic boom region of both population and potential young footballers. I've posted on it several times before, in terms of Local Govt Areas, the Macarthur LGAs are pretty modest in population, and even the growth is not substantially bigger than other LGAs. By a comparison, Strathfield (of all places) was one of the biggest LGA growers in last analysis by the ABS.

Phil Gould made a song and dance on the Channel Nine Monday show about how Tigers should invest more heavily in Macarthur (and that's to assume he doesn't know how much we have or have not) and proceeded to talk about the boom growth in Liverpool and also how the second airport would transform the area in the next 20 years. Well that's dandy but Badgery's Creek is 22 km from Campbelltown city centre - it's only 15 km from Penrith city centre. Liverpool is closer to Bankstown and Parramatta than Campbelltown.

Now that's not to say any particular club can't invest in a region - hell you can invest anywhere you please, QLD, Victoria, Perth, wherever, but to say I don't subscribe to the argument that Campbelltown is some magic growth and rugby league region that some other club will successfully mine if Tigers don't double their efforts (whatever efforts Tigers and Magpies have made so far).

And then that doesn't even take into account the further arguments: (3) what if you make all that investment and other clubs just raid your native geographies? E.g. Roosters and Storm have the smallest junior league bases going and are the competition's most continuously successful clubs. (4) why can't Tigers just pick the eyes of the best juniors in any geography, rather than fixate on just two classical geographies (as we are doing now - many of our signed-up juniors are not local juniors). Etc etc

 

[sleeve]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

No I'm not missing the point. There are two points: (1) are kids in Macarthur playing league and (2) are those kids ending up in Wests Tigers colours.

On (1) that's as much the NRL's issue as Wests Tigers - the overall number of kids playing League country-wide. It's not just about Macarthur, it's about League uptake in all regions, particularly league "heartlands" where it has been historically and culturally easier to get kids to play League. A significant part of that issue is if your population growth is mostly driven by immigrants, they are the least likely cohort to be putting their kids into junior rugby league until several generations of assimilation. I could barely point to a single Asian or Subcontinental or African immigrant / heritage rugby league player despite those being boom immigrant regions.

(2) was my point about missed players, which was in direct reference to @TigerBlood93 talking about "Campbelltown kids".

I personally don't buy the argument that Macarthur is some magic boom region of both population and potential young footballers. I've posted on it several times before, in terms of Local Govt Areas, the Macarthur LGAs are pretty modest in population, and even the growth is not substantially bigger than other LGAs. By a comparison, Strathfield (of all places) was one of the biggest LGA growers in last analysis by the ABS.

Phil Gould made a song and dance on the Channel Nine Monday show about how Tigers should invest more heavily in Macarthur (and that's to assume he doesn't know how much we have or have not) and proceeded to talk about the boom growth in Liverpool and also how the second airport would transform the area in the next 20 years. Well that's dandy but Badgery's Creek is 22 km from Campbelltown city centre - it's only 15 km from Penrith city centre. Liverpool is closer to Bankstown and Parramatta than Campbelltown.

Now that's not to say any particular club can't invest in a region - hell you can invest anywhere you please, QLD, Victoria, Perth, wherever, but to say I don't subscribe to the argument that Campbelltown is some magic growth and rugby league region that some other club will successfully mine if Tigers don't double their efforts (whatever efforts Tigers and Magpies have made so far).

And then that doesn't even take into account the further arguments: (3) what if you make all that investment and other clubs just raid your native geographies? E.g. Roosters and Storm have the smallest junior league bases going and are the competition's most continuously successful clubs. (4) why can't Tigers just pick the eyes of the best juniors in any geography, rather than fixate on just two classical geographies (as we are doing now - many of our signed-up juniors are not local juniors). Etc etc

Very well written, it's opened my eyes. Why spend big money in an area where soccer will be dominant, and the kids can be poached by other clubs. I think it's the NRL who should be funding these areas, and promoting the game.
What reward does a club get for fostering talent, when there is no gaurantee you can keep them ?

 

[pawsandclaws1]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

No I'm not missing the point. There are two points: (1) are kids in Macarthur playing league and (2) are those kids ending up in Wests Tigers colours.

On (1) that's as much the NRL's issue as Wests Tigers - the overall number of kids playing League country-wide. It's not just about Macarthur, it's about League uptake in all regions, particularly league "heartlands" where it has been historically and culturally easier to get kids to play League. A significant part of that issue is if your population growth is mostly driven by immigrants, they are the least likely cohort to be putting their kids into junior rugby league until several generations of assimilation. I could barely point to a single Asian or Subcontinental or African immigrant / heritage rugby league player despite those being boom immigrant regions.

(2) was my point about missed players, which was in direct reference to @TigerBlood93 talking about "Campbelltown kids".

I personally don't buy the argument that Macarthur is some magic boom region of both population and potential young footballers. I've posted on it several times before, in terms of Local Govt Areas, the Macarthur LGAs are pretty modest in population, and even the growth is not substantially bigger than other LGAs. By a comparison, Strathfield (of all places) was one of the biggest LGA growers in last analysis by the ABS.

Phil Gould made a song and dance on the Channel Nine Monday show about how Tigers should invest more heavily in Macarthur (and that's to assume he doesn't know how much we have or have not) and proceeded to talk about the boom growth in Liverpool and also how the second airport would transform the area in the next 20 years. Well that's dandy but Badgery's Creek is 22 km from Campbelltown city centre - it's only 15 km from Penrith city centre. Liverpool is closer to Bankstown and Parramatta than Campbelltown.

Now that's not to say any particular club can't invest in a region - hell you can invest anywhere you please, QLD, Victoria, Perth, wherever, but to say I don't subscribe to the argument that Campbelltown is some magic growth and rugby league region that some other club will successfully mine if Tigers don't double their efforts (whatever efforts Tigers and Magpies have made so far).

And then that doesn't even take into account the further arguments: (3) what if you make all that investment and other clubs just raid your native geographies? E.g. Roosters and Storm have the smallest junior league bases going and are the competition's most continuously successful clubs. (4) why can't Tigers just pick the eyes of the best juniors in any geography, rather than fixate on just two classical geographies (as we are doing now - many of our signed-up juniors are not local juniors). Etc etc

Very well written, it's opened my eyes. Why spend big money in an area where soccer will be dominant, and the kids can be poached by other clubs. I think it's the NRL who should be funding these areas, and promoting the game.
What reward does a club get for fostering talent, when there is no gaurantee you can keep them ?

The NSWRL and NRL should be collaborating with State Govt agencies in the planning stage for communities in Greenfield land release areas. This ensures necessary infrastructure including sporting fields and dare I write it COEs is provided. In writing this, infill development is also occurring in established areas like the inner west. There is better bang for buck imo in the inner west for WTs. It's unreasonable for WTs to be expected to make significant investment in the South West. This must be coordinated by the NSWRL and NRL.

 

[jirskyr]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

No I'm not missing the point. There are two points: (1) are kids in Macarthur playing league and (2) are those kids ending up in Wests Tigers colours.

On (1) that's as much the NRL's issue as Wests Tigers - the overall number of kids playing League country-wide. It's not just about Macarthur, it's about League uptake in all regions, particularly league "heartlands" where it has been historically and culturally easier to get kids to play League. A significant part of that issue is if your population growth is mostly driven by immigrants, they are the least likely cohort to be putting their kids into junior rugby league until several generations of assimilation. I could barely point to a single Asian or Subcontinental or African immigrant / heritage rugby league player despite those being boom immigrant regions.

(2) was my point about missed players, which was in direct reference to @TigerBlood93 talking about "Campbelltown kids".

I personally don't buy the argument that Macarthur is some magic boom region of both population and potential young footballers. I've posted on it several times before, in terms of Local Govt Areas, the Macarthur LGAs are pretty modest in population, and even the growth is not substantially bigger than other LGAs. By a comparison, Strathfield (of all places) was one of the biggest LGA growers in last analysis by the ABS.

Phil Gould made a song and dance on the Channel Nine Monday show about how Tigers should invest more heavily in Macarthur (and that's to assume he doesn't know how much we have or have not) and proceeded to talk about the boom growth in Liverpool and also how the second airport would transform the area in the next 20 years. Well that's dandy but Badgery's Creek is 22 km from Campbelltown city centre - it's only 15 km from Penrith city centre. Liverpool is closer to Bankstown and Parramatta than Campbelltown.

Now that's not to say any particular club can't invest in a region - hell you can invest anywhere you please, QLD, Victoria, Perth, wherever, but to say I don't subscribe to the argument that Campbelltown is some magic growth and rugby league region that some other club will successfully mine if Tigers don't double their efforts (whatever efforts Tigers and Magpies have made so far).

And then that doesn't even take into account the further arguments: (3) what if you make all that investment and other clubs just raid your native geographies? E.g. Roosters and Storm have the smallest junior league bases going and are the competition's most continuously successful clubs. (4) why can't Tigers just pick the eyes of the best juniors in any geography, rather than fixate on just two classical geographies (as we are doing now - many of our signed-up juniors are not local juniors). Etc etc

Very well written, it's opened my eyes. Why spend big money in an area where soccer will be dominant, and the kids can be poached by other clubs. I think it's the NRL who should be funding these areas, and promoting the game.
What reward does a club get for fostering talent, when there is no gaurantee you can keep them ?

The NSWRL and NRL should be collaborating with State Govt agencies in the planning stage for communities in Greenfield land release areas. This ensures necessary infrastructure including sporting fields and dare I write it COEs is provided. In writing this, infill development is also occurring in established areas like the inner west. There is better bang for buck imo in the inner west for WTs. It's unreasonable for WTs to be expected to make significant investment in the South West. This must be coordinated by the NSWRL and NRL.

I think you are right in asking - exactly how much money does Wests Tigers have available to invest in both Macarthur and Balmain districts? Tigers aren't exactly a big-dollar club and in good years we make small profits. We lifted Heaven and Earth just to upgrade ourselves from a high school gym to building a CoE.

We don't have half-billion revenues like the NRL has achieved.

 

[Tiger_Bond]

https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/news-2021-wests-tigers-tim-sheens-appointment-coach-paul-gallen/7d484906-c0b6-478e-bb7f-48462170295d

Very rarely do I agree with Gould but I have to agree on the comments in this video link.

 

[GCfan]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

No I'm not missing the point. There are two points: (1) are kids in Macarthur playing league and (2) are those kids ending up in Wests Tigers colours.

On (1) that's as much the NRL's issue as Wests Tigers - the overall number of kids playing League country-wide. It's not just about Macarthur, it's about League uptake in all regions, particularly league "heartlands" where it has been historically and culturally easier to get kids to play League. A significant part of that issue is if your population growth is mostly driven by immigrants, they are the least likely cohort to be putting their kids into junior rugby league until several generations of assimilation. I could barely point to a single Asian or Subcontinental or African immigrant / heritage rugby league player despite those being boom immigrant regions.

(2) was my point about missed players, which was in direct reference to @TigerBlood93 talking about "Campbelltown kids".

I personally don't buy the argument that Macarthur is some magic boom region of both population and potential young footballers. I've posted on it several times before, in terms of Local Govt Areas, the Macarthur LGAs are pretty modest in population, and even the growth is not substantially bigger than other LGAs. By a comparison, Strathfield (of all places) was one of the biggest LGA growers in last analysis by the ABS.

Phil Gould made a song and dance on the Channel Nine Monday show about how Tigers should invest more heavily in Macarthur (and that's to assume he doesn't know how much we have or have not) and proceeded to talk about the boom growth in Liverpool and also how the second airport would transform the area in the next 20 years. Well that's dandy but Badgery's Creek is 22 km from Campbelltown city centre - it's only 15 km from Penrith city centre. Liverpool is closer to Bankstown and Parramatta than Campbelltown.

Now that's not to say any particular club can't invest in a region - hell you can invest anywhere you please, QLD, Victoria, Perth, wherever, but to say I don't subscribe to the argument that Campbelltown is some magic growth and rugby league region that some other club will successfully mine if Tigers don't double their efforts (whatever efforts Tigers and Magpies have made so far).

And then that doesn't even take into account the further arguments: (3) what if you make all that investment and other clubs just raid your native geographies? E.g. Roosters and Storm have the smallest junior league bases going and are the competition's most continuously successful clubs. (4) why can't Tigers just pick the eyes of the best juniors in any geography, rather than fixate on just two classical geographies (as we are doing now - many of our signed-up juniors are not local juniors). Etc etc

Agree with the NRL responsibility on growing grassroots participation and if you listen to PVL’s justification on the crackdown regarding contact with the head one of his reasons is to appeal to parents feeling Rugby League is safe for their kids to play. Improvements in growing youth participation and focus on geographic areas such as Campbelltown, if the data suggests leakage to competitors in that area, is part of the participation piece. Clubs have to stump up too though and add promote their brand to convert those kids to wannabe a Tiger. It feels a little bit like back to the future for me with this current direction as I thought we once were a development club but dropped the strategy off the back of clubs like the Rooster's, Storm etc cherry picking talent?

 

[GCfan]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

Keebra Park was pretty good:

Corey Allan – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[4]
Jesse Arthars – player for the Brisbane Broncos[6]
Jai Arrow – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Queensland representative[7]
AJ Brimson – player for the Gold Coast Titans[9]
Tanah Boyd – player for the Gold Coast Titans[10]
Rangi Chase – player for the Doncaster Rovers and England international[11]
JJ Collins – former Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Canberra player[12]
Greg Eastwood – former Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Leeds player and New Zealand international[13]
Kenny Edwards – player for the Huddersfield Giants[14]
David Fifita – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland representative[16]
Moeaki Fotuaika – player for the Gold Coast Titans and Tonga representative[16]
Payne Haas – player for the Brisbane Broncos and Australian international[16]
Tony Hearn – former North Sydney, South Queensland and St George player and Queensland representative[5]
Delouise Hoeter – former Wests Tigers player and Tonga international[17]
Dallas Hood – former Sydney Roosters and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player[18]
Jordan Kahu – player for the Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand international[20]
Connelly Lemuelu – player for the North Queensland Cowboys[22]
Lamar Liolevave – former Wests Tigers player and Fiji international[23]
Isaac Liu – player for the Sydney Roosters and New Zealand international[24]
Jamahl Lolesi – former Canberra, Canterbury, Wests Tigers and Huddersfield player and New Zealand international[25]
Robert Lui – player for the Leeds Rhinos[26]
Te Maire Martin – former Penrith and North Queensland player and New Zealand international[27]
Benji Marshall – player for the Wests Tigers and New Zealand international[28]
Thomas Mikaele – player for the Wests Tigers[30]
Sam Moa – player for the Catalans Dragons and New Zealand international[13]
Tautau Moga – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Samoa international[5]
Ben Murdoch-Masila – player for the Warrington Wolves and Tonga international[31]
Corey Norman – player for the St George Illawarra Dragons and Queensland representative[32]
Agnatius Paasi – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[33]
Jaxson Paulo – player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs[36]
Leivaha Pulu – player for the New Zealand Warriors and Tonga international[37]
Tyronne Roberts-Davis – player for the Newcastle Knights[38]
Marion Seve – player for the Melbourne Storm and Samoan international[42]
Tim Smith – former Parramatta, Cronulla, Wigan, Wakefield Trinity and Salford player[5]
Ben Te'o – player for the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland representative and former England rugby union international[43]
Bodene Thompson – player for the Toronto Wolfpack[44]
Reece Walsh - Player for the New Zealand Warriors


You know Keebra Park is in Qld, right?

Yes

I loved that origin song they did singing all the towns across NSW and adding “that’s in QLD” at the end of it.

 

[cochise]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

No I'm not missing the point. There are two points: (1) are kids in Macarthur playing league and (2) are those kids ending up in Wests Tigers colours.

On (1) that's as much the NRL's issue as Wests Tigers - the overall number of kids playing League country-wide. It's not just about Macarthur, it's about League uptake in all regions, particularly league "heartlands" where it has been historically and culturally easier to get kids to play League. A significant part of that issue is if your population growth is mostly driven by immigrants, they are the least likely cohort to be putting their kids into junior rugby league until several generations of assimilation. I could barely point to a single Asian or Subcontinental or African immigrant / heritage rugby league player despite those being boom immigrant regions.

(2) was my point about missed players, which was in direct reference to @TigerBlood93 talking about "Campbelltown kids".

I personally don't buy the argument that Macarthur is some magic boom region of both population and potential young footballers. I've posted on it several times before, in terms of Local Govt Areas, the Macarthur LGAs are pretty modest in population, and even the growth is not substantially bigger than other LGAs. By a comparison, Strathfield (of all places) was one of the biggest LGA growers in last analysis by the ABS.

Phil Gould made a song and dance on the Channel Nine Monday show about how Tigers should invest more heavily in Macarthur (and that's to assume he doesn't know how much we have or have not) and proceeded to talk about the boom growth in Liverpool and also how the second airport would transform the area in the next 20 years. Well that's dandy but Badgery's Creek is 22 km from Campbelltown city centre - it's only 15 km from Penrith city centre. Liverpool is closer to Bankstown and Parramatta than Campbelltown.

Now that's not to say any particular club can't invest in a region - hell you can invest anywhere you please, QLD, Victoria, Perth, wherever, but to say I don't subscribe to the argument that Campbelltown is some magic growth and rugby league region that some other club will successfully mine if Tigers don't double their efforts (whatever efforts Tigers and Magpies have made so far).

And then that doesn't even take into account the further arguments: (3) what if you make all that investment and other clubs just raid your native geographies? E.g. Roosters and Storm have the smallest junior league bases going and are the competition's most continuously successful clubs. (4) why can't Tigers just pick the eyes of the best juniors in any geography, rather than fixate on just two classical geographies (as we are doing now - many of our signed-up juniors are not local juniors). Etc etc

Agree with the NRL responsibility on growing grassroots participation and if you listen to PVL’s justification on the crackdown regarding contact with the head one of his reasons is to appeal to parents feeling Rugby League is safe for their kids to play. Improvements in growing youth participation and focus on geographic areas such as Campbelltown, if the data suggests leakage to competitors in that area, is part of the participation piece. Clubs have to stump up too though and add promote their brand to convert those kids to wannabe a Tiger. It feels a little bit like back to the future for me with this current direction as I thought we once were a development club but dropped the strategy off the back of clubs like the Rooster's, Storm etc cherry picking talent?

The change in strategy came when we lost teddy, Moses and Woods. The view was why develop the juniors when they get picked up by rivals once developed.

 

[GCfan]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

No I'm not missing the point. There are two points: (1) are kids in Macarthur playing league and (2) are those kids ending up in Wests Tigers colours.

On (1) that's as much the NRL's issue as Wests Tigers - the overall number of kids playing League country-wide. It's not just about Macarthur, it's about League uptake in all regions, particularly league "heartlands" where it has been historically and culturally easier to get kids to play League. A significant part of that issue is if your population growth is mostly driven by immigrants, they are the least likely cohort to be putting their kids into junior rugby league until several generations of assimilation. I could barely point to a single Asian or Subcontinental or African immigrant / heritage rugby league player despite those being boom immigrant regions.

(2) was my point about missed players, which was in direct reference to @TigerBlood93 talking about "Campbelltown kids".

I personally don't buy the argument that Macarthur is some magic boom region of both population and potential young footballers. I've posted on it several times before, in terms of Local Govt Areas, the Macarthur LGAs are pretty modest in population, and even the growth is not substantially bigger than other LGAs. By a comparison, Strathfield (of all places) was one of the biggest LGA growers in last analysis by the ABS.

Phil Gould made a song and dance on the Channel Nine Monday show about how Tigers should invest more heavily in Macarthur (and that's to assume he doesn't know how much we have or have not) and proceeded to talk about the boom growth in Liverpool and also how the second airport would transform the area in the next 20 years. Well that's dandy but Badgery's Creek is 22 km from Campbelltown city centre - it's only 15 km from Penrith city centre. Liverpool is closer to Bankstown and Parramatta than Campbelltown.

Now that's not to say any particular club can't invest in a region - hell you can invest anywhere you please, QLD, Victoria, Perth, wherever, but to say I don't subscribe to the argument that Campbelltown is some magic growth and rugby league region that some other club will successfully mine if Tigers don't double their efforts (whatever efforts Tigers and Magpies have made so far).

And then that doesn't even take into account the further arguments: (3) what if you make all that investment and other clubs just raid your native geographies? E.g. Roosters and Storm have the smallest junior league bases going and are the competition's most continuously successful clubs. (4) why can't Tigers just pick the eyes of the best juniors in any geography, rather than fixate on just two classical geographies (as we are doing now - many of our signed-up juniors are not local juniors). Etc etc

Agree with the NRL responsibility on growing grassroots participation and if you listen to PVL’s justification on the crackdown regarding contact with the head one of his reasons is to appeal to parents feeling Rugby League is safe for their kids to play. Improvements in growing youth participation and focus on geographic areas such as Campbelltown, if the data suggests leakage to competitors in that area, is part of the participation piece. Clubs have to stump up too though and add promote their brand to convert those kids to wannabe a Tiger. It feels a little bit like back to the future for me with this current direction as I thought we once were a development club but dropped the strategy off the back of clubs like the Rooster's, Storm etc cherry picking talent?

The change in strategy came when we lost teddy, Moses and Woods. The view was why develop the juniors when they get picked up by rivals once developed.

And i totally understand that. That would give me the shits if I was running the club. That said we’ve done an about face clearly and I think the risk is worth the reward, even if we still lose some along the way. We still appear to be struggling in attracting Topline senior talent so unfortunately this may have to be our ongoing strategy. Takes longer but once the deck is stacked you’d like to think the production line effect will play out and each year we’re replacing from within and making the right calls on who we don’t fight to keep.

 

[gallagher]

You mentioned nofa as a ctown kid, how about chris Lawrence, Brett Hodgson and Tedesco? Or the ones we missed like Hayne or Folau, Eric groathe.

My problem is that's a small number of footballers to mention, if Campbo is such a boom area - population-wise yes, but are those kids playing rugby league? I can easily name 5 or 6 NRL players from any region of Sydney, there's nothing (yet) special about the output from the Macarthur.

In regards to "missed" players, I'm going to say this every time someone drolls out the same old cliches, but Israel Folau moved to Brisbane with his parents when he was 15. You can't find your way into the U18s Tigers feeder teams when you live in Brisbane.

And Eric Grothe Jr, you mean we missed out bringing through the son of an Eels legend?

I think you're missing the point mate if the MacArthur region is " a boom population-wise area" and they are not playing rugby league. The challenge is to get them playing, develop them and provide pathways.

No I'm not missing the point. There are two points: (1) are kids in Macarthur playing league and (2) are those kids ending up in Wests Tigers colours.

On (1) that's as much the NRL's issue as Wests Tigers - the overall number of kids playing League country-wide. It's not just about Macarthur, it's about League uptake in all regions, particularly league "heartlands" where it has been historically and culturally easier to get kids to play League. A significant part of that issue is if your population growth is mostly driven by immigrants, they are the least likely cohort to be putting their kids into junior rugby league until several generations of assimilation. I could barely point to a single Asian or Subcontinental or African immigrant / heritage rugby league player despite those being boom immigrant regions.

(2) was my point about missed players, which was in direct reference to @TigerBlood93 talking about "Campbelltown kids".

I personally don't buy the argument that Macarthur is some magic boom region of both population and potential young footballers. I've posted on it several times before, in terms of Local Govt Areas, the Macarthur LGAs are pretty modest in population, and even the growth is not substantially bigger than other LGAs. By a comparison, Strathfield (of all places) was one of the biggest LGA growers in last analysis by the ABS.

Phil Gould made a song and dance on the Channel Nine Monday show about how Tigers should invest more heavily in Macarthur (and that's to assume he doesn't know how much we have or have not) and proceeded to talk about the boom growth in Liverpool and also how the second airport would transform the area in the next 20 years. Well that's dandy but Badgery's Creek is 22 km from Campbelltown city centre - it's only 15 km from Penrith city centre. Liverpool is closer to Bankstown and Parramatta than Campbelltown.

Now that's not to say any particular club can't invest in a region - hell you can invest anywhere you please, QLD, Victoria, Perth, wherever, but to say I don't subscribe to the argument that Campbelltown is some magic growth and rugby league region that some other club will successfully mine if Tigers don't double their efforts (whatever efforts Tigers and Magpies have made so far).

And then that doesn't even take into account the further arguments: (3) what if you make all that investment and other clubs just raid your native geographies? E.g. Roosters and Storm have the smallest junior league bases going and are the competition's most continuously successful clubs. (4) why can't Tigers just pick the eyes of the best juniors in any geography, rather than fixate on just two classical geographies (as we are doing now - many of our signed-up juniors are not local juniors). Etc etc

Agree with the NRL responsibility on growing grassroots participation and if you listen to PVL’s justification on the crackdown regarding contact with the head one of his reasons is to appeal to parents feeling Rugby League is safe for their kids to play. Improvements in growing youth participation and focus on geographic areas such as Campbelltown, if the data suggests leakage to competitors in that area, is part of the participation piece. Clubs have to stump up too though and add promote their brand to convert those kids to wannabe a Tiger. It feels a little bit like back to the future for me with this current direction as I thought we once were a development club but dropped the strategy off the back of clubs like the Rooster's, Storm etc cherry picking talent?

The change in strategy came when we lost teddy, Moses and Woods. The view was why develop the juniors when they get picked up by rivals once developed.

Instead of looking in the mirror and workng out why they left their junior club.