Hugie, Congratulations to your boy on making the State team. On the rather confused series of goat tracks that form "the Pathway" there is no higher honour than being chosen to represent your state, short of being in the National team, or National Merit Selection. You can rightly be a proud dad.
From what I am lead to believe, NSW Country Juniors charge about $1k for their programme which includes 1 game vs Victoria, and 1 game vs Sydney Juniors. NSW JRU charge $250 for jumper, shorts etc. 1 game vs ACT.
Doing some rough and ready sums, not including travel to trainings and games, you have had to stump up about $1200 for your boy to play 3 games of footy.
Is there something out of kilter that families are up for $400 per game for boys in the rep programme.
Chuck in the promised AJRU National Junior Championship and another couple of games and the per game cost is a little more palatable at about $200 per game for 6 games, 2 jumpers, 2 sets of socks, shorts, training T shirts and memories.
Seriously how much development has actually been invested in these kids that are the future of Rugby, and are the "elite" on the Junior Club section of the Pathway to Gold. Several training sessions at Country Juniors level and only one for the State team. No criticism of the coaches and team management but the kids probably didn't even get enough time in this "elite development environment" to go beyond working out some lineout calls and a couple of backline moves.
Silk purses can't be made out of pig's ears, but with some time and effort, a kangaroos scrotum can be factored into a fairly decent carry bag.
This branch of pathway seems to be characterised by almost no time or effort invested.
By all accounts NSW Juniors tried really hard to get some more stuff happening, but have been led down by "others".
What happens next for this U17 cohort?
They miss out on 2013/14 Jnr Gold Cup development opportunities.
In Sydney Juniors, there is really no effective and challenging U18/Open grade competition.
There is no Under 18 Junior State Championship.
There is no Under 18 State rep team that I know of outside of the NSW Schools. Most of these kids do not go to schools that are involved in regular competitive Rugby competitions.
If they are lucky they will play Colts in 2014, but even in Colts there is limited opportunities for elite development at Under 18 level, although there is occasionally ad-hoc Under 19 games played between NSW and QLD.
One of two of these lads may have caught the eye of the Koala club, and they may receive an invite to the NGS (who knows what format that will take next year?), but it seems that the majority of the kids will have to rely on natural talent and luck if they are to progress on the pathway.
I can't seen the situation being any different in the ACT or QLD.
WTF have the AJRU been doing for the last 3 years?