Lee Grant
John Eales (66)
Not really to the point, but what I have noticed since the Brumbies glory days, is that the Tahs are not losing so many Sydney players to them as they did in earlier years. Of the current squad only loosie Michael Hooper (Manly) and THP Dan Palmer (Southern Districts) are recent players that I would like to have kept in town, and Palmer is a Warilla lad anyway. I'm not counting Elsom who we had lost earlier to Leinster.
And no, I'm not fishing; so to save time don't go mentioning great Brumbies who weren't from Sydney like Larkham, Roff and Gregan etc - it's just that we aren't moaning quite so much as we used to. It's probably a win-win situation anyway: the Brumbies are identifying more local players - and the Tahs don't lose so many to them.
The last young player we "lost" to the Brumbies that I remember gnashing my teeth over was AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper). Even before he went down the Hume Highway many of us here recognised his quality.
Not to the point of this post not to the point, but it will be interesting to see how many players the Tahs and other teams lose to the Rebels once the foreign players are phased out. I have given the ARU a pat on the back for enabling the Rebels to use foreigners to help the new team to get up and running but they probably deserve a double pat. The phasing out process will enable the other four teams to cope with inevitable player losses better than was the case when the Force started up.
How the Reds would have preferred the Force to have had this transitional period. They were going through a rebuilding phase then and the loss of so many more Queensland players, of sudden, set them back years.
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And no, I'm not fishing; so to save time don't go mentioning great Brumbies who weren't from Sydney like Larkham, Roff and Gregan etc - it's just that we aren't moaning quite so much as we used to. It's probably a win-win situation anyway: the Brumbies are identifying more local players - and the Tahs don't lose so many to them.
The last young player we "lost" to the Brumbies that I remember gnashing my teeth over was AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper). Even before he went down the Hume Highway many of us here recognised his quality.
Not to the point of this post not to the point, but it will be interesting to see how many players the Tahs and other teams lose to the Rebels once the foreign players are phased out. I have given the ARU a pat on the back for enabling the Rebels to use foreigners to help the new team to get up and running but they probably deserve a double pat. The phasing out process will enable the other four teams to cope with inevitable player losses better than was the case when the Force started up.
How the Reds would have preferred the Force to have had this transitional period. They were going through a rebuilding phase then and the loss of so many more Queensland players, of sudden, set them back years.
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