10to12
Jimmy Flynn (14)
HJ The vast majority of the boys have played village rugby since they were 6 o7 years of age.( they have done their time) By the 16s they are just not up to 2 serious games of rugby and the niggling injuries that wont go away from week to week. Remembering that there is a 6 week rep season to add to those 2 games each week. Its the boys themselves that pull out of village generally, although there is a push at some schools to make this compulsory. Add to the games the official training runs and their extra training and it just doesn't fit into a 16 years old life who is trying to crank up his partying and maybe/hopefully his study., By 16s the players all know who should be in the rep teams so I can't equate it to the elite athlete scholarships for year 10 that the schools all agreed about 10 years ago was not the way to go . So I feel they do deserve the pathways. On another note, swapping from a weaker rep team to a stronger team(16s) without putting in the hours should be stopped by the powers to be, cause it makes a mockery of the whole systemSeems a little funny that one can play in the state championships without participating in the week by week slog around the village ovals on Sundays.
Some of the boys playing village club footy week in week out must feel a bit like the boys who have their 1st XV hopes dashed when the Scholarship boys arrive in Year 11 or Year 12.
No problem with the boys who play both club and school, good luck to them. They deserve to have two pathways to higher representative honours.
Boys who are not prepared to play BOTH Park footy and School footy should not deserve to have two representative pathways open to them.
NOTE to MODS. This has probably been done to death previously, and/or may be better posted in the "Schoolboy Scholarship" or "Selection prejudice" threads. Please feel free to move this post as appropriate.