It is good that a team can be pulled together via Facebook, but what about the eligibility rules?? Be registered with a club team-easily done, play 4 club games in 2012 or 2013- not so easy on fb. I saw a couple of names in this team that play league and look like ring ins. How many others were ring ins?
There wasn't the usual stampede of Ghost players in the Under 17's that we are used to seeing in the Under 16's. With no second chance into National schoolboys competition at stake, it is not surprising that this occurred. Any Ghost players at U17 level are usually there because they simply love playing footy.
As someone has said above most of the Manly boys have been playing together since Under 10's and attended most championships since then. There weren't many names in the Manly 17's lineup that weren't in last years Manly U16 team. Previous years programmes are long gone but most of the names in the Manly mob seemed to be "familiar" to this scribe. The lad in the programme from Campbelltown did not play for Manly, nor did the lad listed as "Wests?". Presumably the programmes were printed before all the dispensation applications were granted.
This is a good segue into my usual rant about the level of Open grade competition in SJRU. I saw that Eastwood had 3 players who's club was listed as Colts. Someone has previously posted that the West Harbour #9 was playing Colts 1 for the Pirates.
Rahrah has said that some of the Manly boys were also playing Colts footy. Most of the Sydney District teams in the U17's were from only one or two village clubs. Southern Districts did not enter a team, yet their Sylvania Bulldogs are close to the top of the SJRU Opens Competition table.
Eastern Suburbs had no teams > U14 in the programme and only 1 boy listed as "on loan" to another district in U15-U17s section. No Randwick teams in U16 or U17, No Manly U16 team, No Hobbits in U17, No U17 Norths (despite being previous multiple State champions in this cohort), Gordon U17 team belted. What hope is there for growth and expansion in Sydney's West when there are very limited numbers in the Senior ranks of Heartland (North and East of the ANZAC Bridge) Junior Village club footy?
Lets assume that the Manly boys met the eligibility criteria (let's face it, it's not too hard to meet), and I know that Kerry Brady and her team at NSW Juniors work pretty hard to review all dispensation applications to ensure compliance with the criteria (albeit rather loose). The criteria does not exclude kids playing Fivekick only (or Colts) this year. As long as they are registered with a Club in 2013 and played at least 4 games last season. Then you have the likes of Bonnie West policing the sign-ons. Not much gets past her.
Things are crook in Tallarook, when a team of boys who want to play together do not have a regular competition that they are happy to play in. There is a SJRU Opens competition but for some reason there is no Manly Roos team playing. An examination of the team lists in the Shute Shield Colts competition web site reveals that there are a stack of kids (over and above the kids that "dropped down" to play for U17 State Champs) who would be eligible to play U17 or U18 SJRU juniors competitions. The question has to be asked why are they not playing for Juniors?
The SJRU, NSW JRU, SRU and NSW RU need to have a decent look at the Under 16-Under 19 clubland environment and critically examine if the current structures and pathways are still appropriate and relevant.