Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, I am quite sure they haven't, but Henry Hutchinson, who is 16 but plays Opens footy at View (used to play club for Gordon) was selected for the Australian schoolboys side. This is a truly remarkable effort, being just 16, he is well on his way to even higher honours.
However I guess this just adds more fuel to the debate as to whether or not he should be allowed to play in the under 16's championship.
Perhaps it is unnecessary to say in this comment, but my view is that both he, and Kennewell (sorry if spelt wrong) are more than entitled to play. I understand the argument that they have already achieved even higher representative honours, and they are taking a place in the pathway of another boy who doesn't have exposure to this level of playing etc, but I think that if one is willing to use this argument then they need to stand by it, in principle, when it is logically extended to the conclusion that no one who has already played Australian schoolboys should be entitled to play the year after (or the year after that if they are particularly talented) as they have already received the exposure necessary, and thus we can better utilise the campaign to promote new guys to the side who will benefit more than the players in question.
For me, that just doesn't stack up. In fact even more pertinently couldn't one argue that guys like Tepai Morea and Taane Milne, both fantastic rugby players worthy of selection in the Australian schoolboys side, shouldn't be selected as they are (heavily) involved in league, perhaps to the point of a contract (I am not too sure on the details)? Because since these guys are presumably lost to league should we simply not pick them because there are guys more likely to, or perhaps already, committed to union? Would not these guaranteed talents benefit more from the exposure than those inevitably lost to league? Once again the argument fails to stack up simply because there are games to be won. As much as these channels are pathways to success, they are also very important competitive affairs, and I would hate to think that we were losing to New Zealand at an international level (or perhaps more locally that the NSW under 16's were losing to Queensland) for arbitrary reasons like this, when there exists the talent to defeat them.
I apologise for ranting, but congratulations again to Hutchinson.
. Son No.2 who was called up last year is now fit to play but we are holding him back for next season