The old chestnut of Clubs claiming "ownership" of players forever due to an earlier accident of geography when kids were tweenagers.
Many District clubs invest very little in their junior rep programmes, although Gordon has done well with a select few players until Under 16's in the past. Often these kids have been marshalled by accident or deliberate strategy into one Superclub team that has destroyed all opposition before it in the A grade SJRU competition and in doing so some other clubs have folded when they have lost their rock stars.
Some junior village clubs in other districts have followed a similar pattern with similar results in their district.
Many of these superclubs have relied upon Private School boys backing up on Sunday for club, which generally works up until U15's. The manipulation of eligibility criteria for NSW JRU State Championships and SJRU Grand Finals is usually good for U15's and U16's but not any higher.
Come under 17's the former champion District rep team that has been very competitive since Under 11's can't win a game at State Championships because the District only has B and C division level players left, many of whom have had zero coaching beyond Village Club over the period U11-U16 because of all the development effort being directed to the Private School Rockstars.
The good news story is that there are some local juniors that some districts have "developed", but how much of this development has occurred when those folk have been in the Private School System, or while they have been at Schoolboy Association Rep sides, or JGS/NGS for that matter?
The bad news story for many districts claiming ownership of former juniors is that they have done nothing for their Junior Village Club programmes apart from allowing them to play in a Jumper that is similar to the District Shute Shield Team jumper.
Kids develop strong friendships with their mates at school and often follow them to a "foreign" club so they can continue playing footy with a kid they have played with since the Under 13 A's at School x.
Kids and parents and, for the lucky few Megastars, player managers are not stupid and they work out pretty quickly which club offers them the best chance to progress their careers based on an analysis of the Club and what it offers them rugby wise.
While bagging the Wicks for poaching former Gordon players, be aware that it is not all one way traffic and Wicks have "lost" one of their former juniors who was an Aust Schoolboy last year. Having attended Joeys, this players last game for Wicks village club or the District Rep side was probably as an U13 player. The recent recruits to Wicks in his position are former Easts and Gordon Juniors (also former Oz Schoolboys) are seen as obstacles to his progression and he has registered with another club that has a few of his Joeys mates, and no former Schoolboy rockstars ahead of him.
Aspiratinal Rockstar players soon get jack of playing 2nd Grade footy and will frequently move to places where they can get a gig in the First Grade. Ask Son of Pulverisor.
If they are to get loyalty from their former Juniors once they are churned out of the Private School and Junior Gold Squad development machine as 18 1/2 year old young men, Shute Shield clubs need to engage more constructively with all their Junior Village Clubs (not just the successful ones with the Rockstar players) than appears to be the general case across the board with the normal relationship more akin to "Lip Service" than "developmental". Like respect, loyalty is earned and can not be demanded.
In saying so, Gordon appear to have done reasonably well from the Class of 2014. The recent restructuring, reinvigoration and rejuvenation at the club must have helped to attract/re-attract these young men to their colours.