The Honey Badger
Jim Lenehan (48)
Both Suttor and Kemeny copped knocks at the last camp. Both have been in rehab and out of Uni teams. Both starting in the back row tomorrow.
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Up the Guts
Steve Williams (59)
What position has Suttor being playing at Sydney Uni? Heard he was at 7 for a bit last year. Despite playing 2 row in school he is probably more suited to the back row long term.
The Honey Badger
Jim Lenehan (48)
Congratulations to the 1 ACT boy, 8 NSW boys and 14 Qld boys who made the team list for the second game.
It appears that the ARU is unwilling to intervene in the hijacking of the National competition. The ARU should allow NSW ACT, VIC and WA to form a team and also enter it in the World championships. The pathway is meant to be a national pathway for all talented boys and this coach continues to favour his QLD boys.
These sorts of whinges happen very frequently at schoolboy and under 20 level and mostly seem driven by people close to the situation who feel like their kid unfairly missed out.
The direction of the supposed bias changes from year to year.
I think it is telling that the people complaining still consider the players as being from the state they went to school even if they have moved and are signed as a professional player in a different state.
No one has attempted to list players who have unfairly missed out on being in this squad and who they should have been selected ahead of. It is purely about numbers from Qld.
The Honey Badger
Jim Lenehan (48)
I have mentioned previously, L Osborne and Jaffer-Williams.
Stocks of outside backs in this age group must be special.
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Who should they have made it ahead of? It does seem like there are some very good outside backs in this squad.
Ramm is playing first grade for Randwick. Looks like Sargeant is playing first grade for Bond Uni. You'd assume Semisi Tupou will be the first winger picked when we get to the actual squad for the World Champs.
The Honey Badger
Jim Lenehan (48)
I don't know and I am not going to name anyone. No one in that squad deserves that. Don't think anyone should be encouraging that.
All I said was, stocks of outside backs must be special in this age group. 2 boys I named are unlucky not to be there, IMO.
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That's what it comes down to though. If there were going to be less Queenslanders in this squad, some of the players picked would need to miss out and be replaced by others from other states.
Seemingly those who are most aggrieved would be far happier if there were more even numbers of players picked from each state even if that led to an inferior squad. If the states got to nominate which players they wanted selected then there would be complaints that the state nominated the wrong players. These sort of arguments are so prevalent in age group rugby team discussions.
There's talk that because some players have played Super Rugby they are getting an unfair advantage over players from other states who haven't. They probably are getting an advantage in terms of having had the opportunity to show they are capable of stepping up to the next level. That's not their fault though and any coach would use that as a reason in favour of selecting someone.
new recruit_ brisbane
Bill Watson (15)
Zzzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzz
Up the Guts
Steve Williams (59)
NSW would likely have more players than QLD if guys like Rorke, Helu, Rixon, and Doueihi were available or hadn't moved across to League. For the most part anyhow it's NSW players like Ramm who are keeping other very good young prospects like Jaffer-Williams out.
If you've seen the highlights or watched the game you'll see that there's a noticeable size difference between the u20s guys playing and other guys who have made it into Super Rugby before they've been 20 over the past few years (Valetini, Rieko Ioane, Jordan Petaia, Tupou etc.). There's still a lot of developing to be done and team selection decisions that are really just splitting hairs won't have much of an impact in the long run.
If you've seen the highlights or watched the game you'll see that there's a noticeable size difference between the u20s guys playing and other guys who have made it into Super Rugby before they've been 20 over the past few years (Valetini, Rieko Ioane, Jordan Petaia, Tupou etc.). There's still a lot of developing to be done and team selection decisions that are really just splitting hairs won't have much of an impact in the long run.
You could certainly look at that and suggest the Waratahs need to be doing more to keep their brightest young players in rugby and away from the NRL.
Up the Guts
Steve Williams (59)
I think guys like SBW and Folau have made the problem worse. It's easier to get into a NRL side a year or two out of school than it is a Super Rugby side and an NRL contract straight out of school becomes even more attractive when you know if you're good enough you'll likely be able to jump straight across into professional Rugby a few years after you've made it professionally in League.
No doubt and certainly a large amount of it comes back to the individual desire of the player as to what they would prefer to do.
I guess we want to avoid situations where a young star would like to play rugby but it becomes a no brainer due to the difference in contract on offer between the sports.
At the end of the day if the 18 year old wouldn't prefer to continue playing rugby then we're not going to win that battle but where they genuinely would prefer to sign with the Super Rugby side than an NRL side, we want to make that possible as often as we can.
Maybe Rorke should have had a contract for this year at the expense of someone like Brad Wilkin? I guess it comes down to assessing how high you think Rorke's ceiling is.
Clearly you are making a sacrifice by opting to sign an 18 year old and casting aside an older player who is likely substantially better right now but every squad signing involves a compromise.
The best players get the best offers. Mostly the guys who are happy sitting around unsigned in club rugby "biding their time" are doing so because there weren't better offers on the table.
Getwithme
Cyril Towers (30)
Funnily enough Brad Wilkin was himself a teen star. Two years of Australian schoolboys, two years of Australian u20's. It is a massive trade off we face because of the lack of professional teams available.
There are many ongoing issues in our junior development systems from 14 years old through to about when someone is ready at 24 years
What we have seen in our recent past is lots of young kids (17-20) being locked up on deals to be part of the top squad (and in most cases these boys are not ready/just haven't played enough footy to have learnt their trade) in order to keep them from leaving our franchises and moving overseas or to the NRL.
It's a battle which we need to overcome if we are to succeed in the future
There are many ongoing issues in our junior development systems from 14 years old through to about when someone is ready at 24 years
What we have seen in our recent past is lots of young kids (17-20) being locked up on deals to be part of the top squad (and in most cases these boys are not ready/just haven't played enough footy to have learnt their trade) in order to keep them from leaving our franchises and moving overseas or to the NRL.
It's a battle which we need to overcome if we are to succeed in the future
I really rate Brad Wilkin and think he has been frightfully unlucky with injuries. A couple of years ago I thought he would end up much better than Michael Wells for example.
The question the Tahs need to answer with him (and Maclean Jones) as backrowers is how far they are going to go and which players are they giving up by keeping them on the books moving forward.
Clearly part of the problem is that there are star Australian under 20s every year that are then moving up to compete with the equivalent stars across an entire decade as well as others who have subsequently improved and got to that professional level. Trying to gauge how relatively good someone is likely to end up over their career based on them being a standout in their particular year is a perennial challenge and generally it isn't easy to predict which ones will be.
The question the Tahs need to answer with him (and Maclean Jones) as backrowers is how far they are going to go and which players are they giving up by keeping them on the books moving forward.
Clearly part of the problem is that there are star Australian under 20s every year that are then moving up to compete with the equivalent stars across an entire decade as well as others who have subsequently improved and got to that professional level. Trying to gauge how relatively good someone is likely to end up over their career based on them being a standout in their particular year is a perennial challenge and generally it isn't easy to predict which ones will be.
Up the Guts
Steve Williams (59)
Rorke is a great example of a young player who could slip straight into League but would likely take a few years time developing in Union. He's a fantastic ball runner and a monster in defence which will likely be good enough to get him a spot in an NRL side but he'd probably need a couple of years polishing some of the skills needed to make a good 7 before he has any chance of superseding a current Waratahs player like Will Miller.
Tough to see any real way to solve the problem. Perhaps a popular, televised u21s or u20s comp that reliably turns young guns into Super Rugby players would keep young players interested but I can't see the money or public interest needed to justify a television deal at this point.
Bandar
Bob Loudon (25)
If we only had another professional team...