Alamoti was the best junior through our system for years the sight of Politis at a juniors game made us rush and sign him. That undefeated Matt’s team of 2020 before covid was on the back of Alamoti and others including Papalii were in the team. Alamoti was the star. Hoping juniors come through is a lottery as players develop at different ages and some stop growing & their development stalls.
Winning lower tier comps means nothing. It’s a matter of having 1-2 players emerge that matters. Melbourne do that so well they will bring in a player. Tigers have blooded Bula and now Galvin all the sudden their spine is secure for years to come.
NRL is the only grade that matters everything else is fancy cake decorations. Our coaching and development at NRL and making players NRL ready are our issues.
Alamoti was always a bit bigger than other kids his age so it definitely helped him there through the juniors. But even now 3 time premiers the panthers still wanted to sign him as a depth option.
Our Matt’s were undefeated in 2020 but the asterisk there is they didn’t play many games.
Tigers won Matt’s 2022 that’s part of the reason why they have some 18 year olds now ready to step up like Lachlan Galvin.
Panthers do the same as do roosters. Roosters don’t even have a strong junior nursery they sign kids early on and put them in strong Matt’s, Ball & Flegg sides. We also had quite a strong Toyota cup team 2010 and a bunch of those guys came through to first grade Taupau, Kasiano, Jackson etc.
I wouldn’t mind Penriths fancy cake decorations the last few years either.