For a long time I've thought the lack of talent in the nrl came down to the fact that many sides dropped their reserve grade teams in order to cut costs. Plenty of players need a few extra years to develop the toughness to tolerate the NRL or to develop defensive skills to match their attacking skill. Without NRL reserve sides a lot less players will have a chance to stick with the game, thus the quality of depth game wide will decline. It's been a long time now since many teams dropped their own feeder clubs (the NYC bought this change about in a big way) and we're seeing plenty of teams now that just can't get 17 NRL standard players in the roster let alone 30 that can cut it. I hope for the sake of the game more clubs focus resources on this again in future.
For now I hope having two feeders allows is to build a better side by the end of 2022
You write. I still believe being older the demise of 23s and a older player usually on the decline aloud to play to educate the younger fellas is a critical area of demise of the junior growth. In the old days you would be gone for the day watch three grades. And early on a lot the young people there where there to watch there mate they played with or went school with. Made the areas buy in. Made it tribal.
I think the 23s was better than the 20s. As most forwards don’t or didn’t develop until older.
It used to make 18s and a grade at local clubs grow too as some young people on the cusp kept playing to try get that break.
Growth is what the game needs. With growth comes crowds it’s a win win
