Quote: MorePlaymakersNeeded "Don't disagree with you, it matters not where they come from. I was giving my thoughts on PA's comments in respect of striving towards an all locally born side. It's just a utopian ideal and not feasible, but it doesn't mean that we should not make every effort to nurture any potential talent on our doorstep. Difficulty is, and this applies to the rest of the RL world, there's a lot of sports and other pastimes to compete with. There are very few genuinely talented players left in the game now, which is making the sport far less interesting.'"
I completely agree, but wasn't it always the same in the past? When Sean Long was coming through (for example) there was pro RU, Premiership football, central contract cricket, pro golf, pro athletics and lots of pastimes.
I think the problems in our game are that
1. The top home grown talent now seems to head to the NRL, depleting our domestic game.
2. The development of youngsters seems to focus on physique and power at the expense of guile and skill. Big, athletic and powerful lads at second row, prop are ten-a-penny but how many Longs, Maguires, Robys or Clarks do you see? The relegation of the loose forward in the modern game to that of a 3rd prop only serves to illustrate the point. But this is not the fault of the clubs but of the nature of the modern game. Robots bashing robots for 20 minutes before a fresh robot is brought on meaning more robots are needed than any other position.