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Message: [QUOTE="Renegade, post: 2853822, member: 1928"] The problem with junior development is a couple of issues imo 1) We no longer have the leverage we used to. Once upon a time we were the team that everyone wanted to be, everyone wanted to play for, we had the galaxy of stars that would make it very enticing to come and play for us. I think it is fair to say that isnt the case anymore, probably partially because of a lack of success in the past decade. 2) We are competing against 15 other clubs for the same talents. The argument that Broncos had all of QLD to choose from may have had some degree of truth to it in the 90's, but not present day. Scouts are spread far and wide from all clubs, we no longer have the inside running on some under the radars that we used to. Why would a kid in Cairns sign for Brisbane when they could sign for NQ, and stay closer to home? If Hodges, Thaiday, Hunt were 10 years younger, they might've played for the Cows their entire career. 3) Cyril Connell. Not only was he a fucking gun scout, but he had connections to schools, being a former headmaster and so on - so he often knew of players before anyone else. This sorta ties in with 2), but he on his own deserves a separate entry because of the impact he had (All members of the 2006 grand final had been scouted/recommended by Cyril at one stage or another) 4) Because we dwarf the resources of most other clubs, our approach to scouting seems to be a 'sign them all, shake them up, see what comes to the top' - except that's really difficult to do when you can only play in so many teams. There's no point signing the best 10 young halfbacks in Qld, for example, if realistically there is only playing spots for 2 of them in the assorted teams. That's why other clubs like Melb can swoop in and take player of their choice, because they devote their resources seemingly to scouting, identifying, signing and developing the right guy, rather than taking them all and seeing what sticks. 5) A lack of success highlights other areas. If we were winning things like we did in the 90's or the first half of the 2000's, junior development would become less of an issue. Both because 1) if we were winning things, we would be more focused on celebrating the present than being pensive about the future, and 2) if we were consistently winning things, it would indicate our junior development is doing its job because you would imagine most of the players in the team would have been developed in house, not signed from elsewhere. [/QUOTE]

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