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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2810787, member: 1899"] I don't see it as a big issue, the Queensland Cup has proven itself to be a wonderful feeder system and clubs like Melbourne, North Queensland and Manly (when they were involved) benefited tremendously from it. A national reserve grade competition would just be a huge expense for the NRL which would hardly generate any revenue (will more people buy tickets to watch the reserve grade? will the media companies promote it?) and wouldn't guarantee a better quality product. It's worth remembering that rookies were being offered huge contracts before the Under 20s ever commenced. The next Sonny-Bill Williams signed a marquee contract with Cronulla despite never playing any first grade and played all of one game on the bench. Penrith thought they had the next GI when they signed Greg Waddell to a marquee contract, but a series of debilitating knee injuries cut his career short. Then the Wests Tigers rolled the dice on this young half from the Gold Coast with a wicked side-step. Benji Marshall was a huge gamble for the club and it paid off with one of the more unpredictable premiership victories of all-time. The only difference now is that clubs have three times the money to throw around (or at least they think they do) than they did back then. As Super League showed, if you give the clubs the money, they're prepared to make some ridiculous offers to entice and retain rookies. [/QUOTE]

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