In a season where two young NRL hopefuls lost their lives, player welfare has to be raised as an issue. I can’t imagine any other season where two young talents were lost, I’m sure this will be a touchy subject for many which I will try my best to tip toe around. I don’t mean any disrespect to any party involved by combing the player welfare issue with another issue that I feel has some relevance, that of pathways and player development. I simply don’t think I know enough or have enough information to do either issue separately as I had planned, so I’ll be exploring both and I reckon there’ll be some cross over.

Both Mosese Fotuaika and Alex Elisala were young Polynesian males with a heap of talent and bright futures ahead of them. Their deaths rocked their respective teams – The Tigers and the Cowboys with Jonathan Thurston playing the season with ‘Leki’ written on his wrist. There are some truths that must be said … there are more Polynesian players in the NRL than ever and many of these young men have to up and leave their family which is pretty much their sanctuary to follow their dream. A young player who has been playing Under 20’s and is in the frame for first grade will have pressure from everyone around them to provide. Help out with bills and food, hook your friends up with gear and whatever else they might want. The pressure to perform for your club and the fans is one thing, the pressure to maintain this physically demanding, well paid full time job that you’ve got is another.

You could only imagine the thoughts that would go through a young player’s head when they suffer a large set back like an injury just as they are about to reach their goal of playing first grade. With all the pressure and weight of expectation, the feeling of not being able to provide anymore must truly suck. This is where systems need to be put in place to provide support for occasions like this that might be overlooked because let’s face it, every player has setbacks and injuries. When you also look in to where many of these players are coming from, they are well and truly out of their comfort zone. More and more young New Zealanders are being recruited by NRL clubs during their teens, some even being sorted out with scholarships etc during their intermediate school years. NRL scouts are ensuring that they are at national high school tournaments and have been known to attend intermediate school games/tournaments. Kids are offered the chance of a lifetime and then moved across the ditch in to a totally different environment. Some are lucky enough to have their families with them, some have to spend months away from those closest to them. I’m not saying this process is wrong, just highlighting the need for support systems to match this recruiting process.

This is where I bring in the player pathways. The Under 20’s competition has been a success but it has flaws. Players seem to think that they’ve made it when they are picked in Under 20’s, they get to play on TV, they get the girls and they get the respect from their little community. Once they make the Under 20’s many must think that this is how it’s going to be which is clearly a false. The fact that many NRL coaches and staff gained a false hope that every player could make the jump from 20’s to first grade doesn’t help.

The competitions that need attention and love are the NSW Cup and the Queensland Cup as they need to act as a bridge between the Under 20’s and the NRL. This is important in terms of both player performance and player development. These competitions need to packaged in an attractive way, make them the competition that everyone wants to be a part of. In recent times, the Under 20’s has received much more TV coverage than both the NSW and Qld Cup combined. Something’s wrong there. Players need to learn to play against men, learn to get along with other grown men and most importantly learn to be a part of a team where they aren’t the star attraction that everyone talks about. This takes getting used to especially for kids who come out of high school where they are a super star.

The player development aspect is also interesting. Under 20’s players are required to either study or work, with many doing apprenticeships or working as a teacher aid. This is obviously a fantastic opportunity for these kids to develop skills needed to survive in the real world. But what happens after they finish their stint in the Under 20’s? If the NSW and Qld Cups are more prominent competitions, young players will have to prove themselves in these competitions which will mean that they also have to continue their studies or their employment as many of the players in these competitions are only part time footballers.

NSW Cup winners Chad Townsend and Mathew Wright

The NRL is moving in the right direction, don’t get me wrong. They understand the importance of the NSW and Qld Cup competitions as development tools but I see a huge future in a business sense as well. If more resources are put in to these competitions, more people are going to know what the hell is actually going on. Can you name 5 NSW Cup teams? Could you name one Qld Cup team? A lot has been made of expanding the NRL, why not expand these two competitions or at very least give them a bit more attention. Instead of taking a big leap and bringing in an NRL team from Perth or Wellington (which are my preferred options, not the most realistic) why can’t they go down the path that the Qld Cup has already started going down by bringing in a team from Papua New Guinea. We hear all the time amount this treasure chest that the NRL has for development and growth of the game, why not chip in and pay for flights to and from Wellington for example? This isn’t rocket science, but doesn’t seem to even be an option. People want to see a local league team do well, there’s a heap of talent around that would be perfect for the level below NRL, give it a chance.

I reckon that if these pathways are sorted out, given more resources and attention then player welfare and development will improve. Instead of young blokes being thrust in to first grade where they might come across unwanted attention, face setbacks and have their dreams shatterd, let them grow. Let them develop in to men who are mature minded and have an understanding of what it takes to be an NRL pro. Obviously there are plenty of exceptions, this is for the battler. The guy who isn’t good enough to play first grade at 19. We are fed a lot of information about how well the NRL is doing, but until these competitions are sorted out and we start to see some genuine growth – not a whole bunch of talk, I’ll continue to ask questions.