You hear a lot about this club and that club have so many local juniors. Given the disparity in sizes of the junior nurseries, the fact a club like Brisbane can have lots of local juniors compared to say the Roosters, is hardly surprising. To me, identifying talent and developing it is a far better way of judging a club's systems and culture. Just because the Stewarts were born and raised in the Illawarra, doesn't mean St George should be claiming them. Manly have a pretty good record in this regard. If you go through our team (and if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.....the memory isn't what it used to be) 1. B. Stewart....first grade debutant....now an international. 2. J. Tafua....first grade debutant. 3. J. Lyon.....Eels 4. S. Matai....first grade debutant....now an international. 5. D. Williams....first grade debutant....now an international. 6. K. Foran....first grade debutant....now an international. 7. D. Cherry-Evans....first grade debutant....now an international. 8. J. King....first grade debutant....SOO representative. 9. M. Ballin....first grade debutant....SOO representative. 10. B. Kite.....Dragons. 11. A. Watmough....first grade debutant....now an international. 12. T. Williams....Eels....became an international at Manly. 13. G. Stewart....first grade debutant....now an international. Fair record if you ask me. Especially compared to the Scumdogs....Do they have anyone else besides Barba and Reynolds ? They have a good half dozen internationals that were internationals before they went there. I know which club I'd rather support.
Simon64, very astute observation! Yes, we do have a great track record with debutants. In fact, I think the salary cap should be designed around favouring retention of players that debut with a club, and restricting the number of players imported that have debuted with a club. By that logic, we would be allowed to buy a few big name players right now and clubs like the dogs would have to get rid of quite a few current players. It would reward and promote so many good things.
I'm fairly certain that over the past fifty years more players have commenced their State of Origin or International careers from Manly than any other club. I would even bet that more Manly juniors have played for Australia than any other club, by this I mean the Tooveys, Whatmaugh, Gartners etc, not guys like Hasler,T-Rex,Dennis Ward etc who had played first grade before coming to Manly.
To get a better picture you need to combine longevity - The eels would debut a heap Off players each year
I'm sure we could have added Hoppa to the list of debutants developing into internationals had he not had the bank thrown at him.
