Melbourne Storm celebrating their 5th Victorian debutante

[Pulga]

 

 

[The Rocket]

Two Victorians and two Western Australians in tonight`s game. So great to see players from other states making an appearance. Hopefully with Victorian Rugby League working with the Storm more nowadays and a Western Australian team likely entering the competition a sign of things to come. Great for the game in so many ways.

Edited August 31, 2023 by The Rocket

[unapologetic pedant]

Hate to be smug. However, few years back on a thread in the TRL Aussie section I predicted big things for Sualaavi Faalogo after seeing some Vic Thunderbolts junior rep highlights. 

Long way to go, of course. Hope Bellamy doesn't try to mould him too much.

Edited August 31, 2023 by unapologetic pedant

[Eddie]

Is this only the fifth in their entire history? I knew there weren’t many but it’s not like they’re a new club. 

[unapologetic pedant]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Is this only the fifth in their entire history? I knew there weren’t many but it’s not like they’re a new club. 

You're underestimating the difficulty of developing players to NRL standard in AFL States. Juniors in NSW and QLD have so many more advantages.

[RL Tragic]

2 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

You're underestimating the difficulty of developing players to NRL standard in AFL States. Juniors in NSW and QLD have so many more advantages.

My point in that is how come London have produced so many home developed talents with no where near the profile of storm in Melbourne. 

[unapologetic pedant]

1 minute ago, RL Tragic said:

My point in that is how come London have produced so many home developed talents with no where near the profile of storm in Melbourne. 

The standard they have to attain in the UK is not as high. Sad, but true.

[RL Tragic]

3 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

The standard they have to attain in the UK is not as high. Sad, but true.

I get your point to An extent but , Dan Sarginson , Kai Pierce Paul , LMS , Tony Clubb the Griffin brothers all could have or did play NRL . I’m just saying the storm haven’t been in the ball regarding local development. 

[unapologetic pedant]

2 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Two Victorians and two Western Australians in tonight`s game. So great to see players from other states making an appearance. Hopefully with Victorian Rugby League working with the Storm more nowadays and a Western Australian team likely entering the competition a sign of things to come. Great for the game in so many ways.

Fans identifying with local players is probably more important for the Storm long-term than any other NRL franchise. In the absence of personal links, a lot of the Melbourne RL base will go for the Wahs.

[fighting irish]

17 minutes ago, RL Tragic said:

My point in that is how come London have produced so many home developed talents with no where near the profile of storm in Melbourne. 

I'm confessing my ignorance about the state of the game in Melbourne but this question links to a debate we had in two other threads. (Edinburgh and State of the Game in the Heartlands).

I'll try to summarise or at least, get to my point very quickly.

Whilst it's nice to have a Pro club in the vicinity (bearing in mind that Melbourne is in Victoria which is a huge place). I don't think that the existence of the club is the main motivator for young people to get involved (and climb the ladder).

I'm convinced it's the awareness that the (amateur) game exists where they live, is ingrained in the society, part of their shared culture and the young people are provided with every opportunity, in schools, as juniors and youth players to get involved.

Those Londoners all came  through the amateur system in London at the time. 

[unapologetic pedant]

19 minutes ago, RL Tragic said:

I get your point to An extent but , Dan Sarginson , Kai Pierce Paul , LMS , Tony Clubb the Griffin brothers all could have or did play NRL . I’m just saying the storm haven’t been in the ball regarding local development. 

Storm have definitely relied too much on their QLD supply chains. Necessity is forcing them to rectify that. Can't be too long before Sunshine Coast Falcons switch to the Dolphins.

 

10 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

I'm convinced it's the awareness that the (amateur) game exists where they live, is ingrained in the society, part of their shared culture and the young people are provided with every opportunity, in schools, as juniors and youth players to get involved.

The big story in Vic RL is Polynesian migration.

[Damien]

Debut try too:

 

 

[JM2010]

2 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Storm have definitely relied too much on their QLD supply chains. Necessity is forcing them to rectify that. Can't be too long before Sunshine Coast Falcons switch to the Dolphins.

 

The big story in Vic RL is Polynesian migration.

Is there a large pasifika population in Victoria?

[DavidM]

He sure did go well . What  a production line of talent they have in the NRL 

[unapologetic pedant]

21 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

Whilst it's nice to have a Pro club in the vicinity (bearing in mind that Melbourne is in Victoria which is a huge place). I don't think that the existence of the club is the main motivator for young people to get involved (and climb the ladder).

I'm convinced it's the awareness that the (amateur) game exists where they live, is ingrained in the society, part of their shared culture and the young people are provided with every opportunity, in schools, as juniors and youth players to get involved.

Agree, with one qualification -  A truly thriving grass roots constituency produces fans as well as players. Healthy numbers prepared to pay to watch RL is a vital manifestation of influence.

[StandOffHalf]

He looks like a gun. Looking forward to seeing more of him.

Just to be pedantic, ''debutante'' is the feminine form. He was a debutant today.

[unapologetic pedant]

34 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

Is there a large pasifika population in Victoria?

Not in percentage terms. Exact figures are hard to come by. The Trans Tasman Travel Arrangement means a lot of flux.

Key points are that most Polynesian migration to Vic has happened in the past 20 years. And the hugely disproportionate involvement in RL. Check out any Melbourne club. I would reckon it's at least 90% Maori/Pasifika.

[JM2010]

27 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Not in percentage terms. Exact figures are hard to come by. The Trans Tasman Travel Arrangement means a lot of flux.

Key points are that most Polynesian migration to Vic has happened in the past 20 years. And the hugely disproportionate involvement in RL. Check out any Melbourne club. I would reckon it's at least 90% Maori/Pasifika.

That has its positives, both for RL in Melbourne and for the Pacific Islands if they regularly start to come through into the 1st team squad

[Eddie]

2 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

You're underestimating the difficulty of developing players to NRL standard in AFL States. Juniors in NSW and QLD have so many more advantages.

I get that completely, but five in 25 years isn’t great. Even if you consider it might take 15 years to get pathways in place and develop some quality players. 

[sam4731]

3 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

The standard they have to attain in the UK is not as high. Sad, but true.

But they do produce Championship quality players which is where they play. If you want to compare like for like in terms of standards regarding London, you'd have to see how many Victorian bred players there are in the QLD/NSW Cup. Anyone got the numbers?

[Anita Bath]

3 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Storm have definitely relied too much on their QLD supply chains. Necessity is forcing them to rectify that. Can't be too long before Sunshine Coast Falcons switch to the Dolphins.

 

The big story in Vic RL is Polynesian migration.

The sunshine coast link has been way too successful for Storm to let it go. Dolphins attention focussed on their own (Redcliffe dolphins) and northern suburbs of Brisbane ( just taken on affiliation with Norths Devils, previosly a Broncos affiliate).

[gingerjon]

3 hours ago, StandOffHalf said:

Just to be pedantic, ''debutante'' is the feminine form. He was a debutant today.

It is good that you didn't apologise.

[StandOffHalf]

I've always thought of Melbourne as a Queensland club in a lot of ways, but it is good that they have another local player in their ranks.

I was watching a highlight reel of young Fa'alogo's tries and he looks to have quite a bit of razzle-dazzle to him. I think the comms referred to him as an ''excitement machine'' today. Always good to see players like that coming through.

[Griff]

5 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

You're underestimating the difficulty of developing players to NRL standard in AFL States. Juniors in NSW and QLD have so many more advantages.

So after years of hearing the Aussies whinge about "the poms aren't doing enough to develop the game", we now have the Aussies whinging "oooh, it's really hard to develop players in AFL states".

Given Melbourne's profile on the field, five players in 20+ years is pretty poor stuff.

[unapologetic pedant]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

It is good that you didn't apologise.

Some pedants would insist on débutante.

Although this philistine filter begs to differ.