And not like a dude won’t jump at a contract to play sharks because he’s on a jets one not a sharks reserve grade one
Agree.
Can you think of any examples of Sharks pathways players being “blocked” by Jets players, and then leaving to become NRL players elsewhere?
…or the flip side, any players who went on from being Jets contracts but the Sharks missed out on them? I can only think of JJ.
I
can however name plenty of guys who came through on Jets contracts / Sharks T&T and became Sharks NRL players (Kennedy, Talakai, Hunt, Hazelton, Iro, Hiroti)
People like to hypothesise that the feeder arrangement has all these negative limitations, but recent evidence just doesn’t back it up.
The Sharks have lost plenty of young players, but for the most part they get poached at 16-19 before competing for a spot on the Jets becomes an issue. They are leaving for cash, more opportunities within the 16yo-21yo pathways, or because they see their path to NRL blocked (Chevy stuck behind WK and Kade). That is nothing to do with the Jets being the Cup feeder.
Whole point of the pathways and feeder system is to produce NRL players. Sharks have done a pretty good job of that. 20 of the top 25 who have played an NRL game for the Sharks worked their way through this supposedly “sub-optimal” system.