Canberra Raiders in unique position in NRL as they struggle to attract superstars

[dubby]

Is Canberra REALLY that much colder than Sydney or Melbourne?

RAAF Laverton outside Melbourne parade ground breaking ice winter mornings early to mid 70’s. Then add the wind and it was bloody cold!

Cerberus is bloody freezing, and Richmond NSW is bloody cold too. Amberley hits zero as well.

I grew up in Richmond, people should add a spoonful of cement to their weetbix every morning. Honestly harden up.

Easy tiger, I just said it got cold.

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[dubby]

So much opinion posted as fact.

If Mal was never going to join if Brisbane were in, why did he never leave for Brisbane once they came in?

Fact: when the Broncos were coming and it was rumoured Mal was joining them, he went straight to John McIntyre and said he'd sign a 5 year extension with the raiders.

Fact: Belcher was ready to sign with North Sydney, but joined us because Mal did (Mal told Badge "if you join Norths you'll I'm going to run at you").

We kept Steve Walters, Gary Coyne anyway.

Yes, we lost Peter Jackson and Kevvie Walters, but had a young Laurie Daley coming through.

Yes, we lost Sam Backo but had Glenn Lazarus and Brent Todd, Todd a Kiwi test player. We then went on to sign Pongia and Lomax.

We didn't lose anyone we didn't really want to.

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[-PJ-]

What's all that got to do with the temp in Canberra dub ?

[-TW-]

Winning etc

[RedRaider]

I would like the 'journalist' who wrote this to read GE's latest 'Through Green Eyes' to see where the issues are with the Raiders side. Leading into our bye round we are a top 4 attacking side. It is our poor defence which sees us well down the ladder. Of course other areas can be improved, but there is little about our defensive stats (or the eye test) which says the Raiders are a consistent competitive side defensively. Until that is fixed the 'struggle to attract superstars' is moot.

Having got that off my chest, we have attracted and developed some fine young talent. The article mentions JC, Jack and Cotric, but nothing about Papa. Rapa came here wanting a chance and many rate him now among the best wingers in the world. Where we have not succeeded in developing players has been in the spine positions. We have recruited Hodgo and Havili for the 9 spot. We are up there amongst the best in the NRL in that position. Jack is slowly maturing at fullback. He is having a fine year, but it has taken him awhile to kick on. We have been unable to develop rep level halves. Even Milford is an inconsistent performer after years at the Broncos. Our great halves, Stuart, Daley, O'Sullivan were all locally developed. We have not been able to develop such quality in more than 20 years of trying.

[dubby]

Winning etc

Nailed it.

If we were a winning club it wouldn't matter

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[dubby]

What's all that got to do with the temp in Canberra dub ?

Mal loved the cold.

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[Love4Noa]

So much opinion posted as fact.

If Mal was never going to join if Brisbane were in, why did he never leave for Brisbane once they came in?

Fact: when the Broncos were coming and it was rumoured Mal was joining them, he went straight to John McIntyre and said he'd sign a 5 year extension with the raiders.

Fact: Belcher was ready to sign with North Sydney, but joined us because Mal did (Mal told Badge "if you join Norths you'll I'm going to run at you").

We kept Steve Walters, Gary Coyne anyway.

Yes, we lost Peter Jackson and Kevvie Walters, but had a young Laurie Daley coming through.

Yes, we lost Sam Backo but had Glenn Lazarus and Brent Todd, Todd a Kiwi test player. We then went on to sign Pongia and Lomax.

We didn't lose anyone we didn't really want to.

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Some of this is convenient facts - the Al Gore Version...
Meninga signed long term with the Raiders as part of a conversation that allowed Bennett to go to the Broncos. It's heavily overlooked by all media that Bennett was the guy that found Meninga, and they had a very solid relationship for a long time.
Meninga didn't go straight to the club and ask for an extension because of the Broncos rumours.

Like most Queenslanders that came to the club - they did so because Meninga was here. Same with the Walters boys. Same with Coyne.

We lost Lazarus to the Broncos so that point is somewhat mute.

We only signed Pongia and Lomax partly because of Meninga's influence in the south pacific region (cite Ruben Wiki as a prime example) - and the fact that the club were genuine at the time in winning premierships and were exploring the market better than any other club in the world (cite Noa Nadruku - and a failed Horris Dove Edwin if you must...)

We didn't lose anyone we didn't really want to? I feel you've left Ben Kennedy out of this discussion....

[hrundi89]

"moot"

[Lucy]

*moo

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[Mickey_Raider]

This has been obvious to most people for a long time now. There are plenty of reasons and the cold weather is only a part of it, but Canberra just is not the place most 18-30 year olds would choose to live. Obviously for the right price people will come, but given our apparent lack of ability to secure 3rd party deals that means when we do manage to put a decent squad together we will struggle to keep it (what a shock that we are in cap trouble right now).

That said though, a lot of people who grow up in Canberra will like the place for obvious reasons and it's still better than living in a country town in NSW so like GE said why we aren't investing hard in juniors is mind boggling

I think you will find that as a percentage of the population, Canberra has more 18-30 year olds than most places.

And? If they all had the opportunity to live in Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast Melbourne etc with the same job and pay you are kidding yourself if you think most would choose to stay.

Im in that age bracket but live in Sydney. Maybe it’s diffwrent if you’re from there but Can confirm Canberra > Sydney

[hobbsy]

This has been obvious to most people for a long time now. There are plenty of reasons and the cold weather is only a part of it, but Canberra just is not the place most 18-30 year olds would choose to live. Obviously for the right price people will come, but given our apparent lack of ability to secure 3rd party deals that means when we do manage to put a decent squad together we will struggle to keep it (what a shock that we are in cap trouble right now).

That said though, a lot of people who grow up in Canberra will like the place for obvious reasons and it's still better than living in a country town in NSW so like GE said why we aren't investing hard in juniors is mind boggling

I think you will find that as a percentage of the population, Canberra has more 18-30 year olds than most places.

And? If they all had the opportunity to live in Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast Melbourne etc with the same job and pay you are kidding yourself if you think most would choose to stay.

Im in that age bracket but live in Sydney. Maybe it’s diffwrent if you’re from there but Can confirm Canberra > Sydney

What about Brisbane, Melbourne, GC, Townsville, Newy? Even England or France? Take Canberra over all of them? With the job you want and good pay?

Obviously there are some out there who would pick Canberra, but I stand by it that most wouldn't when they have the opportunity of most other cities. Remember this is talking about signing superstars, the players who numerous clubs want and are throwing top dollar at, it's not like they just have to pick between Canberra or Sydney or give up their career.

[dubby]

What a load of rubbish.

So much opinion posted as fact.

If Mal was never going to join if Brisbane were in, why did he never leave for Brisbane once they came in?

Fact: when the Broncos were coming and it was rumoured Mal was joining them, he went straight to John McIntyre and said he'd sign a 5 year extension with the raiders.

Fact: Belcher was ready to sign with North Sydney, but joined us because Mal did (Mal told Badge "if you join Norths you'll I'm going to run at you").

We kept Steve Walters, Gary Coyne anyway.

Yes, we lost Peter Jackson and Kevvie Walters, but had a young Laurie Daley coming through.

Yes, we lost Sam Backo but had Glenn Lazarus and Brent Todd, Todd a Kiwi test player. We then went on to sign Pongia and Lomax.

We didn't lose anyone we didn't really want to.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Some of this is convenient facts - the Al Gore Version...
Meninga signed long term with the Raiders as part of a conversation that allowed Bennett to go to the Broncos. It's heavily overlooked by all media that Bennett was the guy that found Meninga, and they had a very solid relationship for a long time.
Meninga didn't go straight to the club and ask for an extension because of the Broncos rumours.

Like most Queenslanders that came to the club - they did so because Meninga was here. Same with the Walters boys. Same with Coyne.

We lost Lazarus to the Broncos so that point is somewhat mute.

We only signed Pongia and Lomax partly because of Meninga's influence in the south pacific region (cite Ruben Wiki as a prime example) - and the fact that the club were genuine at the time in winning premierships and were exploring the market better than any other club in the world (cite Noa Nadruku - and a failed Horris Dove Edwin if you must...)

We didn't lose anyone we didn't really want to? I feel you've left Ben Kennedy out of this discussion....

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[Bay 67]

I sat next to a guy on a plane yesterday who moved his whole family down from Sydney two and a half years ago and he loves Canberra. He made a decision to move here without ever visiting the place and his friends in Sydney made it sound like he was moving to some Siberian gulag. So he thought he better come and see how bad it is and for him it was "love at first sight".

His kids are in a better school, the roads aren't clogged, he has a house ten minutes drive from the centre of town, restaurants and food is good... he doesn't have a lot of money but likes to ski so he takes the family up and back from the snow in a day, he loves the South Coast beaches and reckons he's had the best fish and chips in his life at Bateman's Bay.

He said his quality of life now is ten times what it was in Sydney and he's earning less money.

Sydney can keep telling itself how wonderful it is - and don't get me wrong the Harbour is a marvel and I love to visit the place - but I wouldn't swap life in Canberra for the world. The problem is, we have the Sydneyised view of Canberra pervasive across Rugby League and it's BS. Yeah the winters are a bit colder by Australian standards... but it ain't Boston, Massachusetts or Green Bay, Wisconsin and their football teams seem to go alright.

[woppadingo]

Is Canberra REALLY that much colder than Sydney or Melbourne?

RAAF Laverton outside Melbourne parade ground breaking ice winter mornings early to mid 70’s. Then add the wind and it was bloody cold!

Cerberus is bloody freezing, and Richmond NSW is bloody cold too. Amberley hits zero as well.

I grew up in Richmond, people should add a spoonful of cement to their weetbix every morning. Honestly harden up.

Easy tiger, I just said it got cold.

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None the less, Im adding "add a spoonful of cement to your weetbix every morning and harden up." to my repertoire.

[Pete Cash]

We cant compare the situation in the NRL with NFL teams finding success in cold cities for a few reasons.

Australia has extremely high rates of urbanisation and this is combined with half the population living in 3 cities. This means Sydney will produce a **** of rugby league players by virtue of its share of the population. When you consider that only really nsw (lets include the act in that) and qld produce rugby league players in any numbers like 40 percent of the people in those regions live in Sydney

this would be all well and good if the sides were distributed geographically but the competition is dominated by sydney sides. if a sydney born player wants to move clubs he can sign for another sydney team and not even move house if he is happy driving a bit.

players can afford to be fussy with location if they want to stay in Sydney

[edwahu]

I remember when the old RLW players poll was run and they asked which club was least attractive to players. The bottom few were always the long term poorest performing clubs or those with notorious pricks as coaches. I doubt so much has changed.

We were middle of the pack most of the time, even when successful, but I think we were second last in the last few years, after the Doogz debacle.

[LP Raider]

Is Canberra REALLY that much colder than Sydney or Melbourne?

RAAF Laverton outside Melbourne parade ground breaking ice winter mornings early to mid 70’s. Then add the wind and it was bloody cold!

Cerberus is bloody freezing, and Richmond NSW is bloody cold too. Amberley hits zero as well.

I grew up in Richmond, people should add a spoonful of cement to their weetbix every morning. Honestly harden up.

Easy tiger, I just said it got cold.

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Came across the wrong way Dubs, wasn't having a go at you.

[1992]

Maybe our problem is paying players too much when they had 1 good season (2016)