Ruckedtobits wrote:One of the realities that we in Leinster should recognise is that our development system an. Processes is likely to overproduce in our efforts to unearth the very best. The production of c. 5-8 players per annum, targeted at a Squad of about 45 players, means that we replicate our Squad every 6-8 years. If we are bringing through players at 20 or 21 and about 30% of them are playing past their 32nd birthday, we inevitably have a surplus.
At present we have RK, Ferg, J10, Cian & SO'B all well into their 2nd decade of Leinster senior rugby. Add in guys like Nugget and Fardy, in the same age category and you begin to understand the fundamental structural problem in Leinster player development.
In the ideal world, our development pattern would be more closely aligned with our prospective replacement needs. However, the ideal world is not professional collision sport - ask Josh VdF or Dan L - and hence we occasionally face a period like the last season when some of those in the positions or progression feel they will be best served, for their careers - by jumping the queue elsewhere.
Maybe there's a series of algorithems somewhere which could calculate our future player needs more accurately and match supply and demand. But not even the best NFL franchises have this sorted so I will probably wait in frustration for that Holy Grail.
NFL teams recruit mostly through college, they don't develop players internally and recruit 100%
We were always comfortable with an amount of overproduction. We built it well to fend off foreign interest, largely successfully and it usually only fell over during low points.
You can hold onto elite players when moving hurts their international chances but it is hard, we have no chance when moving helps their international chances.
We can manage without the players we're losing: just about and at a cost. And for a short time, as an academy intake of 6-7 wont replace 2-4 important senior players leaving on top of normal attrition. (We lost 6 so far this year).
The bigger problem is that when the new system strongly encourages players to move on it becomes an order of magnitude harder to develop players.
Carbery was all set to stay but not getting picked for a few games was a big barrier, then Byrne made the summer tour. McGrath gets picked behind Byrne and suddenly he needs to move. McCarthy sees Park qualify for Ireland and academy players coming into training so he moves to a worse situation. Deegan gets picked out of position behind a younger player and it takes making him one of the most used players before he makes the rumours stop in an interview.
In letting Daly and Nagle move midseason Leinster have shown that we are serious about being willing to help player development in other provinces. We did right by fringe players.