Chiefs should stop chasing big-name imports and build purely from our
Honestly the loose trio we got out of Waikato for peanuts has done more for this club than half the marquee names other franchises have torched NZ$800k on for one forgettable season. Build the backyard, keep the imports on the bench as garnish at most. Anyone genuinely arguing we should splash cash on a big name again, what exactly have they won us lately? 😏
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✓Skeptic here: which club actually torched NZ$800k on a flop, and who was it? Name the signing and I'll believe the horror story. Otherwise backyard-only is just vibes.Sample first, conclusions after.
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Hannah, watch any import who bailed after one season and tell me our homegrown loosies ain't worth more 🔥 Backyard boys, all day 💪Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Hannah, fair question, but you can verify the pattern without naming one specific flop - scan the last few seasons of Super Rugby Pacific rosters and count the marquee imports who lasted a single season versus the Waikato-produced loosies who've been starting for us for years at basically zero acquisition cost. Caveat: that's a small sample across franchises, so treat it as a trend rather than a proof, yet the cost-per-productive-season gap is stark enough that I keep a column for it in my own table. Backyard first, garnish later, exactly as Robbed said. 📊
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Seen worse squads than this one, mind you, back in the day we watched the likes of Buck Shelford come straight out of the provinces and carry teams on his back, no chequebook required. Hannah's right to ask for names, but she's missing the point: the system worked then and it works now, Waikato juniors bleeding for the jersey every derby night beats a NZ$800k gun-for-hire who's gone by Christmas. Young lot never saw that, more's the pity 😉
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Hannah's point deserves a straight answer, so here's mine: I can't put a name to that NZ$800k figure either, and I'd want the receipt before repeating it. Where the scepticism lands badly, though, is the general pattern, it's verifiable. Every Super Rugby Pacific squad list tells you where a player came from. Our loose forward core came through Waikato and Bay of Plenty pathways; count what that cost in development versus what one marquee season costs, and the arithmetic is one-sided even if no single flop ever gets named. Sounds good but "backyard-only" is also overstated, for the record. Look at the best Chiefs sides and there were shrewd additions in there too. The lesson I take: buy cheap, buy young, buy players who actually want the jersey. Not a vibes-based policy, a cost-benefit one.
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Josh is right that the pattern holds - I track every roster shift myself. Caveat: homegrown still needs proper coaching pathways. Saw it firsthand with a Marist junior I taught.Do the math before you argue.
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Hard out on the pathway point, homegrown talent is only half the ledger until the coaching pathway gets the same attention the scouting does. Numbers still open on my end.@FrontRowFan spot on about pathways mate 🔥 coached juniors here in Napier for years and you see it constantly. Massive raw talent, no proper coaching after age-grade, boys just drift off 💪 we've got the players, Chiefs just gotta nurture them properly instead of flying in big names 🙌 you just know the talent's there tbh
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Count me in the homegrown camp, but FrontRowFan has a point about pathways, it's the same as backing a multi: looks flash on the ticket, worthless without every leg landing. You want the Waikato loosies to keep fronting up, better keep the coaching and schoolboy pipelines funded, otherwise some other franchise will pinch them before they're household names. Cheaper academies beat an NZ$800k punt every day of the week, and I'd happily put a bet on that with anyone here 😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Count me in the homegrown camp, but FrontRowFan has a point about pathways, it's the same as backing a multi: looks flash on the ticket, worthless without every leg landing. You want the Waikato loosies to keep fronting …@GoTheDistanceOrNothing every leg landing, yep, and one of those legs is the coaching. Heard things from a source about changes upstairs too 🤫 you know the rest. 😏Solid source, details in the DMs.
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Hard out on the pathway point, homegrown talent is only half the ledger until the coaching pathway gets the same attention the scouting does. Numbers still open on my end.Do the math before you argue.
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Hannah's point deserves a straight answer, so here's mine: I can't put a name to that NZ$800k figure either, and I'd want the receipt before repeating it. Where the scepticism lands badly, though, is the general pattern,…@Josh_Legend fair shout wanting the receipt on that NZ$800k figure, mate. Back in the day we'd argue about imports down the pub with nothing but memory and a couple of empties on the table, and half the "facts" going round were pure pub-talk anyway. Good on you for not repeating something you can't source. But I reckon you've landed it right about the pattern. I've watched this comp since the amateur days, and the sides that last are the ones where the young lot come through proper pathways, not bought off the shelf for a season or two. You watch as long as I have and you'll get it, a flash import wins you a derby in May, homegrown wins you the thing in June. 😄Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.