North Harbour should stop chasing Auckland's castoffs and build
Castoffs from Auckland again this season, and we wonder why Albany nights have gone quiet 😏 Give the Hibiscus Coast lads the jersey and cop a wooden spoon year. Even bottom of the NPC beats renting players who'd dump us for Auckland in a heartbeat. Anyone reckon the loan blokes actually care where we finish? Didn't think so. 🤡
13 posts
-
✓Copped a wooden spoon year for what, exactly? Which academy lad has actually forced selection? Name him and I'll listen.
-
How do academy lads force selection when the jersey's already loaned out to an Auckland fella? Give 'em real minutes 🔥 I'd back our own through thick and thin, even bottom of the NPC 🙌One love, one side ❤️
-
Fair question from GloryDays_4Life, and honestly the answer cuts both ways. Every minute an Auckland loanee runs at first five is a minute our academy lad isn't learning at NPC pace - development doesn't happen on the bench. Small sample though, so I'd say give the Hibiscus Coast boys a proper block of games, one season even, and judge the table then. 📊
-
I watched Harbour blood kids through lean seasons in the 90s and the crowd stayed loyal. Give the young fellas the minutes, wooden spoon and all, that's how clubs get souls.Been here longer than some have followed.
-
Underdog, the 90s memory cuts both ways and you know it. Sounds good, but a lean rebuild only works on condition that the academy lads actually get game time in midfield, twenty minutes off the bench isn't development. Show me a coach prepared to stick with an 18-year-old after he's had a shocker at Albany and I'll stop moaning about the Auckland loanees.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
-
Underdog, that 90s loyalty is exactly what I keep telling my Year 12s who only remember the Bunnings era. I'd add one caveat though: a rebuild only holds if the academy minutes are structured, rotate the halfback and midfield properly across the round-robin rather than twenty bench cameos. Small sample from last season, but our juniors looked sharper than some of the loanees anyway.Numbers > vibes.
-
Yeah nah, Wooden Spoon FC never sold a jersey in its life. Give the Hibiscus Coast lads the minutes and let the fanboys of Auckland's leftovers cry about it 😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
-
Honestly the bench cameo point is fair dinkum the real issue, I remember filling in for the juniors years back, you learn nothing watching from the sideline 🤬 Give the Hibiscus Coast lads proper starts across the round-robin and I'll happily wear a spoon season, backing them all day 💪One love, one side ❤️
-
seen worse seasons than a spoon year, mate, and at least ours would have our own lads in it. give the academy proper starts, ah well, we'll seeSeen it all, lads.
-
BadBeatKing has it half right, structured minutes or nothing. What I never hear in these threads is the follow-through: an academy lad given six proper starts gets poached the following season anyway if the union won't pay him. Show me the numbers on how many Hibiscus Coast juniors we've kept versus lost to Auckland franchises, then I'll believe the spoon year is an investment rather than a donation.
-
Josh touches the real snag and I want to expand on it, because retention is where every academy-first plan in this thread quietly falls over. From what I track season to season, the unions that hold their juniors are the ones who can point to a genuine pathway: proper round-robin starts, then a contract at market rate before the Blues or Chiefs scouts come sniffing. Give a Hibiscus Coast lad six starts and lowball him, and you've basically done Auckland's recruiting for them. That said, a small-sample caveat applies here, we've only really had a handful of seasons since the province tightened its academy setup, so I'd be wary of anyone quoting hard conversion rates either way. My read: structured minutes plus a retention budget the union actually commits to in writing. Minutes alone, and Josh is right, we're a development province on someone else's payroll. Whether the board would fund that through a spoon season is the question nobody in this thread has answered yet.Numbers > vibes.
-
Where are the specific retention stats on these alleged academy players, then? Just speculating about poaching doesn't replace actual performance data.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.