Inside the Sydney Roosters pathways system that has made them an elite development club
The Roosters have revolutionised their club’s junior pathways and quietly become one of the game’s best talent hubs. The club unleash two of their most promising development star in the Pre-season Challenge.
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The Sydney Roosters are tossing the ‘salary sombrero’ in favour of a gardener’s hat to ‘fertilise’ the ground of the club’s junior pathways.
It’s the reason general manager of football programs Craig Walker confidently declares the foundation franchise as a bona fide development club.
“We are a player development club. Yes, the Roosters have had success with recruiting juniors and recruiting blue-chip recruits. But we’ve done well with developing players coming out at an early age,” Walker said.
“But the reality is you can’t keep picking the fruit from the tree, you have to fertilise the ground. We’ve picked some fruit in the past and now we’re working hard on fertilising the bottom.”
The Roosters have long been a major player in the recruitment market, more recently snaring the likes of Brandon Smith, Cooper Cronk and James Tedesco. With that has come jibes about the club’s lack of developed players.
But the Bondi club says it is now a major pathways player.
“It’s financially better than trying to cherry pick 21-year-olds. That costs a lot of money to get a player out of another club,” Walker said.
The pathways have now ballooned to around 10,000 players, taking in catchments on the NSW Central Coast, Ipswich, New Zealand and 700 juniors in the club’s local district.
ROOSTERS ACADEMY
The jewel in the pathways crown is the club’s Sydney based academy that brings together its elite juniors into a program designed to accelerate their development into the NRL.
When club greats Mitchell Aubusson and Jake Friend were tasked with designing the academy program, one crucial piece of the puzzle was missing.
The Roosters needed to find a place to house its regional and overseas players.
Chairman Nick Politis solved the problem as quickly as it arose.
“We had the training program, the style of play, but Nick wanted to know where they would live. Within 48 hours we purchased the block of units, we made a call that we’re going to go when we invest in our juniors,” Aubusson said.
“It was eight units in Kingsford, built in 2000. We wanted to make sure they were set up for the guys so we renovated a couple of them.”
The academy is designed to give the club’s brightest prospects a rugby league education five days a week.
In between their junior representative training schedule, players receive specialist positional training, work on strength and conditioning and even get nutritional advice from former Roosters champion Anthony Minichiello.
THE OLD BOYS
The Roosters’ title success in recent times has opened the door for the club’s best talent to pick the brains of premiership winners like Aubusson, Friend, Minichiello, Cooper Cronk and soon-to-be ‘old boys’ Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Daniel Tupou.
“The most exciting part of my job is getting those guys in front of the young kids,” Aubusson said.
The former players all have key roles in providing specialist positional coaching. Aubusson works with the centres, Friend with the hookers, Minichiello with the fullbacks and Cooper Cronk with the Roosters’ rising halves stocks.
“These 16 or 17-year-old kids are more advanced than what I was. They have access to the first-grade side in (coach) Trent Robinson, to former Roosters. They are being coached in the Roosters style. The earlier they can get that the better,” four-time title winner Cronk said.
“The way the academy is set up is to future-proof themselves in terms of having guys that understand the system.
“I’ll tell you what, there is some exciting talent.”
Even veteran prop Waerea-Hargreaves and winger Tupou are willing to carve out time from their busy NRL schedules to be involved.
“Jared is our main one, he’ll do some video work with our front rowers and always willing to be involved,” Aubusson said.
“I help out with the outside backs but Daniel Tupou is going to jump on board as well.
“Even our injured or suspended NRL guys will come in and do some wrestling and help them with their technique.
“To me, that creates a culture in a club. It helps build a connection to the club.”
ACADEMY GRADUATES
One of those ‘exciting talents’ Cronk has been working with is rising playmaker Toby Rodwell. The recent academy graduate is now in the SG Ball program after joining the club as a 15-year old.
Other highly regarded prospects to come through the elite academy include Central Coast hooker Tyler Moriarty and back-rower Salesi Foketi, who was identified in New Zealand and has been part of the pathways since he was 15.
The club has “high hopes” for forward Blake Steep, who hails from Port Macquarie and trained with the NRL side during the pre-season.
De La Selle Va’a, one the country’s biggest teen athletes at 194cm and 115kg joined the club from Toowoomba at 15.
Fellow forward and Paddington Colts junior Ethan Roberts has trained with the NRL side and is another graduate earmarked as a future star.
BARCELONA INSPIRATION
NRL clubs and coaches are constantly looking to other major global sports and competitions in the search for an edge. The Roosters found theirs in Spain following a tour of La Liga powerhouse Barcelona FC and its youth academy, while in Europe for the World Club Challenge in 2020.
“We trained there, went through their academies. Nick was blown away by the Academy that was set up over there. He wanted something similar in Australia,” Aubusson said.
“When I retired Nick and Robbo approached me and asked if Jake Friend and I could go away and think of a plan of how an Academy here would work.”
But Aubusson is reluctant to take the credit for the academy’s success.
“It’s Nick’s dream. Trent is backing it but the person who oversees the day-to-day of it is director Peter Newton. He set up the Roosters Foundation, which helps to fund our development programs and a big part of that is the academy,” Aubusson said.
PATHWAYS GROWTH
The club is hoping the academy graduates will follow in the footsteps of young playmaker Sandon Smith, who was the first player to make an NRL debut out of the Central Coast academy, which was established five years ago.
As well as a foothold on the Central Coast, the Roosters are making headway in Ipswich and in New Zealand.
Walker calls the club’s move into those regions a necessary ‘evolution’ given the Roosters’ catchment in Sydney is home to only three junior clubs — Bondi United, Paddington Colts and Clovelly Crocodiles.
“We just don’t have a diamond mine straight outside our front door. We have to work hard. And that’s what we have done,” Walker said.
While rugby union is viewed by some as a threat to the game, the Roosters are building relationships with local GPS schools to combat the challenges that come with a small junior nursery.
“We’ve had to think outside the box, due to the boundaries” Walker said.
“Our strategic plan now includes work on player development, and forming relationships in other areas.
“We’ve got a really good relationship with the local rugby schools Waverley College and Scots College. We don’t have the advantage of Patrician Brothers Blacktown or De La Salle College.
“It’s paid off with guys like Angus Crichton, Billy Smith and Siua Wong who all went to Scots.”
PATHWAYS COACHING
Crucial to the success of young playmakers coming through pathways systems is the standard of coaching. It’s an area NRL head coach Trent Robinson takes a hands-on approach.
When the club identified a shortfall among the pathways coaching ranks, the three-time premiership winner took matters into his own hands.
“We found a shortfall in the coaching in those areas. So those coaches got five sessions over the three months with Robbo,” Aubusson said.
“We’ve got to sit down and learn and go through the different areas like basic skills interchange plans, game day preparations. It was a really extensive program that we started with those coaches.”
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