NRL Mapped: The junior rugby league nursery of every currently rostered player

From St Marys to Logan and Dewsbury to Otahuhu, these are the 347 junior clubs – spanning six countries – which have contributed to current NRL rosters.

NRL Mapped: Where every player learned the game.

A Western Sydney powerhouse and an unlikely rugby league stronghold deep in All Blacks territory have emerged as the dominant junior nurseries responsible for the current batch of NRL talent.

An investigation by this masthead has uncovered the 347 junior clubs that have been the breeding ground of the players on 2024 NRL rosters.

They span across six countries, include 14 rugby union clubs, and there is an as-expected high concentration of talent in NSW and Queensland.

But the underrated strength of the New Zealand pathways system can finally be quantified with an explosion of talent coming from across the ditch.

At the very top of the list of most prodigious producers of elite talent is the Otahuhu Leopards, from southeast Auckland, which has 12 former juniors on current NRL rosters while Western Sydney giants St Marys have 11.

Otahuhu are responsible for shaping the likes of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Jason Taumalolo and recent Brisbane Broncos debutant Josiah Karapani for top-level rugby league.

In Sydney’s west, NSW State of Origin stars Jarome Luai and Brian To’o headline graduates from St Marys, who continue to blood NRL stars in bulk as a key part of Penrith’s incomparable pathways system.

An analysis of NRL pathways reveals:

• Despite their numbers disadvantage, Queensland continue to show their strength in developing elite talent. Of their 78 junior clubs, the Runaway Bay Seagulls produced the third most current NRL players with nine on our list, including AJ Brimson, Jarrod Wallace and Jahream Bula;

• More than half the junior clubs are based in NSW;

• Fifty of those clubs are from country NSW, having produced 73 players;

• New Zealand has 57 junior clubs that are responsible for 115 players, further pressing the country’s claims for a second NRL team in the next expansion push; and

• Victoria continue to build their homegrown talent as the Melbourne Storm expand their pathways programs in the AFL state.

A SYDNEY DIVIDED

Penrith’s superiority in mobilising their junior catchment is laid bare in comparison to their Sydney rivals, especially in the city’s sprawling west.

Of the 108 Sydney junior clubs that have produced current NRL players, the Panthers’ local area has the most (48), marginally ahead of Parramatta (44), with daylight then to St George Illawarra (35), Canterbury (28), South Sydney (28), Wests Tigers (27), Manly (20), Cronulla (20) and the Sydney Roosters (7).

Seventeen junior clubs in the Tigers’ catchment are responsible for producing currently contracted NRL players, a greater number than even the Panthers (16).

Yet, none of Penrith’s rivals have been able to build any sort of sustained success on the back of their juniors, something that has been the bedrock of their three straight NRL premierships.

All but six players who have won grand finals with Penrith in this current dynasty debuted at other clubs. Meanwhile, James Fisher-Harris (Warriors) Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva (both Tigers) will bring Penrith’s premiership departures tally to 14 at the end of this season.

Unsurprisingly, the Roosters have the fewest local juniors with just seven currently in the NRL.

BATTLE OF BRISBANE

Brisbane is the new battleground for junior rugby league talent as the arrival of the Dolphins threatens a seismic shift in the NRL landscape.

The Broncos, Dolphins and Titans are on each other’s doorsteps, and it has already forced allegiances to be broken after the trio pulled power moves with Hostplus Cup sides as their feeder clubs.

Where once the Broncos had all of southeast Queensland at their disposal, now they face challenges from the north and south along the M1.

This masthead can reveal that 78 Queensland junior clubs have provided 159 players to NRL rosters, more than half of whom have come from the state’s southeast.

Queensland is well represented throughout the state, however, with talent also abundant in North and Central Queensland.

RUNAWAY SUCCESS

The Runaway Bay Seagulls have earned bragging rights as the most prodigious producer of NRL talent in the Sunshine State.

In the ultra competitive southeast Queensland market, nine former Seagulls have graduated from the Gold Coast into NRL systems.

AJ Brimson (Titans), Jarrod Wallace (Dolphins) and Jahream Bula (Tigers) headline a crop that includes Tanah Boyd (Titans), Jesse Arthars (Broncos), Blake Mozer (Broncos), Taine Tuaupiki (Warriors), Jye Gray (Rabbitohs) and Jayden Berrell (Sharks).

The Gold Coast is a proven hot spot for rugby league talent with 28 players from eight local clubs in NRL systems.

They include Queensland Origin star Reece Walsh’s Nerang Roosters (six), Helensvale Hornets (four) and Burleigh Bears (three).

BATTLE OF THE BUSH

Country NSW continues to prove a reliable source of rugby league talent, despite the challenges clubs in regional towns face to stay afloat.

Still, 49 clubs can lay claim to current NRL talent, with the Temora Dragons punching well above their weight. From the small Riverina town with a population of just 4000 people, the Dragons have four players — Origin stars Liam Martin and Zac Lomax, the Gold Coast’s Joe Stimson and rising Parramatta talent Charlie Guymer — on NRL deals.

It’s a similar story out at the Coonamble Bears, seven hours northwest of Sydney, where Cronulla’s Jesse Ramien, North Queensland’s Braidon Burns and South Sydney’s Thomas Fletcher hail from a town with fewer than 3000 people.

EXPANSION CLAIMS

The rise of the Warriors — in popularity and performances — isn’t the only success the game is having in New Zealand.

Almost 60 junior clubs are responsible for producing 115 players who are filling NRL rosters across the competition.

The league-high 12 Otahuhu Leopards in the NRL isn’t an outlier either, with local teams the Manurewa Marlins (seven), Glenora Bears, Mount Albert Lions and Mangere East Hawks (all six) all producing NRL players in big numbers.

The Warriors have further entrenched themselves with their NSWRL Harold Matthews Cup side becoming the first team to win the under-17 competition in their debut season.

The next step for the the continued growth of rugby league in New Zealand is expansion, being careful not to weaken what the Warriors have built in Auckland.

A concern, or an opportunity, for the game is the fact that only seven of the 115 New Zealand NRL players hail from the South Island.

Expanding into Christchurch would give the NRL another selling point to grow the game and capitalise on the struggles of rugby union.

Of the other expansion destinations, Western Australia only has nine junior products in the NRL currently, while Justin Olam is Papua New Guinea’s only local junior.

STAKING A CLAIM IN AFL HEARTLAND

What would have seemed unthinkable even a decade ago, there are now more Victorian products in the NRL than Sydney Roosters juniors.

While 10 NRL players have come through the rugby league system in Victoria, 1908 foundation club the Roosters have just seven.

Greg Marzhew, Young Tonumaipea, Richie Kennar, Dean Ieremia, Fonua Pole, Sione Finau, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Jamayne Taunoa-Brown all have ties to Victorian junior clubs, as does recent Penrith debutant Trent Toelau.

But the best of them may be Sualauvi Faalogo, the 21-year-old excitement machine from the Storm.

The Melbourne-raised rookie has been a revelation at fullback for the Storm in the absence of Ryan Papenhuyzen, so much so that the Storm have locked him up until the end of 2028.

The Storm now have Harold Matthews, SG Ball and Jersey Flegg teams, with the hope that the likes of exciting homegrown youngsters, including fullback Hugo Peel and winger Siulagi Pio, will earn NRL debuts.

Growth of clubs like the North West Wolves, Northern Thunder, Sunbury Tigers, Altona Roosters, South East Titans and Doveton Steelers.

* NOTE, players who played for more than one junior club may be represented twice

Originally published as NRL Mapped: The junior rugby league nursery of every currently rostered player