NRL Mapped: St Marys is the most prolific rugby league nursery in Australia

St Marys has garnered a reputation out in Sydney’s west as being a talent factory for the Penrith Panthers – but as our exclusive figures reveal, the club’s claim to fame goes much further.

Jarome Luai will be a Wests Tiger in 2025 but the Luai name will live on not only at Penrith but another Western Sydney rugby league powerhouse club, the St Marys Saints.

Luai, a three-time premiership winner, is one of 11 current NRL stars to have played their junior rugby league at St Marys Saints.

Luai’s younger brother, Calvary, 15, is following in the same junior league and NRL pathways journey as the Panthers and NSW Blues five-eighth.

A student at Patrician Brothers Blacktown, Calvary is rising through the ranks at St Marys as a promising centre, who is also set to join Penrith’s Harold Matthews squad next year.

“He’s a centre. He’s a bit like a Bizza (Brian To’o) build. A traditional Samoan build. I didn’t get all that muscle,” Luai laughed.

“He’s doing well. I think he is going to Harold Matthews next year. Hopefully he goes all right.”

FULL LIST: CHECK OUT EVERY NRL PLAYER’S JUNIOR CLUB HERE

Soon another Luai will be running in St Marys colours in his young son Israel.

Luai had hoped that Israel would one day be a Socceroo, but the six-year-old has other plans.

“He’s a soccer player. We want him to play soccer, he names all the (soccer) players, he knows it all. But he’s just keen to get into footy now,” Luai revealed.

“He’s obviously around it a lot and he wants to play footy next year.

“I’m taking him back to St Marys and it would be good for me as well just to connect back to the junior roots, to see the kids there and some of my old trainers there as well, they are still there.”

St Marys has garnered a reputation out in Sydney’s west as being a talent factory for the Penrith Panthers.

(L-R) Emmanuel Crichton, 16 and Calvary Luai, 16, from Patrician Brothers School, Blacktown. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Of the 11 players in the NRL, only three, Parramatta’s Bryce Cartwright, Cronulla’s Liam Ison and Roosters centre Michael Jennings are no longer at the Panthers.

Other western Sydney clubs have also made significant contributions to the NRL talent pool overall, like St Clair Comets (5 current NRL players), Glenmore Park Brumbies (5 current NRL players) and Minchinbury Jets (6 current NRL players). A total 46 current NRL players have emerged from Penrith’s fruitful junior district.

But the Saints are unmatched as a breeding ground for the Panthers’ pathways, with the likes of Luai, Brian To’o and Izack Tago headlining their list of NRL representatives.

St Mary’s Saints juniors: (L-R) Noah Nanai, Harlan Daniela, Jayden Xerri, Sia’a Taveuveu, Naioka Tuipulotu, Brooklyn Williams, Mahlie Frew and Grace Bowler. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

“It’s (St Marys) a powerhouse club. They are doing really well (off the field) with the Leagues club,” Luai said.

“They look after their juniors, they subsidise head gear and things like that. They definitely care about juniors and how they develop.”

St Marys Junior Rugby League president Peter Bowler told this masthead the Saints have now reached the limit for the number of teams each club is allowed to field on a Saturday.

“In the Penrith district there are now over 9,000 players in the junior league,” Bowler said.

“We are at the cap for how many players we can take. You can have 45 teams on a Saturday and one team in each of the girls age groups but we are at the cap on the Saturday. On Sunday’s we have first division only.”

Penrith’s premiership success at the NRL is also having a flow on effect at the grassroots level.

“Yeah there definitely has been more interest since Penrith started winning titles,” Bowler said.

“But we also pride ourselves on the development we can give to young players. A lot of players want to come to us because we are successful overall as a club but we also have so many players developed from the under 6s that go all the way through, like Bryce Cartwright, like Lindsay Smith have been there for day dot.”

Bowler, who has been involved with St Marys for 25 years and been the club’s president since 2018, had a front-row seat to Luai’s rise from western Sydney’s grassroots to NSW Blues five-eighth.

“I remember Romy got the player of the year in the under 12s and I remember thinking ‘this kid can play’. Sure enough he went on to bigger and better things,” Bowler said.

To Bowler, a club like St Marys doesn’t just help develop the next crop of future NRL stars but plays a vital role in their personal development as people too.

“Out here there is not a lot of distance between the bad side of the law and the good side of the law,” Bowler said.

“Here at St Marys we try to keep them on the side whenever we can.

“We have kids that are in trouble all the time, and footy is their only outlet.

“I know one coach, the mother loves the coach because her kid does whatever the coach tells him too.

“When he’s playing up at home, the mum is on the blower to the coach and he’s onto the kid like, ‘You need to pull your head in’. And this kid can play footy.

“We just want to give every kid the best chance to succeed.”

Originally published as NRL Mapped: St Marys is the most prolific rugby league nursery in Australia