Sharod
Years ago
I think the Breakers is doing really good to nurture the young players, obviously the product like the Webster brothers and TeRangi is emerging with huge potential. Any thought of some others that could be the top development programs in both nations currently?
Townsville have five players that have come through their development system as fully rostered players now.
Not sure if that speaks as much about their development system as their tendancy to retain local, cheaper players, but five players is a hell of a lot for a small regional city.
Joey Wright has a pretty good record turning DP's into legit NBL players. Pity he doesn't have a job at the moment.
Crocs started their junior development with Ian Stacker and Andrej Lemanis - pretty good guys to develop your juniors
They had a fair bit to do with norton, damon heuir (SUU - Big Sky), Michael Cedar, Chris Cedar, Peter Crawford, Steve Costanzo
Then Rohan Short got it going again and he really nurtured Heuir & Norton into what they are today and discovered Blanchfield.
Liam Flynn has really worked with Blanchfield, Norton and Chris cedar to make them NBL players. There is an U14 & U16 squad too atm i think.
Cairns have done a really good job up there with their Academy getting government grants to build their program. Mick Downer does a hell of a job with those guys and ex Canberra Cannon, Jamie Pearlman, is also now involved.
They have really brought Shaun Bruce along to where he could get a full NBL contract somewhere next year, but when you have names like Jawai & Baynes that have been through that place, it makes it easy to sell the program!
When discussing the Crocs you need also to include;
Brad Newley
Vanderjagt
Tragardh (although he lived in Stackers dog house) Brothers Mick & Dave Penisi (who both have had 10+ years pro overseas)
Kelvin Robertson
Brad Davidson (who debuted & played his formative years there)
Crocs put a high value on local & NQ representation. Sometimes to their own detriment some might say.
But good on them for trying.
Newley? LOL. Forestville and the AIS might have something to say about that...
Forestville were so integral he GTFO and went to the AIS. (and has NEVER played a pro game in SA since) Then the AIS did such a great job he left early!
After 2 years at Crocs, sacked head coach Stacker took him to NBA tryouts where he was signed by Houston and placed in Europe. Since then he has earned 3 & 4 times the NBL rate so has stayed there.
...which is all irrelevant. Townsville did NOTHING for him in terms of his JUNIOR development. He didn't spend any time there as a junior!
Isaac
Years ago
Beyond juniors juniors, I think you can talk about taking on a project and giving them time and opportunities to improve. Abercrombie and Pledger are examples from before the new Breakers crop; Abercrombie had been largely ignored by his college team. 36ers have done a bit of it too with a few players recently. Cairns took on some rookies that show promise.
Ingles and Newley really went into their first NBL teams at a higher level. Newley averaged 16 PPG at 51% in his rookie year! Yes, there is a conversation where Stacker gets credit for making him a much higher priority than the 36ers ever did, but I don't think he's necessarily part of this conversation about NBL development of younger players. Seems like a slightly different case to me.
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