luke ricketson
anyways, about the juniors..... having a good junior base isnt the only way a club contributes in developing players. minichello, hegarty, byrnes, flannery, cross, webb, cusacks, tupou, (and several that have left in the last few years, solomona, rubin, bonetti and 2 a few other props whos names excapes me at the moment) are nobody's when they came to the roosters and worked their way up though the reserve teams. yes thats also a part of a players development. left at their original club, they might not have gone nearly as far as they have. take willie tonga for example, if bulldogs buy him he's prolly still wandering around in reserve grade wondering whether he'll gonna play ahead of matt peterson or the likes.
furthermore, fitzgibbon was not the player he is today when he left dragons... i believe he was more like chad robinson, a perennial fringe player behind the likes of thompson, treacy and that guy he didnt get along with. walker was unhappy at souths(much like jamie lyon was at parra) and roosters offered him a helping hand to get back on track, Jason Cayless was also a reserve grader, craig wing was without a club. ppl wouldve thought you be mad tif you had said finch wouldve made the origin team and be named halfback of the year last year. all these players have developed far beyond what they once were before coming to the roosters.
out of the current team, only fittler, hodges($%#%), morley, and robinson, are more or less 'poached'. this is hardly a large number.
look at the dogs, ryan patton tonga lolessi utai anasta etc etc are not local juniors... ffs the captain is a queenslander...