Quote Originally Posted by Taffy View Post
That comes down to the club ethos really if they keep them. But across the board how many come through JDL and Youth to be playing 1st grade at any club. Plenty of clubs develop players but will always favour a ready now reserve grade player over an 18yo who will be ready in 2 years. But the current JDL product the first kids are only in U14, do need to wait a few more years to see that cohort no longer able to play youth. Same with the PYL, really need to give it 5 years to see if it is good for the game or not.
From the clubs i know around 85% of JDL kids are playing PYL or NL1 from the 1st 2 years of full JDL.

In the top division single Club youth development is mainly a myth.
A large majority change clubs once or more between 9s to 16s. Being cut, moving house, hating coaches, following coaches, disgruntled parents, losing interest, joining mates, stupid rego fees, injury, not being valued shows how easy it is to make a move elsewhere.
These kids develop from several clubs and filter into the system like they always have.
By the 16s clubs will take just about anyone just to fill the squads.
In fact anyone who stays at the same JDL PYL NPL club would be unique.

As far as skill level goes, IMO the technical level is definitely better than the past but not sure about about physical athletic level which may have been better in decades past.