PATHWAY PAIN

Q To start the year, 50 of the best young talents have gone into the Pride pathway. How much has that hurt the CDRL?

A While it’s a great opportunity for these kids, it’s having an impact on clubs now. From where I sit, it’s a bit disappointing actually. This sort of thing gets discussed at QRL and ISC level and the grassroots district and clubs haven’t really been consulted, which is a bit upsetting. You find out about it on the grapevine about putting the under-20s (in 2018) and under-18s (in 2019) into full seasons and in the city it’s great, you’ve got the numbers, but in the regional areas it’s showing now on the field it’s impacting our under-19s. But there are some negatives. Some of these kids when they finish that they don’t really want to go back and play club football. Why after playing would you want to go back to club land? That’s the negative I’m hearing from the clubs.

Q Do you think the QRL is focusing enough on the districts during this process?

A Not at the grassroots level I don’t think. Don’t get me wrong, they do a lot of hard work and lot of the things like the first aid and that have been really great, more professional and the code’s a lot stronger. I guess the QRL’s limited in what funding they can pass down, but if we go to an under-18 and under-20 statewide fullyear competition, the funding needs to be there. They can’t fall back on the districts to help fund these things because we’re all struggling. The CDRL is itself, to assist all the clubs, so it would be a burden on the districts if the funding model is not there to make sure it works properly.