THE Holden Cup National Youth Competition continued to provide the most prolific pathway to the National Rugby League in 2015 with 51 of the 55 players who made debuts in the NRL having previously played in the under-20s competition.
The four exceptions were English international Josh Hodgson (Canberra), Fijian discovery Eto Nabuli (St George Illawarra), Matt Parcell (Brisbane via Intrust Super Cup) and Nathan Ross (Newcastle, who made his NRL debut at age 26).
The intake of 2015 players lifted the overall number to graduate from the National Youth Competition to the NRL since 2008 to 459. That means 80.8 per cent of players who have kicked off their NRL careers since 2008 have previously played in the NYC.
The 459 NYC players who have graduated to the NRL since 2008 represent 18.5…
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Official Rugby League Annual (Digital) - 1 Issue, 2014