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Gun from Tassie? Riewoldt moved to the Gold Coast at 9 years of age. How much of a gun can you really be at that age? Clearly the majority of his development was completed on the Gold Coast with Broadbeach but Southport took him to that next level and really put him on the radar to be taken with pick 1.Claiming Reiwolt, Merrett, Raines and Gilbert as examples draws a very long bow as well. Probably others too.
Reiwolt was a gun from Tassie, that played at Broady and then had 1 year at Southport - they hardly developed him, he was the finished product.
Merrett was a kid that found footy at 17, played at Surfers and played less than 5 games for Southport ever.
Same goes for Lachie Weller, he moved because his brother Mav was at the Suns - he was an AIS Academy kid before even moving to QLD - Southport did zero development of his footy.
etc etc
Merrett was just a tall and athletic guy that got convinced to take up footy at Surfers because his mates at Benowa High were telling him to give it a go. Southport saw his potential and signed him up in his draft year. They moulded him into something respectable and worth drafting.
I'll give you Lachie Weller. It's definitely a stretch to say Southport had a big say in his drafting.
How is this any different to NAB League teams in Melbourne though? The juniors play for their local teams until around 15/16 years of age and then the NAB League teams pick them up and mould them into something worth drafting yet people will always reference their NAB League team when talking about their junior footy. Commentators love talking about Matt Rowell from Oakleigh but Mont Albert and Canterbury hardly ever get a mention. It's no different to what Southport did for the majority of the draftees listed earlier in the thread.