happydays wrote:
inafoxhole wrote:
Napier Phoenix wrote:
Sunseeker wrote:
Richards and Mata from MAGS to st Kents, although Mata left and went to Phoenix and returned. Van der Hoven and maybe Sinclair(?) to Sacred via MAGS. Sad to see the exodus from MAGS. Once powerhouse now struggling.
Were these kids actually from Mount Albert themselves or lured to MAGS for football? If the latter is the case then they were likely to move to wherever it was thought best for their football you'd think.
I'm not sure where Mata, van den Hoven or Sinclair live; Richards is a Hamiltonian. They would have all started school when Fallon was there (I think), so I imagine football was a huge factor.
Not many kids playing 1st XI football, 1st XV rugby and other sports like netball are at schools such as MAGS, St Kents etc because it's their local school - they are there to satisfy egos of principals and school boards who think it's really important to win a local school championship
Add Westlake to it, literally my last year at Westlake, Stuart Holthusen (I think?), Moses Dyer, Spiros Agothos (for about a term), Meysum Shafahi, Tamu Dimairo and two thai boys (who play professional now) were homestays to people who lived locally so they could attend school at Westlake. To note, we also had Sam Brotherton, Deklan Wynne, Brock Messenger and few other ex nz reps - But this irrelevant.
A lot of schools do it. When they want top sports people to come to the school, they tend to scout and reel them in.