There was one private provider in Christchurch that was producing quality (2 all whites) but opted to move to wellywhich offered a better environment, thats a real shame for christchurch. How many top quality players has the federations produced - zero. going from the latest U17 squad. PA's 14 (the number I know for certain) FTC 0? Let me know if I'm wrong but thats a massive dissapointment for FTC. The Boys at Ole -western suburbs only get the TOL's and maybe the Auckland U17 tournament to show their wares, they could complain about visibility aswell - but they don't
I agree its a big fish, small pond mentality. As I have said befor this may hurt people but just because you may go to FTC and NTC it does not mean you deserve a spot in an national team, in fact you may be way off it.
I would also be happy with club based acadamies/ pathways, enforcing a strong link/culture with a club but at the moment the points raised above make it unrealistic.
Just my two cents
I don't know the background of each player. Stroud has been mentioned in this thread, I know he didn't make U17 but he did do FTC/NTC but is called a WeeNix player. So how players get categorised may skew statistics.
I don't believe APFA was successful in Chch.