Dogs tap into Fijian talent

[bornadog]

By Jennifer Witham
12:10 PM Tue 21 October, 2008

Inoke Ratu shakes Simon Dalrymple's hand after signing an international scholarship with the Western Bulldogs



NICHOLAS Naitanui may be making headlines as a hot draft prospect at the moment, but he may be joined by other Fijian football talent in the near future with the Western Bulldogs signing two young Fijian athletes onto their international scholarship scheme.

Inoke Ratu, 19, and Solomoni Loki, 16, were both spotted by the Dogs during the trials the club held in Fijian towns Labasa and Suva earlier this month.

Both from Suva, the young pair were met with dreadful conditions during the testing day, with monsoonal rain soaking the turf for 12 hours before the trial and then throughout the afternoon.

Bulldogs development coach Simon Dalrymple said that both players showed "good game sense and ball handling skills", as well as "good athletic ability, speed and vertical leap" during the trial game held in the inclement weather.

"We played a number of handball games as well as some eight-on-eight games, and they really stood out as being competitive," he told westernbulldogs.com.au.

"They seemed to quickly grasp the knowledge of the skills of the game.

"They were familiar with the game, they'd seen it on TV, and they never played it but they knew who'd won the grand final. There is a bit of exposure over there."

The Dogs were willing to commit to as many as four young Fijians as part of the push into the South Pacific under AFL international rookie rules.

The players will now be offered a salary of $1,000 for this year, and will be in weekly contact with Dalrymple regarding how they are handling their training program.

"They still live in Fiji but we have first access to them so they can't go to another AFL club," he said.

"We send them over a development program, which will cover all their football skills, conditioning, diet and game sense. We've got a pretty thorough program that we'll put in place with them.

"We've got some people on the ground in Fiji that will help us deliver that, as well as the AFL Oceania, which will send a competition over there so they'll play some games and they'll link in some visits to the Bulldogs throughout the 12 month period."

The Bulldogs will have the opportunity to relocate the players to Melbourne at the end of the year and sign them as international rookies on a bigger salary, or they can keep the players in Fiji on a similar agreement for another 12 months.

Dalrymple said the Dogs wouldn't rule out returning to Fiji to hold further trials in the coming years, after being encouraged by the turnout at both testing days.

"It was very much based on the vision of Campbell Rose to look outside the square, with the draft over the next few years set to be compromised," he said.

"It will be a real issue getting quality players over the next four years, and Campbell, along with James Fantasia, was encouraged by looking at [potential No.1 draftee] Nicholas Naitanui this year.

"He's going to be high up in the draft, and really from there, Scott Clayton and [financial backer businessman] Shaun Bassett went over there and did a lot of groundwork in setting up the program and developing some great contacts.

"We had over 400 attend the trials, and that was given the rain in Suva all day and night, and to get 300 there was an unbelievable result.

"The publicity out of us signing these two boys will be enormous. We see that it will just get bigger and bigger."

The Bulldogs will look at flying Ratu and Loki to Melbourne later this year, which will be their first overseas trip.

Inoke Ratu (19 years old, 197cm)
Athletic, very competitive, raw
Lives in Suva

Solomoni Loki (16 years old, 185 cm)
Raw but silky running style, great hands, an incredible aptitude for ball sport
Lives in Suva

[Mantis]

All sounds great.

Would be a great achievement to get them to an AFL level in a few year's times, but as explained in the article it is an experiment which is certainly worth some effort.

[bulldogtragic]

Worth $2000 for sure. And great exposure for our club. Perhaps the AFL can use or club to expand the game throughout the region. Could be great benefits for us.

[KT31]

Might want to get a DNA test.
20 years ago on a trip with Sokeye, I remember him going missing for a few days.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Might want to get a DNA test.
20 years ago on a trip with Sokeye, I remember him going missing for a few days.

"Solomoni Loki (16 years old, 185 cm)
Raw but silky running style, great hands, an incredible aptitude for ball sport"

Could be. The description fits and there's a lot of that trip lost in a drunken haze.

Does it say anything about him being slow as treacle?

[bulldogtragic]

Are we any closer to working out if this has been a worthwhile venture?

[bulldogtragic]

Are we any closer to working out if this has been a worthwhile venture?

5 years later, I've not heard a thing about this....

[The Bulldogs Bite]

I remember getting howled down for suggesting this was a complete waste of time and money after I saw one of the kids attempting to kick a footy at WO.

I still think it was a waste of time and money.

[bulldogtragic]

I remember getting howled down for suggesting this was a complete waste of time and money after I saw one of the kids attempting to kick a footy at WO.

I still think it was a waste of time and money.

It might seem counter intuitive, but I believe in testing authority and questioning decisions. Some people don't and want to accept everything they're being told is correct and I guess that explains why some including you and I get howled down every now and then. The world needs positive folks, but it also needs people to test ideas and suggest better ones. Now the philosophy is out of the way, it seemed a knee jerk reaction to Nick Nat being the prototype for the need to find athletes in other countries or codes that could be moulded into AFL footballers. Assuming the few years had about 40 flights with officials and players and Fijian boys coming back and forth and accommodation etc, I'd say maybe a $100,000. We've got no return on that money, and I'm not sure what the business case looked like, but then again, I don't know what the case for Mulligan getting 3 years was either.

[jeemak]

It might seem counter intuitive, but I believe in testing authority and questioning decisions. Some people don't and want to accept everything they're being told is correct and I guess that explains why some including you and I get howled down every now and then. The world needs positive folks, but it also needs people to test ideas and suggest better ones. Now the philosophy is out of the way, it seemed a knee jerk reaction to Nick Nat being the prototype for the need to find athletes in other countries or codes that could be moulded into AFL footballers. Assuming the few years had about 40 flights with officials and players and Fijian boys coming back and forth and accommodation etc, I'd say maybe a $100,000. We've got no return on that money, and I'm not sure what the business case looked like, but then again, I don't know what the case for Mulligan getting 3 years was either.

Are you really sure that's the reason?

By and by you're basically saying that because people don't agree with you it's because they are conventional. That's a bit much BT. Seriously mate.

[Remi Moses]

Silly idea that come from Scott Clayton if I recall.
Bit like our token Irishman Bernie Collins ( remember him getting so sunburnt he had to be hospitalised)
By what I've Seen Mason Cox is going to be a big development job for Collingwood

[bulldogtragic]

Are you really sure that's the reason?

By and by you're basically saying that because people don't agree with you it's because they are conventional. That's a bit much BT. Seriously mate.

The word 'some' is important in my bolded sentence, as opposed to 'all' who might disagree. Often I read a comment that says 'I'm happy to back the clubs decision' or words with the similar effect. I deduce or interpret such comments to have the effect that they are beleiving a decision's validity because the current powers that be have made it. Some others comments such 'the people at the club know more' or comments specifically about not being in the coaches box makes people's opinions to match day tactics is wrong because they don't know why a decision is made again is interpreted by me as to have the same effect of believing in decisions on the basis that the club or it's team knows more. Also my words in saying 'every now and then' is relevant in my language as it might suggest that not every time people are howled down is predicated on this reasoning.

By reading such comments my interpretation is 'some' posters accept decisions from club as being more informed or credible and may not test decisions to the degree others might. Again, the word I used is 'some' and that it was not every single time for opposing opinions or thoughts. As for interpreting my words as to have the effect or reference to conventionality is an inference you make. What is or is not 'conventional' is purely subjective, and I'm unsure why conventionality is in and of itself a bad thing. But I never used that word.

I'm not too sure how I would word it differently, I didn't use 'positive' statements and used two references to make sure I wasn't making cover all statements. As to the 'by the by' reference, yes, some people some of the time disagree with others based on proposition the club knows more. How would you suggest I articulate that some people accept the clubs decision and in so thinking, every now and then howl down (TBB's words) some that test a decision with questions or critical analysis?

[bornadog]

I remember getting howled down for suggesting this was a complete waste of time and money after I saw one of the kids attempting to kick a footy at WO.

I still think it was a waste of time and money.

What if we unearthed another Nic Nat?

[Greystache]

What if we unearthed another Nic Nat?

That's the point, the chances were so remote we may as well have randomly selected Fijian names out of the Melbourne White Pages. Or saved time and set fire to the money.

It was ridiculous considering we botched nearly every draft pick from the traditional recruiting zones during these years.

[bulldogtragic]

What if we unearthed another Nic Nat?

So with Majak Daw starting to rise in the ranks, have we been over to Sudan try find the next tall athletically gifted player that has never played our game?