One of the difficulties for the league system in New Zealand is that at the youth level it will typically be dominated by early developers.
The nature of the game, with its requirement for powerful ball running and strong front-on tackles, means pure size and physical power will result in a kid standing out and dominating.
Naturally then, all of these kids get spotted, and can end up on a bandwagon to the top.
The trouble is, when the big kid gets to the top, he will likely come up against someone who has come through a development life of being somewhat smaller, who has become well used to getting smashed into the dirt and having to get up and fight back to win the contest.
These smaller kids, who get through to the top, and eventually catch up with their own size and strength, have the benefit of having developed some serious mental toughness.
For the big, early developing kid, though, who has been told all along how amazing he is, getting cut in half by a hardened Australian pro, slammed on his back and told he is a useless so-and-so can be rather alarming – something these big boys have never really encountered and haven't developed the ability to respond to.
As well as the mental side, there are the physical and skill development aspects.
The smaller kid coming through the ranks is going to develop other ways to survive in the game, so is likely fit and hardworking, or builds special skills around communication and running the game.
And it's some of these good traits that we are seeing more of in the Warriors of 2018.
There has been a lot of talk and innuendo over the years about the typical Pacifika athlete, that these players have plenty of brawn but maybe not the game smarts.
At times that has possibly been a fair reflection of the team itself, but not of Pacifika athletes.
It is not the fault of those individuals in the team if they were a typical early developer, they are just symptomatic of the pathway they came through.
The Warriors of 2018 are making in-roads into dispelling that myth of brawn vs brains, and showing that rather than the players not having the smarts, the lack of smarts actually sits with those who picked the wrong kids and ignored those little ones that will come through in the long run.
The current Warriors are showing some great signs for the future. Gone are the really big boys, who have the big hits, but lack the pure fitness and work ethic.
And they have some good leaders and smart playmakers coming through, such as Mason Lino, growing under the wing of Johnson and Blake Green.
The new ownership of the Warriors has timed it well, the side is going well and giving clues on the blueprint for a successful franchise going forward.
They can now build new development systems into the regions, where there is ample interest, but a lack of opportunities and pathways.
Hopefully they can lead continued new thinking around identifying and developing talent.
The big, strong kid of course, is not hard to spot. He's the one running gloriously over the top of the little ones. Using that method of Talent ID isn't very complicated, that type of talent sticks out like the proverbial.
It's harder to identify is the real non-physical elements of talent. The ones that are going to become the tough, smart competitors of the future.
We can't just compare two kids by their chronological age, when they might be years apart in terms of actual growth and maturity.
These challenges in Talent ID exist in all sports, but are more prevalent in a physical game like league.
• Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.
