I am interested how the numbers and players for Manly and UTS compare this year to last. I have heard that about 6 players from Manly's 1s GF team were running around in their 2s this year..... and that Manly have a scholarship scheme for some of their players. Any truth to any of this???

IMO the main factor to team selection for Premier league ought to be geograhics. Consider UTS, UNSW, Wests, Balmain, and you can toss Norths and St George in that, do not cover 80% of Sydney(statistics.com.au/sydney). And Penno, ECE and Campbelltown and Manly are the only teams outside of these areas in Sydney.

Would not it be better if teams like Camden, Southern Sharks, Penrith, Manly and Parra were pushed to premier league before teams like UTS purely on geography? Maybe not right now but the vision for the future.