Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart says losing Anthony Milford to the Brisbane Broncos was "just business" and shows the NRL needs to do more to help clubs in developing junior talent.
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Milford capped an impressive first season with the Broncos with a man-of-the-match performance in Friday night's preliminary final victory against the Sydney Roosters.
Seeing the star five-eighth in next Sunday's grand final will be bitter sweet for Raiders fans, who saw Milford show glimpses of his brilliance when he rose through the ranks in Canberra.
The Raiders recruited Milford when he was a 13-year-old in Brisbane, bringing him through their junior development teams before he played 42 NRL games in the past two years.
Milford won the Meninga Medal as the Raiders' players' player in his rookie NRL season in 2013, but resisted overtures to extend his contract, preferring to sign a two-year deal with the Broncos.
Stuart said there were no "winners or losers" out of Milford joining the Broncos and there was no ill feeling towards him.
"I'm really happy for Anthony, he's a good, decent young bloke and the progression and the development of his football continues to grow," Stuart said.
"I'm still really good mates with Anthony and I'm happy to see his football is heading in the right direction, but, when you're rebuilding a club like we are, it's important to have players in your squad that want to be here.
"He's not going to be the only one that we don't get and/or lose, that's just business and you keep moving on.
"When you're rebuilding a football team, with one players' departure you move into another direction and we've moved into a very healthy situation having Sam Williams, Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer in the halves next year."
Milford's exit allowed the Raiders to recruit Blake Austin from the Wests Tigers and Aidan Sezer from the Gold Coast Titans for next season, while Jack Wighton has been a revelation at fullback.
The Raiders have traditionally relied heavily on developing their own players, but since Stuart took over in 2014, they have started targeting more experienced recruits.
"As a football club, one of your key targets and key goals is to retain your good young talent and give them a pathway and develop them," Stuart said.
"Sometimes you get your hands tied behind your back in regards to the NRL's decisions on compensation and we tend to lose good young talent.
"Maybe we need to minimise the amount of development we put in, but we will never ever lose the priority and focus of developing our footy team."
The Raiders are still intent on fostering young talent.
One example is under-20s playmaker Lachlan Croker, with the 18-year-old given the time to learn his craft behind Austin, Sezer and Williams rather than being rushed into first-grade prematurely.
"Kids at 17, 18, 19 years old don't automatically turn into first graders when they're 20," Stuart said.
"It's anywhere from a three to five-year process depending on what age you get these boys.
"You get really tired of putting three to five years of hard work into kids for another club to buy them.
"The NRL make you rethink your strategies in terms of their policies.
"We'll work out the best process for us to have the best team at first-grade level regardless of our development and recruitment strategies.
"I think the AFL are a lot smarter in regards to what they're doing there.
"There has to be a change in priorities of the NRL in regards to clubs who want to look after their own."
