Departing coach Nick White is confident Auckland Rugby can bounce back in the future if they continue to focus on developing the region's players.
Auckland were nearly relegated in this year's edition of the Premiership, with only a single point separating them from Waikato at the bottom of the table.
It also extends their dry spells of Provincial titles, with their last being in 2007, with Canterbury winning the last eight of nine championships.
However, White is adamant that the union's continued spotlight on the younger players coming through the ranks will benefit them going forward.
Speaking to Brendan Telfer on RadioLIVE, White said players straight out of college need to be given the opportunity to experience life outside of professional rugby.
"There's such a high profile engagement around secondary school, first XV rugby," he said.
"Some of them are looking to go straight to Super Rugby and Super Rugby provinces are signing them at school.
"So there's just this pathway that they think they can race through and we're trying to get them in and slow them down."
Instead he suggested they take some time out from the sport instead of leaping straight in.
"Their first, second year out of school, like, 'Go to varsity, go and do your trade, go and work as well as doing all your training and sort of get a few life skills under your belt'," he said.
White believes the union's spotlight on the growth of the players has already paid off, with the junior teams performing well.
"We've put a lot of time and effort in the last couple of years into the development of our young fellas and into our under 19 team and this year, they won it, and the year before, they came second," he said.
White has also boiled down the exodus of some of Auckland's junior players to rival provinces as mostly an issue of finance.
"There's only so much money in the pot for these young fellas and some of them are after some fairly decent size chunks of money," White said.
"There are a hell of a lot of talented kids, but at 19, 20, they haven't played a lot of footy and the expectations on them to deliver at the Mitre 10 Cup level is sometimes unrealistic at that age."
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