Parramatta Eels Club release findings of Football Department Review
Dear Members,
I am writing to you to update you all on the findings of our Football Department Review, conducted by independent consultant, Shane McCurry.
The scope of the review which was overseen by the Board was to examine all aspects of our Football Department including:
Culture, Governance & Leadership
Player Program & Support
Football Operations & Compliance.
Coaching (NRL & Pathways).
Structure & Resourcing.
Recruitment & Roster Management.
Retention & Development.
Wellbeing (Welfare) & Education.
High Performance, Medical, Conditioning & Sports Science.
Facilities & Infrastructure.
Junior/Representative Programs.
Staff Development
The process involved over 160 interviews with a broad cross section of our Football Club including coaches, players, staff, senior management and the Board as well as former coaches, players and administrators. In the interests of understanding the characteristics of high performing sporting environments across a range of professional sports, additional administrators, coaches, CEOs, General Managers of Football and past players were also interviewed.
The review had been a thorough and extensive process and provides us with a roadmap to help drive sustained performance going forward.
Our entire Club was disappointed for our Members and fans in 2018, and we realised that we needed to re-assess how we were doing things.
The broader purpose and rationale for conducting this project was to assess ourselves against best practise sporting organisations to ensure that, going forward, the Club has appropriate personnel, systems, resources, processes and structures in place to deliver sustainable on-field success at the NRL level.
We are committed to delivering success for our Members and fans and we believe the review and the recommendations out of the review give us the best opportunity to do that.
The review identified a number of areas of improvement as well as a number of areas where we are doing well.
The major recommendations which the Board has endorsed include:
Investment:
An increased investment in the Football Department to ensure additional resources are placed into the coaching and development of our playing group at both NRL and Junior Representative levels.
Cultural Foundations:
As part of our Strategic Plan, we are undertaking a review of the Club’s Cultural Foundations. This important piece of work will be facilitated by Shane McCurry and will involve all staff and players in the Club.
Development System:
A confirmation that the Parramatta Eels is a Development Club; with a large and thriving Parramatta Junior League and a good Junior Representative Program, our Club has ambitions to develop elite, young players through to our NRL squad.
To ensure we have the optimum pathways system, we have made the decision to have our own Parramatta branded ISP / 2nd Grade team in 2020; we have the 2019 season to run in our joint venture with the Wentworthville Magpies and we certainly value this relationship.
Our Junior Representative Program (Under 20’s, Under 18’s, Under 16’s, Tarsha Gale Girls, Academies) will also be provided with a full-time Coaching Coordinator to ensure a consistency of football philosophy across the entire Club.
NRL:
Additional specialist coaching resources will be engaged;
Expanded High Performance Unit;
Expanded leadership program facilitated by an external third party for coaches and players.
General Manager of Football:
The Club has appointed Mark O’Neill as General Manager of Football to assume management responsibilities of the Football Department; this appointment will enable our Head Coach, Brad Arthur, to focus on coaching and to provide an experienced resource to help develop and execute a best-practice, high performance football strategy.
Recruitment:
We will restructure our Recruitment Department and commence a search for a new Head of Recruitment. We will establish a Player Roster Management Committee in order to develop a more sophisticated approach to player roster management for both our NRL & Development squads. A further analysis will be conducted by the General Manager of Football into the List Management operations. Peter Sharp will remain a valuable member of our recruitment team.
Wellbeing & Education:
In an NRL first, we will appoint a full-time resource dedicated to our large Pasifika & Indigenous playing groups in the Parramatta District & broader Rugby League community. Additionally, we will create a new role responsible for NRL Player Welfare, Safety and Integrity.
Facilities and Infrastructure:
We are working on plans to upgrade our existing facilities at the Old Saleyards. Over the longer term and as part of our new Strategic Plan, the Club will establish a project team focused on delivering our longer term vision for a Centre of Excellence for our playing, coaching and office staff in five years.
The above recommendations will now form part of a performance framework that will be reviewed, modified and challenged on an ongoing basis to ensure we provide an elite performance environment for our players, coaches and staff.
We will certainly keep you updated with the progress and changes regarding our Football Department.
We thank you for your ongoing support of the Parramatta Eels.
Bernie Gurr
Chief Executive Officer
Parramatta National Rugby League Club Pty Limited
Replies
Yawn!
LOL!! What waffle. Yawn indeed EE.
ISP move from wenty is good; maybe contracts could not be changed now. But that’s a good move. COE too; maybe areas such as Kellyville would be good. Huge growth areas.
I'd imagine that it would require some form of financial concession for us to break the contract for next season. But good to see the decision has been made to move to a purely Parramatta feeder structure.
Yes agreed; playing in parra colours should have been a while ago. Anyway good move
Agree thats a big positive
That will cost well over $1m and allow Wentworthville to be the feeder for another NRL franchise like Manly. It is a short sighted, populist finding. Clearly those making the recommendation cared only for their pay cheque and had no understanding of how the game works.
No! the Wenty merger was a good idea at the time, but has past its use by date as it has not worked, I believe that Wenty would say the same thing and would be doubtful if they would link with Manly either, just because they have taken over a Blacktown team and bus the players to Manly for training does not mean they will get Wenty.
ISP or I prefer the old reserve grade concept of having your teams single lower grade teams playing as our team, that is the eels, it means we have a better option of putting in place teams that graduate from the juniors, and if good enough go higher to the reserves/isp and then NRL, all playing as eels and in the same outfits. At the moment they play Flegg in eels colours, get a promotion and play in the B&W of Wenty, where is the connection? there are a number of eels players who train with the NRL squad and then go back and play for another identity! A great feel for the club they want to play for.
Not only that the Wenty players are not full time and only train on set days and many have outside work commitments, thus the training is a mish mash of adjusting from one team to another in training.
What will happen with the separation is that it actually gives Wenty the chance to build back their own team as they are a club with tradition and strong club behind them, by brining back the eels team it also opens up openings for more players from both districts to play RL two teams of around 26 each as against one of the same number.
Not generally a negative person, but basically all they are doing is strengthening the areas that should’ve been strengthen to begin with. Ah well hopefully its all positives from here and now the review is done we might actually here some news regarding player retention and signing.
But seriously the only thing thing note worthy was that from 2020 we are going solo again in ISP and cutting all affiliations with Wenty.
Exactly right James.
This is a pathetic release from the club, wheres the critic, just positive spin.
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