Parramatta Eels Supporters Website
Who will be the first junior product ever to make his debut in Brad Arthur's system ?
Don't get me wrong, I've been a fan of Brad Arthur's achievements thus far, but there's been one glaring underachievement that i find astounding - Arthur has yet to identify and prodce an up and coming player and debut him for Parramatta - that's in 5 years of coaching combined with the best junior base available.
Im not just talking Parramatta jnrs here, BA has yet to produce a junior Australia wide !
Now i know what people are going to say, French, Moeroa and Alvaro came through the system. Actually all three were here under previous coaching and identified as juniors under a previous system.
To cut this short - Brad Arthur has never identified and produced one junior Australia wide ever - who has made his debut for Parramatta . Full stop.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mick on -
- People will say who cares about juniors and buy the best available , promoting juniors brings a level of excitement to the team and fans,, BA is lacking in this area.
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Permalink Reply by James Smith on -
I think a better question is have players developed under BA. Brian Smith had the knack of turning average players into first graders. I think u could say that with BA - that players improve under him and don’t get worse as they did with Kearney, Stuart etc.. I think u could say the likes of Ma’u, Tepai, Gutherson, Moses, French have developed under BA. Our juniors weren’t good for years because we had so much chopping and changing. Now we have consistency we are beginning to see our juniors excel and I’ll rhink you’ll find in years to come that Parra juniors will play 1st grade. The Parra club has been on the improve for the past 5 years. We have a club worth following and we were basket cases just a few years ago. We need some stability and it’s understandable fans want a premiership now, but so do 15 other clubs. We are in for a good year, possibly a great year. Nothing like a few wins to stop people calling for change, sackings etc. Go the mighty Blue and Gold
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Permalink Reply by Barney Eel on -
Very well said James Smith
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Permalink Reply by brissyeel on -
I'd love to know what the % of NYC players that graduated to NRL each year for the duration of the competition was. Was the NYC actually a success in developing players for the NRL? I tend to think not, just look at the average scores each week and you can see a lot of points being scored and a lot of disparity between teams at times. It's all well and good to be a star in the junior grades, but progressing to play against men in the toughest comp in the world is no easy task. I've heard a lot of names mentioned as the next big thing year after year, and not just Eels juniors, but the number of them that actually go on to become stars, let alone even play NRL, seem fairly miniscule. On the flip side, look at the number of juniors that go on to play NRL that have a back story of "I was told I was too small", "I was told I'd never make it" etc etc. A lot of juniors have talent, you see it every weekend at your local footy, but it's more often than not the ones that have determination and perseverance more so than talent that make it. That, to me, is a bloody hard thing to identify.
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Permalink Reply by Ricky on -
I can answer that, BE.
Of the 3049 players that have played Holden Cup, 573 played in first-grade.
That's 18% of all players.
Of that 18%, even less have played at least 50 games. That percentage would be around 5% but I haven't worked that out in full yet.
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Permalink Reply by brissyeel on
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Thanks Ricky, it's probably not a great return for the investment is it?
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Permalink Reply by Brett Allen on -
I think you'll find that is actually above expectations BE.
None of the head coaches in the league are sad to see the NYC go because they knew it wasn't helping young players develop.
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Permalink Reply by Muttman on -
Well Melbourne ditched their under 20’s years ago. Didn’t seem to bother them at all.
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Permalink Reply by Ricky on
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It's a lot better than many thought, to be honest.
It served its purpose in my view, even if many disagree.
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Permalink Reply by Poupou Escobar on -
You're not looking at all the factors brissyeel. Whether the NYC was 'a success in developing players for the NRL' isn't even a question - under 20s is just another step on a young player's journey to first grade, no different to when it was called Jersey Flegg (as it is named once again). As for the high scores, the reason for that is the talent disparity between players - every junior rep squad has a handful of players with genuine NRL potential playing against a bunch of kids with zero NRL potential. So of course the future NRL players are destroying their less talented rivals. There are just too many weak spots in the defensive line.
This is why the star juniors need to work their way into reserve grade. There will still be players with zero NRL potential to run at (and miss tackles) but there is far fewer of them.
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Permalink Reply by brissyeel on
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I agree with getting them playing against adults asap, Pou, I miss the days of U/18 or U/20, Reggies and 1st Grade all on the same afternoon. It was a great system, your star junior(s) would often back up on the bench for Reggies to start getting them blooded and your reggies would also have to back up and provide the reserves for 1st grade. It was ludicrous last week that several players named in the extended squad didn't get a run. I reckon there were plenty of junior stars that had their careers ended in reggies, they just couldn't cope with playing against the men. That said, nowadays it seems these kids have far more confidence, however I reckon a lot of the rule changes have assisted in that - no shoulder charges, no punching, go within inches of the head and it's too high, a good lifting back slamming tackle is illegal. How I miss those days....
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Permalink Reply by Poupou Escobar on
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If French, Moeroa and Alvaro don't count because they were already here then you'll need to keep waiting for Arthur to debut one of 'his' juniors. Players who joined our Harold Matts team after Arthur joined the club will still be eligible for Jersey Flegg in 2019. How young do you expect our first graders to be?
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