Parramatta are facing a battle to keep boom rookie Apa Twidle.
Sport Confidential can reveal Twidle has attracted interest from three NRL rivals in the wake of his stunning two-try debut against the Wests Tigers on Easter Monday.
Twidle’s management has fielded an inquiry from Phil Gould’s Bulldogs and the Dolphins, while Mal Meninga’s Perth Bears are also watching the young gun closely.
Twidle is off-contract at season’s end and has been offered a development deal by the Eels for 2027.
But the Eels may have to up the ante following Twidle’s brilliant baptism against the Tigers, which has piqued the interest of NRL suitors.
The 21-year-old Kiwi is one of the most versatile players in the league, capable of playing wing, centre and in the halves.
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Maybe Rogers and or his team need to be changed.
It appears they couldn't recruit an Incel to enter a free brothel.
SuperEel 22 Super, with respect! I'll reply and explain why as you've asked.
Here is an excerpt from the Eels management when they signed Mark O'Neill.
In recognition of the increasing complexities of managing an elite sporting environment, the Parramatta Eels Club identified a requirement to appoint a GM of Football with significant leadership and management expertise
. Reporting to the Parramatta Eels Club CEO, Bernie Gurr, Mark will implement the overall football strategy with responsibilities across performance management, salary reviews and staff contracting. Mark will oversee all aspects of the Football Department including Recruitment, Junior Representative Program, High Performance Unit, Parramatta Junior League, Player Wellbeing and Education, football operations and training facilities.
States right there Salary Reviews / staff contracting / will oversee all aspects of recruitment ! Players are staff arnt they, if that word is wrongly attributed then all aspects of recruitment is self explanatory i would have thought.
If you know for a fact who is in charge of the salary cap and whom decides on the type of contract to be offered and whom attends the negotiations and the hard sell when trying to get player over the line , if one of those persons is not Mark O'Neill, then please with all due respect, put us out of our misery and explain whom that is. Please correct us, i'll always put my hand up to be corrected and learn.
Lets go a little further , The original advertisement for the position of General Manager Football which Mark O'Neill won the position. The original advertismeent states the following:
The General Manager of Football at the Parramatta Eels was advertised as a newly created position with the mission of driving and developing football department strategy, and managing all aspects of the Football Department with the exception of coaching. The role was listed as having the following management responsibilities:
* Player roster & recruitment
* Salary cap
* Player contract negotiations
* Football operations – NRL & Junior Elite
* High Performance unit
* Player wellbeing & education
* Parramatta junior league
* Elite training facilities
* Budget compliance
* Media obligations
* Provide leadership & professional development to football department staff
* Foster & develop key relationships within the NRL community & key stakeholders
Now Super it says right there Salary Cap and Player Contract Negotiations as well as Player Roster and Recruitment are the main duties of the General Manager of Football. Thats Mark O'Neills title is it not.
Shall I go on!. Im sorry Super, I have the utmost respect for you and your site, if i'm wrong please educate me. As is, I think the right person is being spoken about here in regards to Negotiations falling over when signing players. I havnt called for his sacking, i have called for either giving him some help creating a new position of negotiator or even educating him to be one of the best. Either way we have a problem at that level or that choke point in our Eels organisation and no matter how nice of a fella he is, until he gets some great contracts over the line , supporters / fans / members will continue to discuss the downfalls.
Thanks for bringing the receipts Bluey.
There's such a lack of information around as to who actually does what.
I have also seen that even though MON was originally touted as the GM of Football he has more recently been referred to in the press as the Head of Football.
Typically in organisational structure a Head is below a GM. A GM will report to a C-Level (eg MON reporting to Jim) and Heads/Directors will report to the GM (implying that Ben and technically even Ryles should report to MON).
If there's been a quiet demotion to Head and the GM role has dissolved it would be nice to know.
It's very hard to apply fair scrutiny to something that seems to deliberately be held as a black box. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, a bit of transparency here would definitely help clear up accountabilities.
Again I would love him to stay but I am realistic that his path to FG is blocked at Eels. I would not be worried if he left personally. Iongi and Joash at the club. Then Bamblett and Davis in SG ball are absolute guns too. Personally for me, there are more priority juniors that we need to resign over Twiddle.
This is not be defending the RR team. I want them gone for their inability to land a big player.
In the end, if we are developing juniors, you would expect that a few come along and we already have better players in the positions they play. That's exactly how we got Iongi and Hopgood from Penrith. The key here is that we are keeping the best players in every position. At the moment we are in a difficult situation due to the lack of development in previous years creating gaps in certain positions. Now that we have a good crop of juniors coming through, not all of them will land an NRL job at Parra.
The other thing too is that players need to understand their role and development pathway. Apa is listed as a halfback, came into the NRL side on the wing then switched to fullback, where he has played most of his NSW Cup football. Does he or the club know what his best position is? For the likes of Iongi and Lorenzo it's clear, and those are the players you build squads around.
Ahh yes, train him well, let him display his wears, then let a bunch of other clubs inflate his value so we have to overpay for potential or lose another junior.
Masterstroke.
You realise these articles are planted by the player managers when clubs are asleep at the wheel? Yet again we've done this to ourselves.
Now we will either overpay or lose him. Spectacular. The infamous R&R committee living up to expectations. The fact that this even hit the media means they've already failed.
He can play anywhere in the backline and as such should be retained for his versatility we obviously can't sign anyone outside the club so re-sign him now to a top 30 contract next year
Anyone watching Blaize defence tonight. Worse than his defence at parra wow
He's had a shocker. A big reason for their loss. Preston got a saloon passage.
The only play Galvin has is his short pass to Preston. Ever dogs fan will tell you that. Yet Talagi did not look comfortable once. No shoulder in his tackles. As someone said. Panthers defence is actually vulnerable on their edges. But they normally so good with their possession and territory that teams don't get a chance to attack them
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