Seems we are now on the death slide with every wanna be journo - expert & league officio coming out from the lurking depths to try and keep the club in the spotlight.
Some fair comments in response though.
http://www.theroar.com.au/2016/05/25/board-disarray-parras-juniors-takeover-target/
With the board in disarray, are Parra’s juniors a takeover target?
ColumnistBy Dan Eastwood, 25 May 2016 Dan Eastwood is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- Marwan Koukash, NRL, Parramatta Eels, Rugby League
The boardroom situation at the Parramatta Eels has still not been resolved.
After the damning interim NRL findings were released at the beginning of May, we’ve had legal action, secret tapes, retained directors still refusing to admit any governance problems at the club, and a general disenchantment from supporters.
It’s already been going on for too long and, judging by the crowd at Pirtek on Monday night, it seems Parramatta fans have given up on 2016.
It’s a vote of no confidence in the administration of the place – and how can anyone have any confidence in the leadership at the Eels after what has been exposed?
The Parramatta board not only directs the NRL side of the business, it also presides over the Parramatta Junior Rugby League, which includes all the junior clubs and footballers from under 6s to A grade.
There are some pretty big brands in that bunch as well – Mounties, Cabramatta, Wentworthville and Hills District are some of the biggest. Add to that the couple of dozen that have long histories – like Guildford, Merrylands, Winston Hills, Lalor Park, Fairfield Patrician Brothers, Canley Vale Kookas, Parra Junior Eels – and there are a lot of stakeholders involved in park footy.
So what if all of those clubs did have genuine dissatisfaction with the Parramatta board? What could they do?
We’ve already seen what has happened with their elections. It’s been a shambles for years, with investigations from the NSW Government regulator NSW Liquor and Gaming into false memberships only one reason not to go near their flawed voting set-up.
The answer may be a bit more radical. Parramatta clubs could en masse leave the district and join one of the neighbouring leagues, either Penrith or Canterbury-Bankstown. We would then have a super-sized junior footy district from the mountains to Woodville Road Guildford, or from Blacktown to Dulwich Hill.
The politics of the New South Wales Rugby League would then come into play, and there may be a lot of hurdles to jump before the concept got off the ground.
The league would step in to back its member club (Parramatta), Super League war-style, and deny any affiliation from the junior district clubs. They would prevent the Parramatta Referees’ Association from controlling matches or risk losing any affiliation with NSWL.
It would get pretty messy, but with every junior club on board it could be done.
What if we took ‘radical’ one step further towards ridiculous? What if a British billionaire bought every junior in the Parramatta district?
Marwan Koukash, the billionaire horse-racing mogul in Great Britain, is the owner of Salford Red Devils in the English Super League. He’s been looking to buy a stake in one of the NRL’s clubs for the past few years, and his name has been linked with every club that has failed to pay an invoice on time, from the Gold Coast Titans to the Wests Tigers.
However, if there are no NRL clubs on the market, could Dr Koukash buy a junior district instead? Could he snatch a whole junior nursery of thousands of players, coaches and administrators away from the decrepit, incapacitated Parramatta Eels board?
One way it could work would be to affiliate the junior Parramatta district with governing body in the UK, the Rugby Football League. Everything would go on at park level like normal, except they would be under the auspices of the RFL rather than the NSWRL or the NRL. Across all grades and ages, Cabra would still play Wenty, Guildford would still play Merrylands, Seven Hills would still play Lalor Park, but once elite players turned 18 they would become Salford players.
Within a couple of years Salford would have the biggest junior nursery in the English Super League – albeit located in the southern hemisphere.
It could also be the first step in having an English team in the NRL. Steve Mascord has been flying that idea for ages, and this would only make the logistics easier.
If a big enough offer happened to be put on the table, the influential clubs in the Parramatta junior league would have to consider it. Most of them fund their teams on their own, with very little help from the Parramatta Eels board anyway.
Of course, the challenges are not insignificant. Firstly, the RFL would have to get on board, meaning the good doctor would have to resolve his differences with them, more of which seem to be revealed every week.
The NRL and the NSWRL would use every legal avenue to block it. That is, unless the money can’t be ignored. Everything has its price, as long as someone is willing to pay it.
It might seem impossible, but remember Kerry Packer was told he couldn’t buy cricket.
Note that the people who administer the grassroots game in the Parramatta offices are very passionate league people and do everything they can for the juniors. I see how hard they work, but they have also been hamstrung by what has gone on above them. The junior league staff deserves every credit for getting on with their jobs.
As for the future, will any of this fantasy become reality? It depends on how disillusioned key people become. Marwan Koukash – are you prepared to spend your millions in a way that will give you a return?
Replies
Haha yeah it's pretty ridiculous aye - maybe they could build a Death Star and the Sith Lord could preside over the new Empire, and the Parra Eels could form a rebel alliance . . . .
By the way, I know it's a bit childish, but that "journo" has a head like a smacked arse.
Ah Dan.........Danny Boy.......my favourite columnist, well at least until I was introduced to you minutes ago.
A journo in training with the dream to be spoken of in the same breath as our own PK.
A totally noble aspiration, in your view.
But not in ours!
You're painting a scenario where our entire junior clubs could choose to leave the Parramatta fold and be adopted by other districts.
Why, because they may be dissatisfied with what? The support they are receiving from the Eels?
The lack of confidence they have in the Eels NRL club?
Last I heard Dan, the club was paying for a record number of coaches to assist in the development of all our junior clubs in the district and those clubs were most appreciative!
As for our current NRL board, while acknowledging that they have brought our club into disrepute with their dealings, we continue to allow them the time to defend themselves of the charges against them.
In less than 2 weeks, depending on their successful defense or not, we'll be in the position to be either exonerated form guilt or make immediate plans to call an Emergency Meeting and plan for a Election for a new board.
Either way Dan we will become a stronger club for the foreseeable future and that's partly because of input from types of yourself being so transparent in your mission to destroy.
Finally fella, your telling assumption that a crowd of 9000 on Monday Nite against a poor drawing interstate club was proof that our fans had given up on 2016 is laughable, as that would be an average crowd for a Monday nite hosting out of staters.
You've made a poor start in trying to dent our spirit Danny, but take note from us and never cave!
Couldn't agree more RJ (I love the initials RJ - they remind me of my favorite movie star - Ron Jeremy!)
As Talking Heads would say - Stop Making Sense :)
I don't get it Kramer, how could you demean a fellow member's initials by connecting them, in even the remotest way to this man.
I'snt he a Porn star who pleasures dozens of glamorous women on a daily basis?
How dare..........hey wait a minute!
Wow, this is just off-the-wall.
I was going to start ripping it to shreds but it would seriously take an hour to go through all the flawed logic.
Suffice to say the Parramatta District comp gets a million dollars of free money, thanks to the Leagues Club grant, and even for someone like me who has to deal with all the flaws I see at a junior level, the reality is it's one of the most professionally run junior competitions in any sport in Australia.
Phil
What had me with the article was an immediate reflection to the NRL's & former officer Shan Richardson & his futures plan for RL nation wide, I also see the link with the new agreement that the NRL is trying to get all the clubs to sign for participation from next year in the competition. Included in that is a review of the Junior league, & so far the only clubs to have signed off on the contract to participate are those that the NRL has an interest in.
Like you, I am a bit in wonderment over what I have heard with the Parramatta junior league's running but still am vehemently against losing them as they stand now. Strange in some ways also at a time where we are seeing some excellent talent coming through & like always when this happens the vultures are ready to pounce & poach.
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Mounties come under raiders ???
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