Can people please explain what the heck is going on with our Clubs junior development? Going right back to Stephen Kearneys time as coach, there was an alleged strong focus on a junior development academy ( if that is the right term). Years down the track, we still find ourselves with very few capable first grade replacements and depth. We still need to recruit many of our key positions from other Clubs, despite having arguably the largest area and pool to draw talent from. Please help me understand what is going on in this area, as I would have thought we would be in a far better position than we appear to be with regards to upcoming talent and future squads. For mine, something is really amiss here.
EE
Replies
Good question.
We prefer to go shopping ! .... not grow our own ! ... I raised a similar point last year and Poppa had a very good response ! ... I am sure he will again !
Good points.
Sorry Brett but not sure what you point is regarding Parramatta Fans "fixation" with juniors. Perhaps that might have something to do with decades of buying players, failing to retain talent at our Club and letting other clubs capitalise. Our Club has fallen behind the 8 ball for years now with juniors. I am sorry my friend, focus on our NRL squad, say ta ta in ten years. Future players have to come from somewhere and IMO, we are not capitalising on it. Melbourne Storm ( arguably the most successful modern era Club) seem to see things differently. Look at what they produce versus purchase.
Yep mate. The Storm do have a development program, even though I acknowledge that alot of that comes from the QLD comp. For me personally, I do not see why we would not fund/sponsor Juniors to some extent, in order to secure on going player talent. It goes hand in hand in my opinion. I also respect that this ties in with the bigger picture of talent identification and retention etc. I kind of get where you are coming from, but truly think our Club has dropped the ball for years when it comes to identifying and retaining upcoming talent. Just my opinion and respect that others may disagree. I did say help me understand? I still don't.
Getting boring now. Do you actually have anything worthwhile to contribute? Apparently not. TROLL
I guess that is where I am coming from FF. I just don't understand why or how this has evolved to what it has. Juniors are the future and long term future of any Club. It is like the Catholic Church listing to 90 years olds and sticking to out dated and strict regimes as they neglect the young who are the future of the Church. Turn them away, and there is no church in years to come.
Perhaps it could be Ken. As I said, we arguably have the largest area and talent pool to draw from. It does not add up, but perhaps you are correct. Opens a whole new conundrum, as to why one area produces more talent than another.
Today both SG Ball and Harold Matts absolutely dominated their respective opponents winning 96-0 and 42-0 ( I think) respectively.
We have continued to dominate these competitions for years and many years we have gone undefeated. There is a massive issue however in how these young players have been able to transition to under 20s, ISP and then first grade. Many of our juniors are failing to take this next step. You would think back when the NYC first started that Parrmatta would of had 3 or 4 titles to our name.. but unfortunately the comps dead next year and we havent won a single under 20s competition.
For a number of years ive had a alot of concern to how our youth have been able to adapt to u20s, ISP and reserve grade and i think there are 1 or 2 reasons for this.
The first reason comes down to intent, the state of youth development has significantly changed in the last 10 years or so for Parramatta. We seem to be lacking the intent to scout beyond Western Sydney in regions such as PNG, Fiji, NZ and rural queensland and instead have chosen to take the easy way by looking for the next Jarryd Hayne to come out of the junior leagues. Western Sydney has offered very little for Parramatta since there is alot of competition in the region from teams like penrith while youth in the region are becoming less attracted to playing League, choosing soccer instead. We havent found a big time star from the suburbs since Jarryd Hayne and Krisnan Inu 10 or so years ago.
The second reason is the change from Jersey Flegg to NYC, I think we have put alot of pressure on youth before they are ready to compete in such a competition. We have seemed to throw players into this comp before they ready and because it is televised occasionally it puts alot of pressure on them to perform. I think ZDC is a great example of this occuring he had played over 60 or so games in NYC and still hasnt made his first grade debut. Parramatta have definetely struggled in the NYC era and had a youth system much more suited to the jersey flegg u23s system. I think once the system changes back we can expect to produce more quality youth in the future
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