EA , I trust your judgement in relaying information on the juniors, yourself and LB have done a great job in relaying information many on here don't know. I am now also impressed with Ezra who is giving us a different insight, he seems to be more across the rep scene and makes comparisons with whats out there. Please keep it up and at some point in time we should have a table on these sides so site members can also keep up.
On a personal level, I have had a lot to do with junior sport development and for what it's worth I don't think you can offer a guaranteed start in first grade to a kid (Talagi) unless he is "super special".....these kids do exist "SS" but are as rare as rocking horse shit and really stand out in age sport.
If they are very good then I have strong beliefs they should go straight into first grade, Mahoney, Brown and Penisini have fitted that brand pretty well and really are a credit to detection and entry. I hope your Talagi gets there quickly as Reserve Grade is so different to 40 years ago (we had Beetson and another half dozen first graders playing reserves).
Some see reserve grade as a dead-set graveyard for development, but Penrith have made a lie of that, though their Reserve Grade side have been made up basically with youngsters...
At Parra have reserve grade players that won't make it in Reserve Grade let alone NRL, we have older players which on face value offer a good mentoring process, but we should be able to step out of those shadows with the players we now have coming through..
We have to make these teams solely of development players, including forwards of a more mature age, so these kids can play in a team together that allows their development, the comments about Richard Penisini and Talagi say this, as there is only so much room in the centres for First Grade, we have a similar problem with halves .
Hopefully, Nathan Brown who seems to have taken a very healthy responsibility in the pathways can hammer this home to some of the hard heads in the senior grades coaching and management departments..
My understanding of the development costs outside top 30 is that they can be handled by the leagues club. So, maybe we can offer these kids (reserve grade development side) a tour of say England playing some of their ESL teams over there as a potential incentive to keep these kids on board and give them further experience.
Finally, I do acknowledge that other clubs will also get the benefit of Parramatta juniors, but I hope they remember when they go to another club that they got their direction and development with Parramatta.
We may want you back in the future!
PS We all know that we have a number of Parra juniors playing across the grade structure, but it is very rare that they acknowledge the grounding they got. We should change that attitude.
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I like your last part on 'we may want you back in the future', as Doorey and Moses are case in point. Both juniors who left and we ended up getting them back. A lot here kick and scream when losing a junior, but at times cannot keep them all and there is no saying we cannot get them back later down the track.
We are not where Penrith are in our junior pathways just yet. So we are going to lose some as they will not be better than what we have and that is ok. I mean look at Penrith now, have a talented Centre in Thomas Jenkins, bides his time and now will get his chance once Crichton leaves for Canterbury. Sanders hopefully will be the same for us with Moses, but i have faith in the club keeping who they want.
People abuse BA, even myself in the past, about not playing juniors. Though could it simply have been they weren't goodd enough? Look at the juniors we had around 2014-2018, only a handful we played, the ones we let go from 20's failed. So i am happy to give BA benefit of the doubt.
I don't know about the last bit.
Theres quite a few forwards playing at other clubs right now who are ex Parra Jnrs and BA let go. I'd take back at least 3/4 who would add great depth to our starting side and 30 man squad.
Keppie, Aloiai, Olakau'tau, Utokamanu and the Fijian at Melbourne - all superior talent to what we currently have here coming off the bench, at the very least.
I don't agree with letting so many juniors go only to rebut them later. That's so dumb it's not funny. Surely if you develop them and reward them they end up staying for less than what you need to pay to get them back? It is so backwards its bordering on the ridiculous.
At this rate we will be buying back Reed at $300k extra next year...
I know you said it in jest but there's no chance Reed is ever coming back
Never say never with this club mate..
Top blog thank you Poppa for your great insight. I do like promising our teenagers something like an all expenses paid trip to England to play a few teams over there ( also maybe throw in in the offer of a parent travelling as well could persuade parent consent and influence to their child signing with and developing under Parra !!! ) .
Driza. old blokes like us have followed Parra for years and in our day we watched 3 grades and new all the players on sight because we saw them every weekend. Supporters now don't see the minor grades or the juniors coming through.
One of my favourite memories was at the SCG and our third grade were playing St George in a major semi final.
It was all square at around half time and not much between them, I think St George was the monor premiers and favourite. Teams come out after half time and we had a new bloke on, didn't know him but I will never forget him.....his name was Eric Grothe, no senior junior in those days, my expectation was about 10 minutes into the half and Eric gets the ball and skirts down the touchline, say 60/70 metres out.....firstly he is running down the wing towards the show ground end, we were in the Bob stand, to become the Doug Walters stand, he switches the ball to his left arm and fends off one, two, three players individually and then it was a 50 metre sprint to the line.....of course he got there 20 metres ahead of anyone else. Fuck me dead 5 minutes later he did it again, 10 minutes later again...the game was as good as over Parra won by 30 pts.
I won't tell what happened after that, you will have to buy the book! Lol
Poppa can i ask, who would have been the most talented junior you have seen come through Parramatta in the years you have been watching?
I would have to say at the time it was Eric Grothe, he played most of his football on one leg but he was absolutely sensational as a younger player, that next season he started in third grade and we were playing Newtown, he took the ball on about the halfway mark, and ran behind the upcoming Newtown defence, he went so fast that he effectively circled them and got around the whole defence and scored the try running away.
Brett Kenny tells the story when someone asked how fast he was over a short course (that was how fast Kenny was).....Kenny replied I though I was pretty quick untill we were have a training run and I took an intercept about 25 metres out, I reckon I had about 5 metres on Eric who was coming in from behind, he picked me up before I was 5 metres out. He said (Kenny) when Eric ran nobody could beat him, anywhere.
Eric only ever ran for fun because he had a bad knee.
Which book Poppa ? Ha . What a wonderful moment seeing future champion Groth on the rise to stardom. Great memories forever for you. It all sounds surreal . It seems Eric is happy these days playing his guitar and singing in a band. And son EG Junior , like his dad Groth senior , also a top league player, also loves singing and rock music. What a contrast as against the adage that rough and tumble sports playing people and gentle musicly minded people are both ( made up?? ) different . I wonder which of the 2 interests are preferred by Eric senior and Junior ?
That was the first game I ever went to as a kid. I always remember the first thing I ever saw was Eric Grothe and he was and always will be my favourite player
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