Does anyone know the Eels Junior pool in absolute numbers or estimated and how this compares to the other sydney teams(West tigers, Penrith, Manly, Bulldogs, Souths, Roosters, Cronulla), regional teams(St George, Newcastle, Canberra), interstate teams(Cows, Broncos, Dolphins,Titans, Melbourne) and finally New Zealand.
Might be a difficult question but be interesting to know how we compare and to what baseline pool we draw from for our elite Junior pathways (Harold Mathews etc...)
Further do we have arrangements with elite sporting schools Westfield Sports High/St Pats Blacktown including Rugby schools like say Joeys/Kings?? Are we ahead of the curve do we have more numbers then say Penrith ,Dogs and West Tigers ? no point developing Jnr Pathways and have an elite centre in Kellyville if our pool is small and its being erroded by the Dogs Penrith and Wests and even the rest for that matter...
We used to bang on about our pathways and enourmous Jr league but how true is it, and is local teams becoming less of a pool and its more our scouts that have the key to success watching talent all over the country.
Nice to know anyones thoughts?
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Don't want this to come across the wrong way but quite a lot of this info is online so if you Google something like 'parramatta junior pathway participation numbers' there's some good stuff. I googled it myself and had a poke around
Our pool is massive and we actually operate 2 regions within the Parramatta district to ensure our rep juniors have access to facilities.
We have 27 clubs and over 5,000 players in our PJRL which stretches from Bonnyrigg in the south, to Homebush in the east and north to Kellyville. We're larger than both Tigers and Bulldogs. Penrith are bigger than us, but they also have a larger geographical area.
We have 300+ players actually in our junior rep system. Our juniors operate out of both Granville and Kellyville. Granville, because it's a more central location and easier to access by public transport, and Kellyville because it's our facility.
Parra have some v good junior areas now, but must keep pushing and developing the kids; there is a large Indian area around Kellyville which is not conducive to league; therefore I believe in the future the area will be slowly drop in terms of league. Hope I am wrong but you only need to look at areas of Liverpool / Denham Court now in Syd Sth west; there is a huge influx of Middle Eastern families hence these kids do not generally play league, and areas for Wests / Canterbury will need to look elsewhere into the future too.
I firmly believe QLD areas will continue to build over the next 10-20 years and this is where Parra need to also look at and invest in; along with broader country areas.
I contend Ryles biggest achievement in lower grades was convincing Ryda Talagi to stay. Penrith tried to get him over with Blaize. That was their appeal to getting Blaize, as told by a person who is involved with Penrith who was doing a clinic at my work. They said they wanted Blaize and another 6 but went hard for Blaize as well with the hope of getting Ryda. They really wanted Ryda and he wanted to stay instead.
Ryda looks the goods.
LB, good point. I also like how they're locking up juniors long term (hello Bup) without player options (e.g. Talagi). If they don't really want to stay, better they go and look for greener pastures. Juniors are such a huge investment, I feel clubs need to prioritise and qualify character as much as talent.
ParraGreg, Cool blog, mate. I'm no juniors/pathways expert. It's interesting comparing registration numbers, but clubs extend beyond their local nurseries with scouts, academies, satellite programs, nationally and internationally, along with UK Super League clubs' partnerships (e.g., Manly, Tigers, Panthers). So, in reality, it's a free-for-all. It makes you wonder about the future...
Nationally: over 200,000 registrations in community clubs (2024, NRL.com). Queensland community rugby league and statewide competitions: over 64,500 juniors.
Warriors: Gus once called the Warriors, NZ, the largest nursery in the world, with over 34,000 registrations (2024).
Broncos: claimed engagement of 50,000 in grassroots programs, with around 10,000 participants (2021).
Panthers: over 9,000 registrations (2024), claiming to be the “Largest Rugby League District in the World”.
Storm claims 6,000 (2025) registrations.
Eels: over 5,600 juniors (2024), growing, though Parramatta demographics are less traditional rugby territory than the Panthers.
Saints: over 7,500 registrations collectively (South Coast Group over 4300; Illawarra Juniors over 3200).
Bulldogs over 3,500 registrations (2023), likely higher now.
Some clubs don’t seem to regularly publish recent numbers, including Roosters, Cowboys, Manly, and Souths (last recorded 3,155 in 2019). The Hunter region (Knights) also has a large junior base. If anyone can source their numbers, that would be great.
Someone with more expertise might be able to shed more light. EA, Sonic or someone more across it in detail.