Manly and Parramatta - An Analysis of Both Clubs - Eels Blogs

I'll be upfront and declare that I hate Manly but I admire the club and its success. Given that there is so much speculation around our two clubs, I thought I would try to factually analyse our greatest rival and draw a comparison to our club.ManlyHistory - their club is one of the great success stories. No wooden spoons, grand final appearances from their early years, premiership successes, astute purchases, a winning attitude and culture. Impressive!Facilities - arguably one of the worst in the NRL. Hamstrung by council ownership, their ground lives in the past, with little hope for change in the future. Their success has deserved a better home ground and it's probably a tribute to them and their supporters to have crowds and to have a roster willing to play there. As for training, they have to share the facilities of the Sport and Recreation facility at Narrabeen. That's unlikely to change.Finances - private ownership saved their club but could yet prove to be its undoing. Private representation on the board has created divisions and the football administration side of things is run on bare bones. Staff are expected to be master multi-taskers and this is not conducive to best practice.Playing Roster - this has been a proud and united group, strong enough to challenge regularly in recent years for a premiership. Has been is the operative word. The playing group is splintered and ageing. Success is most likely to be a thing of the past as a once formidable team enters an apparent era of decline.Coaching - passionate is probably an appropriate word for Geoff Toovey. He has experienced success and has thus far managed to achieve consistent performances from a team assembled in essence by Des Hasler. Perhaps this year will be his greatest challenge.ParramattaHistory - short bursts of success mixed with too many periods of abject failure. A long drought since the last premiership.Facilities - a decent but not state of the art stadium. Serious plans are afoot for a major upgrade. A minor upgrade is currently underway to improve the dressing sheds and to improve the spectator experience (big screens, wi-fi etc). A new centre of excellence training facility is under construction, with training commencing there next week. The plans are there to see and don't require elaboration here.Finances - a wealthy benefactor in Parramatta Leagues Club that has the vision to create a thriving entertainment precinct around the club and stadium. The financial future is assured.Playing Roster - despite the loss of arguably the most talented player in the game, this is a roster on the rise. Poor recruitment has hindered many recent seasons, but targeted and astute purchases, as well as the emergence of talented juniors puts the club on the cusp of finals appearances.Coaching - although new to NRL coaching ranks, Brad Arthur has an impressive track record of coaching teams to success. His playing staff sing his praises as he is a coach that truly coaches. He is passionate about the game, the club and he is one of the straightest talkers in the code. After a year of promise in 2014, and a full off season of preparations, the new season cannot come quickly enough for a club and a coach ready for success.So there we have it. Despite my obvious bias, I've tried to present a fair analysts of the two clubs. Which of these two clubs has the brightest future? Let's forget about the past because although you can be proud of it, the fact is it's done and dusted. If I was a player building my future, which club would I choose?

Council own the ground and don't want an upgrade to it because on their books it has been completely depreciated. If they allow an upgrade to it then once again every year they will have to depreciate the value of it and that council have a terrible record as they were under administration not to long ago.

They have tried to give the ground to the State government but they do not want it for the same reason as for the Federal government I do not think they could take control of it without introducing legislation to do so (not 100% sure on that). However the Federal & state governments can promise as much money as they want but it has to get past council.

Council did a survey on it in 2013 and found that their rate payers felt either neutral or agreed that the ground should be upgraded but, when asked if they would be prepared to pay for it there was an almost 90% response rate of strongly disagree.

"Rather Samrani! Does seem odd given the speculation of swapping him for old Barnett. Penisini can be really great at times and then really off at other times. Samrani has been very impressive and seems very strong and determined which is what Parra…"

"I really like Samrani but if JR decides to give him up for MB I think that is a massive mistake.
IMO Samrani should be 1st drop for either centre/ wing if one of our starters is out. Brian Kelly is bog average and not going to get better.
Samrani…"

Replies

aveel February 28, 2015 at 10:37am

Manly's facilities at Narrabeen are top notch. They have 2 or 3 fields that they have exclusive use of ie. they get to train on them when they want them. They have sports science equipment that is top notch and their gym/weights room is awesome (I was in there doing some work stuff last year.) Also their offices are in the same precinct. There is also a 25m indoor pool with several ice baths in an adjoining room. Plus a very good athletics venue if they ever want to work on sprint work.

There training base and home ground is 5min from the beach. The northern beach's lifestyle is a massive selling point
- sixtiesboy > aveel February 28, 2015 at 4:00pm
  
  Of course they have access to good facilities. I stated that they share that training facility. They don't own it. That won't change as it is a government facility. I've taken school groups there for camps and watched Manly train. The players were even using some of the same facilities as we were.
Jimmy February 28, 2015 at 10:46am

Manly's facilities at Narrabeen are good but there are concerns that their medical/rehab team are not up to scratch. I have been aware of this for some time and I also noted that Foran had raised it in his negotiations with the Manly club.
Bean February 28, 2015 at 11:32am

Parramatta clearly has the brighter future and would be more attractive to most players on the market.
Yobz February 28, 2015 at 3:10pm

I thought Abbott promised to upgrade Brookie before the last election
- Yobz > Yobz February 28, 2015 at 3:13pm
  
  http://mobile.news.com.au/national/tony-abbott-repeats-sixyear-fund...
sixtiesboy February 28, 2015 at 3:50pm

I think that their lower grades have been poor for some time. Their success has been built on a very strong core of players with selective value recruits and the occasional talented youngster.. It is the core that is at the end of their time with the club. I expect a borderline 8 finish this year followed by decline from 2016 onwards.
sixtiesboy February 28, 2015 at 3:53pm

Long time coming for $10million! It won't be enough for modern facilities, just a minor facelift.
- 81paling > sixtiesboy March 4, 2015 at 9:58pm
  
  Council own the ground and don't want an upgrade to it because on their books it has been completely depreciated. If they allow an upgrade to it then once again every year they will have to depreciate the value of it and that council have a terrible record as they were under administration not to long ago.
  
  They have tried to give the ground to the State government but they do not want it for the same reason as for the Federal government I do not think they could take control of it without introducing legislation to do so (not 100% sure on that). However the Federal & state governments can promise as much money as they want but it has to get past council.
  
  Council did a survey on it in 2013 and found that their rate payers felt either neutral or agreed that the ground should be upgraded but, when asked if they would be prepared to pay for it there was an almost 90% response rate of strongly disagree.
Ham Sammich February 28, 2015 at 3:57pm

They have some strong backs coming through but with re-signimg both of their current centres they may lose one. They'll want to hang onto Jesse ramien though. He and Tom T are the ones they'd want to keep.

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Manly and Parramatta - An Analysis of Both Clubs

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