Interesting questions have been raised (constantly) about our club and a SCAPEGOAT to blame.
Personally I am usually quick in seeing obvious problems and when you look at the period my experience covers, I have seen most of the things that only Parramatta supporter's can lament and relate to.
This particular one is a quandry, I think MONS needs to go, but I don't actually blame him for any of the events that recognise the damage that has been outlined. I think he could be sitting back in his arm chair asking how he ended up in this mess?.......... I don't think he has ever been the final decision maker on most of the things we would like to blame him for.
The other protaganist and yes Scapegoat is Jim Saratinos? So I am going to critique both him and MON's and explain why they have been blamed
The pathways coaches are recognised for their strong roles in rescuing the situation post Covid and I see no blame evolving there (unless it is still evolving).....the fan base tend's to overate them (our juniors) because we should be so strong in this area, yes we are a Development Club and we do provide a lot of players.....we would it seems not be overly good at bringing through the ones that we would like to claim. Maybe we are just victim's of that process as we have struggled to obtain balance with juniors and recruitment and in endeavoring to satisfy that equation.......Fcuked up Both!
Reverting to MONS you need to go back to his recruitment, he probably was never the right guy to table as General Manager Football whereas the reality is that the first grade coach in both BA's and JR's terms have been the final arbitar in almost all decisions outside of the financial impact of cap and policy. I think MON's has probably done a fine job in structuring and recruiting pathway coaches, even the women's coach.
So this leads me to the final "scapegoat" Bernie Gurr! What!! you say....the guys the best thing to happen post the renaissance!.... yes that's true! he did a great job...but did he finish it?
I blame Bernie because he recruited MON as a General Manager Football, a role that he showed was pretty toothless because BA's power was at its peak and he (BA) really was the guy, making the decisions on recruitment and retention. Yes the position (GM) was part of the review, but a more constructive process would have allowed the person to grow into the role where the structure allowed it to.
MON's went about his business developing pathways and faciltating people in lower level's behind First and Second Grade and executing signings made for him. Never really empowered in the primary sense..
Jim Saratinos inherited Bernie's role, Jim is obviously a fine administrator and financial manager.....as a CEO empowered to be much more decisive about football matters, he simply wasn't !
Based on his inexperience in that role which he basically stayed out of and during the initial period that he came in, he saw/ recognised that BA had things under control and was content to leave it at that.
Intelligent people do quickly learn just the same and all the time this was happening Jim was learning heaps about the football side and I can only presume making judgements of the relative incumbents. He never had the football background or experience that Bernie had, who would have maybe acted very differently if he chose to stay on.....he left for greener pastures in the states, but is to this day still a passionate Parramatta supporter.
So we were left with our primary scapegoats and to evaluate the thoughts that come through this forum, we need to understand better than we do that things are not as Black and White to just go out and attack individuals for the perception of their failures.
Too many people on here put themselves in a position of decision makers, whereas they have no real understanding of how business works or things happen, everyone is entitled to an opinion, not saying that, just saying that the intelligence and actual judgement of making these things happen are stuffed up in a lot of busineses without thinking the guys have no fcuking idea!
I can only think of our politicians in comparison, but just remember, you put them there as well!!!
I don't have the answers BTW but Iam writing this so an understanding of the pieces that make up the "Parra Lament" are understood better. Everyone seems to have the answers by "sacking MON and JS" without understanding how pieces fit and what needs to be done......My initial reaction is that MON needs to go, because his credibility has now got huge question marks and that JIM needs to stay as I think we need a CEO like him but with the understanding of having proper GM Football who reports through him.....the GM Football needs a lot of thought because I would actually have Ryles also reporting to him, with a clear defintion I might add. Obviously that person needs to be very "powerful" to command such a role!
An after thought by the way and not a recommendation, is that Jason Ryles could be a great GM Football and he appoints a coach to work under him! Early days for such a move, but I think that's where a lot of these processes need to head in the sense of how a coach is perceived......Foz's example of a coach and what he is achieving is an example that the modern day coach can keep it simple and the GM does the slogging!
An heirachel structure at Parra could be GM Football runs all Football Matters.....reports through CEO for Finance & Administration Matters...... . First Grade Coach reports through and appointed by GM Football,........ Manager Pathways and Administration reports through GM Football.
Replies
Thanks for the detailed & respectful reply, Daz. Always great to have these conversations to try and understand an alternate perspective.
1. I do see your point here & agree, like you, feel DB did owe the Eels after ’23 & should've stayed on moral grounds (plus an already great wage). I disagree on Moses, though.
2. It's not the clauses, it's the process in removing them in the necessary way - as we did with Mitch. Its not even Dylan Brown, its how much of an impact this decision has had on our current & future prospects, with no clear path to resolve.
3. No, Moses’ Tigers offer was 100-150k more per year? So (500-750k or so over the length?), Dylan’s was 3million more guaranteed - it is a large difference.
Secondly, Mitch’s ‘integrity’ cost the Eels 1.3m to remove the clauses. Had the Eels refused, Mitch Moses would not be here, and you might be calling it betrayal? Mitch also extended the negotiations into the 2023 season after publicly claiming he would have it done by Round 1. His form in the first 3 weeks of 2023 was God awful, as those negotiations drew out (and publicly).
💯
6. Plan B - The Eels then go ahead and completely waste 250-300k (whatever it is) on Jonah Pezet, money that would’ve kept Dylan at the club. We throw away 9 years of DB’s development, his combination with Moses (who wanted Dylan at the club), and given up any chance of premiership relevance in Moses’ time at the club with it, potentially wasting 1.3m a year on Mitch, and with no plan B whatsoever?
This right here is why Parra haven't a god damn clue what they are doing that money that 200-300 k spread over ex amount of years potentially keeps DB and Moses together and secures the spine future at the club for at least the next 3-4 seasons.
I mean Moses Brown Iongi and TDS/Smith potentially how much better does the spine and team look with those 4 going foward.Now not only is Pezet a waste of space we still don't have anything in concrete at 6 the whole letting Brown get pilfered is just retention incompetence you can't cut it any other way.
Why TF is the club wasting it's time on a part time solution when they had the answer already pretty much gift wrapped.
Now in all essence we have to start again around building a spine.Incompetence anyway you look at it.We think injury is the reason why this club is struggling right there tells and shows you different.
I couldn't care less that he has gone. I've seen him interviewed this year and he seems happy with life at Newcastle and with the knights. He's a father and all seems to be going well. Good luck to him. He has well and truly moved on from being at the eels, perhaps it's time we all should as well.
Well Adam, look at where the club is now. Its all well and good to move on, but there was no forward planning in the case where Dylan had left. Now a year and a half on, and no fan has any idea who the five-eighth will be.
Is that a good situation mate.
The club is a bottom 4 club injuries or not. We were absolutely flogged by a Melbourne team who've done nothing since, and with had hardly any injury issues.
Let's all just paper mache over the giant cracks in the wall adam, shall we ?
So we go into 2027 without a recognised 6, a three quarter line thats an absolute rabble especially the centres, no props bar Sam Tuivaiti who will look elsewhere very soon. A pack whose been soundly beaten in every match this season ---
But everything is fine here.
Exactly, Coryn.
Was DB worth more? No, but...
For the Eels to keep that spine together, to protect millions outlaid in years of Dylan's development, protect 1.3m a year investment in Moses, entice players to the club with elite halves, remain premiership relevant as we build with a rookie fullback / hookers, have a potential heir for Moses, and, considering we had absolutely no plan B whatsoever at 5/8th?
It feels like that was worth another 50k-70k per season, which we've now spent on Pezet.
Fingers crossed Lorenzo can go to DB’s level or higher, and I’ll be stoked to be wrong about this move.
I think he's a stop gap the fact he's bounced around a few clubs gives me no confidence he's the long term answer here.To be honest with you the way the positions been handled I'm finding it hard to trust any decision around the position.I just think from what my eyes are telling me he's more of the same of what we've had.We really need a guy that can take heat off Mitchell not load more on him.
Volkman is probably the best solution to a bad situation right now.
I mean it's easy to say move on but how can we move on when the clubs provides no answers or nothing definitive.It almost feels like you mention plan b = find it by accident and then say this is how we had it planned all along.
Who gives a shit about money when 30 million dollars is being added to the salary cap across 3 expansion clubs?
The dolphins inflated the player market by adding another 10 million into player salaries. The bears will add another 10 million. The chiefs will add another 10 million.
The Knights were smart, they tied up a quality player for 10 years when the entire market is about to inflate massively, and he can't go back to market even with all the new cash for the bears and chiefs. Parra were too short sighted, too cheap, too slow, too conservative, and it cost us one of the best five eighths in the game. He's even playing half back now and winning, while we go backwards
Any talk of being betrayed or stood up is just emotional drivel. This is big business. International sport. High stakes, high money. there are no friends in business. Only allies, temporary or not.
The world is transforming under our feet, parra are still living in the old world, and will be left behind by the new one if we don't wake the hell up soon. 1.3 million or whatever he is on is still small money in the grand scheme of the future. We could have tied him up for the rest of his career. But now we get to watch him play finals with Ponga while we all celebrate mad Monday.
What the Eels didn't account for was Peter O'Sullivan that's the game changer here.If you recall before DB resigned to that 8 yr deal the mentioned above tried to land DB then to get him back at the Warriors.Then O'Sullivan went to Redcliffe and I have no doubt DB was on the hitlist there before signing the 8 yr option laden deal with us in 23.By this time OSullivan has moved to Newcastle and sold his recruitment plan to everyone who'd listen there.Now it's was third times a charm and closed the biggest deal in nrl history to get DB out of Parra which he has and with the one two third attempt he's helped turn all of the mentioned clubs he's been involved with around.
To me this is the factor in recruitment the club needs and is the bigger reason imo why DB left.Everybody talks about why DB left I'd suggest he left because Peter O'Sullivan is a persistent farker a dog after a bone and he got his man we just left the door ajar just far enough to allow this to happen.
The worst thing about this move is DB by the length of the street was the best prospect the club has developed in over a decade we had him now we won't see him again.When's the next time we see another talent like him I don't know but recruitment and retention blunders like this only exasperate fans anti club rhetoric.
Thanks NOS and Coryn, both those posts lay value to this blog and bring out further discussion that needs to be said.
I have said through out this blog, that I do not have answers, only the demonstration of scapegoats and excuses why it is no ones single fault.
NOS has been very strong on his views and I have probably understood them more after his point by point evaluation. I think I have been somewhat blindsided by my view at the time that DB was being burnt out and or burning out by the way Parra was treating him in terms of the answer to everything gone wrong with MM fitness and concerns.
For this reason after being one of if not his greatest supporter that his leaving us could be a blessing in disguise.....Subsequently I have been totally wrong given his form for NZ and Knights....that said I could form a reasonable defence for feeling that way with him playing with a torn ACL etc. I might add in hindsight I am not totally convinced that JR actually saw DB in the same light as some of us long term fans. Yes in his case I was a fan, not just a supporter.....God knows how many blews I had with Snake, Fong and Wiz defending DB. I also have had them with MON as well but in his case I saw myself as a supporter, never a fan! lol
Carrying on from this thread and the points being raised, maybe its time to pay BIG dollars for Peter O'Sullivan to become an Eel and take over this responsibility that people like me are crying out for in a leadership sense....i.e. it is maybe not a new leader but a talent scout of undeniable proportion to the problems people on here have identified.
I am very open to the discussion heading that way!
We could do worse Pops we could do worse.
Thing is here is there a will from the higher ups to look farther afield or just stick with the status quo is the real issue.I continue to mention looking for better and searching for the 1%ers in multiple places that add upto being the difference.
In the end as mentioned there has to be a will for something like hiring a Peter O'Sullivan as an example if the will isn't there if they think there plan is on schedule then I guess there's no need and we are just spit balling.
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