As we transition with our rebuilding phase, I'm wondering if we have gone about it the wrong way around.
We have a great Home ground, we have great fans that will support the club, we have a world class training centre, we have the new constitution and Leagues Club to rival most others, We have the shiny new coach and assistant coach's, and we have a world class Halfback, with a new culture developing.
It appears that we have been checking off for some time all the ingredients required to have a winning club. This brings me to what I see as a major fault within our club.
It appears we are able to identify the players we wish to sign, there are many examples of that within our system right now, none better then Iongi, Lomax, Addo Carr and Walker. However there also appears to be a problem with getting classy players that are being courted by other teams over the line and sigining with our club. The 4 players I mentioned were not being courted by any other club.
So how do we fix it. If we are identifying where the club was falling behind with all of the above and we set about turning it around and fixing it, to the boards credit, then surely the same Board can see we are seriously lacking in the art of getting a quality player that other clubs want to join our squad.
What is it that is lacking in this area. Is it a lack of understanding of what makes the player tick, are possible recruits issues, fears, not being addressed during the negotiations, is it a stigma that players don't like our club, Is it the rookie coach might not be good, is it a lack of third party deals or investment clubs etc. Do the player managers not get on with our club. There must be something that is turning off potential recruits. Over the last couple of years we have lost so many players and potential coach's for that matter, that the club has identified as wanting or wanting to keep, and we havnt been able to get them accross the line.
So I do wonder who at our club is identifying the problem, and what needs to be done to turn this around. Over the next 12 months, we as a club have a huge war chest of salary cap $$ to be spent, but it won't matter if the club cannot sign the good 1st choice players they are targeting.
It makes me wonder, what our club would look like if we were to recruit say Gus Gould. Would that even be possible. I do wonder what type of $$ would it take to hire someone like him. We seem to be very light on in the reputation and signing power of our current head of football. I'd happily pay Gus Gould $2m a season to be our recruitment spokesperson, the man that makes the deal, that courts the new player. Surely someone of his experience and stature would be a crucial and club defining signing. Perhaps the very last piece of the Eels puzzle.
Im no fan of Mark O'Neill head of football operations, I have made that very clear. So how do we get the club to at least review what mistakes have been made or continue to be made that turns so many players away from us.
I think it's crucial for any future success, more so then any one player. We should be going for the best of the best people out there to be working on our contract negotiations and selling our vision to new recruit prospects. We search high and low for the best layers, then why don't we do that at Boss level, at management level.
Im not sure of whom we should even target if we were to replace Mark O'Neill, but i am of the strongest opinion that the club to move forward must as a matter of urgency delve very deep into what is going wrong at this level, and fix it. We have an oppurtunity with our war chest to really go after some serious talent right now,
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Someone who knows how to exploit the TPA system.
Wont be in the top tier till that happens.
Yep is there anyone at the club at board level that are identifing and recruiting patrons, the men and Buisness's that can offer what Politis or Laundy offer to their respective clubs. Surely it's time for the board to begin this process, I support our Board, but I feel they are neglecting these crucial areas of developing a losing club into a winning club.
TPA TPA TPA TPA TPA
Unfortunately we're lacking wins and TPAs, making it hard to be competitive with recruitment unless we overpay, but we definitely do not want to go down that path again.
So in the mean time we need to be smart with our targets while we rebuild. And so far we have managed to do so with the players you mentioned above, but also that is in spite of MON and I reckon we got a bit lucky there. Throw in some promising juniors in Ryley, Tuivati etc I'd say we're on the right track considering it's Ryles' first year.
Just need to be sure we get in players that want to play for the club and aren't just after a pay check.
How can we be lacking TPA's though? Parramatta is the 2nd biggest city next to Sydney. We are a big name Sydney club, we should have sponsors coming out of our arse.
Its not even about securing legit TPAs. They are a massive loophole in the salary cap that is exploited by the smart operators.Its not even a secret.
I watched an investment property podcast a few days ago and it was talking about the investment the ATO has made in Artificial Intelligence. The figure given was $1 Billion dollars. The reason given was with this new technology they can capture a far greater amount of information instantly from any number of external agencies. So they can get a very clear picture straight away of the financial activity of any individual or business.
So if anyone is doing anything that is not above board I'd suggest it's only a matter of time before problems arise. I'd be doing business in a legitimate manner. The federal goverment are going to want a return on their billion dollar investment.
We're still early on the journey but all the signs are really positive.
You don't win comps by getting into bidding wars for players .. especially developing ones. We need to build a strong club that shows development results , growth and wins on the field and then become a more attracive place for blokes to come play. These things also let us retain our top talent we already have. I think we've recruited great the last 12 months . Better than we have in years. Dylan Walker , Fox , Samrani, Papali , Iongi etc... great purchases that didn't break the bank. We just have to keep focuses on us, keep bulding and make smart purchases to keep us going in the right direction.
The development of Iongi and Ryley Smith, Kautoga and even guys we already had like Morettii has been great . We're establishing a style of play thats getting better and makes it easier for us to recruit for specific roles. The talent will be more willing to come when the results come which early signs on are great.
Yep development is a massive way for us to progress, use from within. I have no problem with that. I would argue that not all signs are positive. I do have a problem with the club in recent times not being able to secure a lot of our juniors that they wanted to keep. The recent track record is not so great with signing juniors that are exceptional talent and other clubs have come in and courted them. We are even losing juniors transitioning to top 30 when another club gets involved.
Sure we are signing juniors but no other club had come knocking for them. Seems we can win a 1 horse race but we can't win if another club gets involved. So the same problem still remains with how we are negotiating with talent and what are we doing so wrong, and whom is not doing their job to the standard we need.
We develop them, they improve massively, we become a top four team.
Their next contract they get offered a share in a pub on top of their contract on the cap.
We start rebuilding again.
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