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,
Replies
Good question BE. We have a cake shop and other related products in a small bakery in a small town in Alstonville.( If you are around Adam you should be interested) .The bakery is called "Home" and has about 8 staff crowded in a tiny area working non stop. The shop is always full of patrons waiting 10 to 15 minutes to be served. Visitors are often seen taking photos of cakes in the window... Another bakery across the road was quite well attended before this bakery came into town. Hardly anyone is to be seen there now.
What is the magic this new business has to draw so much interest? Who would wait 15 minutes to be served to buy some cake when there is a similar shop with few customers across the road?
Quality of product and word of mouth maybe.?
How do you replicate something like this in a footy club?
I don't know. Maybe something to do with finding what is the quality product and let word of mouth play out.
It's a vicious cycle but winning definitely helps. "If I go there I'm a good chance of playing finals / GF and therefore rep honours". It's a similar story with retaining young talent. "Why leave when I can stay and win a comp?"
Short term: No doubt Ryles and his team are doing their part but they can't shoulder all the responsibility. Dylan Walker showed how desperately this side needed experience. After Penrith got flogged last week Ivan Cleary said 'you can't run on potential forever'. To be a genuine threat you need that experience in amongst the rookies. Even a few 50-100 game players added to our pack would make such a massive difference.
Longer Term: Hopefully this year's rookies are sticking around to be 50-100 gamers for us and we're adding more and more juniors rookies to bolster the squad and so the production line truly begins. That's when we're flying high.
But for now we need experience. We're asking too much of rookies to go an entire season. And unfortunately it seems we'll be forced to take players no other club wants.
My dad passed away at the beginning of this month so I was in Alstonville a few weeks ago. I've got to say these days I'm not overly familiar with the all the eating spots in the main drag through town. There's the old post office which is now a cafe, across the pedestrian crossing is another and mum mentioned the old Thai restaurant further up the street is now one as well. The only bakery I know of is the old Macarthy's bakery around the corner (which is now called something else). I haven't lived there for over 30 years so things change. Let me know which one is yours mate and I'll take mum down and check it out.
Sorry to hear your Dad passed away mate . It must be especially tough on your mum. The shop is called Home Just past the petrol station towards the school. The butcher across from Home is also a very high quality Shop with a great selection of cold meats as well.
So you're telling me that the Galvin's really aren't Parra fans? Nooo
Ps , I understand Walker isn't development, but he'll go close to buy of the year if he keeps his form to date
My daughter has a friend who recently visited us. She is in her 50,s driver's an old car and struggles materially. Has spent a fair bit of time in India studying Buddhism. She is currently doing a Buddhist Master's degree in Buddhist philosophy. I asked her if Buddhist mental practice and discipline would be an asset for something such as football. She replied " definitely".
Money can be a powerful incentive for many as bait. For others a bigger bait is a sense of being a master of your craft. It's all about getting the right incentive with the right mindset for the particular person you want on board. We all have different needs .
Recruitment now recruitment shouldn't just be about improving the playing roster for FG for one if we want a strong club we should be recruiting the best in every area of the club.I think this is where we are to insular in how we think.
Administration is a place we should be recruiting better not just players.
Its been touched on here but for the clubs future we need to build the best pathway system in the comp.With a new CoE online now is the time and I'm not 100% convinced we are close to this but this is where the hard work starts.
Right now we aren't a destination for the Galvins of the world we just aren't the latest is back flip in the news but the fact we've gone back to the table twice with initial and a improved offer and Galvins PA and the man himself still chose the Dogs about tells you where we are at as a destination club about ends the conversation he's not for us.
If I'm honest I'm still livid we are losing DB because of poorly negotiated contract but he's gone now and he's someone else's player.We just cannot continue along those lines around our top tier talent.We can't let PAs strong arm the club like they have hopefully this is a thing of the past.
The problem is that we haven't had Premiership success for a long time, and players from other clubs can't see the changes that we have made will bring us closer to that. Win a Premiership and players will be falling over themselves to come to Parra. It's a catch 22, but in the meantime we need to do it the hard way. Let's hope it works.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next