In recent times, it is becoming obvious that the power brokers at the Eels see our junior pathways, as our path to future glory and probably rightly so. We see new full time coaching staff / Eels scouts across the country and scholarships for juniors. We see them training at the same venues as our first grade squad. We have invested heavily in following the Panthers lead and the Panthers way of junior development and in turn their saturation of home grown talent into first grade. We are by all intents and purposes suposedly attempting to copy their blueprint to success of the previous 5 or so years.
Ryles has developed a top down approach with football systems now being aligned no matter what grade or junior age group are playing. If your in Blue and Gold then the football system is attempting to become universal and aligned. The full time coaching roles throughout the whole club, now allow the Junior coaches to be singing from the same Hymm sheet. A significant triumph for our club no doubt.
A lot has recently been discussed here on this website about signing in demand first choice talented Players from other clubs, their is suggestion that we may not actually be in the hunt for these types of players, further , that it has been perhaps media click bait, that we were not actually interested in so and so etc, or like some of us are suspecting that we havnt been able to close a contract after going for them. That our final step in the recruitment process is missing out on a regular basis. In short we struggle to sign identified 1st choice talented players. The common theme though by many has been not to worry we have juniors coming through, that, this is the way of our future, we don't want to block a juniors pathway, we want to follow the Panthers system.
Lachalna Galvin - Lost to the Eels at the last moment .
Here on 1EE it has been heavily discussed, these concepts or models , the pathways vs bought talent etc. People point out that The pathways model has worked well for the Panthers, they are a juggernaut with a conveyor belt of talent, but this is where other clubs are now truely waking up.
It was always very hard to get to the Penrith Players as they moved through the grades, they were all on contracts, all tied up by the Panthers, they were very well managed and looked after from within, this lead to their first couple of premierships, but things are just starting to change, and this is where I see some future problems for us.
'I read an article over the weekend and it got me thinking about this issue. The Panthers you see were managing to keep their juniors via scholarships and contracts of various sorts, but with their success has come scrutiny. That scrutiny coming from the other NRL clubs and their attempts to poach the Panthers juniors. Its reported the Panthers were paying scholarships to the tune of $1200 a week to stop the poaching. All legal and a big credit to them and their systems, this worked at keeping other clubs at bay from their players, but only for a short while, the other NRL clubs continued to poach coached junior talent so much so that the NRL "Vlandys" had to step in and draw up some new rules stipulating in basic form that Penrith needed to be compensated for poached talent to the tune of $5000 for a junior or a percentage of their first NRL contract, otherwise the very fabric of putting money into junior development could fail.
This worked for a short time as well, but now clubs are circumventing this, not only poaching talent from Penrith Panthers under these systems, but are now going even younger, they are poaching the 14 / 15 / 16 year olds before they earn scholarships or contracts, the other NRL clubs are now scouting them earlier to avoid the compensation system and to boost their own playing talent, not even attempting to mass develop their own. Together it is begining to take its toll on the Panthers system, it is in effect draining the elite talented junior players from Panthers Colours, its leaving the Panthers empty handed after scouting the juniors, and begining their education and development. Its a like a one stop shop, no need to send scouts all over the country, just go straight to the Penrith rep teams and make an offer.
Its now being reported, by the Daily Telegraph , that as of right now there are 60 former Penrith Panthers pathway players now playing for a different NRL club. Thats currently 60 poached players from within the Panthers ranks, no wonder Penrith have now recently been entering the Player market for talent from other clubs. Think our own BlaizeTalangi or Issah Papalii etc. The Panthers are only now experiencing the full glare of every club poaching from their junior systems it's becoming so prevalent and common place that they are now having to look at established talent from other clubs to make up the shortfall. Just this year Penrith have had to buy 4 new players from the Warriors and Knights to go with Blaize and Papalii last year.
Recently Bought by Penrith to supplement first grade Blaize Talangi and Isaiah Papal'ii
'This brings me to the question, what problems are we going to experience as we go down this all in path of juniors and as a club are ignoring or unable to sign first choice talented players from other clubs. We may not get the early benefits that Penrith got with an abundance of junior talent coming through the system as clubs having changed tactics on the Panthers Juniors , so too they would now raid ours juniors exactly the same way. The blueprint for poaching is now very well established and being followed by every other club.
So then what is or what will the club be able to do to stop the poaching from happening to us. If we go all in on Juniors which let's face it sounds great, but if we do go all in, how do we stop our players from being poached and leaving us high and dry. Its already known that our club struggles to sign or keep elite talent, in recent times we have barely been able to keep a talented junior and get them into first grade. Think u.19 state of origin reps, Sanders, Blaize and Matt Arthur , but now the ante has been upped even further with scouts poaching more professionally and co-ordinated then ever before. 'Penrith are living through it right now, and it's changed from just 5 years ago.
Former Eel Junior Ethan Sanders
Is being so reliant on pathways into the future now a false dawn so to speak. If we develop exceptional talent through junior seasons to only have them poached when nearing first grade or nearing a contract, where does that leave the makeup of our first grade squad. One argument that we have put untold $$ into development and therefore we expect them to stay. But as is happening at Penrith right now, 60 current players poached playing for another NRL club.
One could suggest that we need an all in approach, a multi faceted approach, I suspect there has to be significant effort and energy into chasing first choice talent from other clubs first and foremost to compliment first grade. Surely we must supplement the junior pathways system as we never know when an elite junior will be lured away to another club, and putting us back another season or 2 whilst we develop the next one. Surely the smart play is to put more energy into closing talented established players from other clubs to compliment our 1st grade team on a needs basis.
The Juniors pathway argument is perhaps being used too much as the almighty way forward, our shield of sorts in obtaining and keeping real talent. Could this be a false shield though, Penrith are beginning to feel the real effects ! professional, co ordinated and sustained poaching at every level, like never before experienced within the NRL. If we are to take their path as a blueprint moving forward, then surely we need to understand how it has recently been attacked and dismantled. There may very well need to be more done at NRL level at Parramatta Board Level to put in place better strategies for keeping this developed talent, significant salary cap relief for juniors or something similar could be a start. We will certainly need some further help for development clubs like ourselves, until that happens then i'm afraid we must get better at closing deals on elite 1st grade talent, when they become available. We must find the reason why we can't or don't sign in demand talented 1st graders when they are available. To forget this part of recruitment or to pay it less attention may in my opinion only lead us to mediocrity and keep us away from any premiership glory. What are your thoughts.
Replies
Your last sentence is an interesting one Kenny, that when i think about it, could ring true to a degree. Although some must have that capability with 60 Panthers Pathway juniors contracted to other NRL clubs right now. Thats a massive contribution by the Panthers to the NRL and a massive drain on their production line.
What if the NRL set up a system where players who are locally developed and make it to 1st grade, those players are exempt from the cap? That would force clubs to develop more from within rather than poach from other clubs. Just a thought.
Melbourne have zero players who are 'locally' developed. Easts have bugger all. There's the problem with your suggestion.
Well remember when the Dolphins were coming in and Melbourne bitched and moaned about their main junior base of Redcliffe and Central Queensland would be taken over by the Dolphins? They leaned on Queensland heavily and still do today.
While the focus is on juniors, as that is where you can offset the likes of the Roosters who poach talent, and close the gap from a salary cap perspective, we don't turn our nose up at recruiting externally where required.
Iongi a good example. We didn't have a fullback coming through, so we identified one ready for the NRL. Penrith picked up Papali'i because they needed a replacement for Kikau. They picked up Talagi because they needed a replacement for Luai. And let's be honest, those were areas of need the Panthers couldn't fill with juniors. Their junior halves weren't up to it (and even Talagi was underdone), while Papali'i was on the market at a fair price.
I have said previously the NRL needs to bring in a scaled payment system. If you poach talent from another club's system, you have to pay them a percentage of that player's earnings on top of what you're paying the player for years.
But when you consider it. If your system is good enough to produce talent on a consistent basis (you probably want at least 2 NRL ready players from your juniors every season to fill key spots) then you will be better off than relying on continuously paying the big dollars for external recruitment.
Badger also mentioned that we have won consistently over the years in lower grades but it hasn't translated. And I'd say that's due to an old approach to juniors which is to simply "win". Whereas now with our new pathway approach the focus is on NRL talent. If a player is good enough to play up a grade, then we promote them. Because we want that player NRL ready, not simply killing it in junior grades but not ready to step up.
You're seeing that with Tuivaiti. He was Flegg eligible this year. We could have played him there and he'd have killed it. But for NRL purposes and to have him ready when we need him in first grade, we debuted him and he played half a season in first grade and would have played more.
Same with Talataina. He started 2025 in SG Ball and finished in NSW Cup. There were definitely games where he was missed in Flegg, but it was better for his development to be playing Cup.
And also, you will lose players at some point. You only have 30 total NRL spots every season and really only 6-10 of those spots are available each year.
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