It's been a subject of contention for Eels fans for as long as I can remember. We keep loosing our best juniors so how do we fix this. The answer is with BA at the helm. I have been coaching junior rugby league for the last 10 years & as much as you have the stars of the NRL, in junior league there are also young stars in the making that even though they don't play for Cabra which is where I coach, I know all about them as do the other coaches from other clubs & we all try to get them into our team, It is no different than the NRL with their stars. So what is the advantage with BA long term ? Brad coaches in the Parramatta junior league, He gets a much better insight into what young talent is running around in the junior comp. I am on a first name basis with many of the player's in the Parra comp that I have never coached because I'm out there every weekend & although we are from different clubs we are all still part of the Parra junior comp which is a family in itself. We don't all like each other but most of us know each other & that is where Brad will get a huge advantage over rival clubs taking our best juniors. He is out there every weekend, He doesn't just see them trying out for a rep team after being picked by someone else to try out, he gets to see how they train, how they prepare, He coaches them, He coaches against them & he gets to see what there attitude is like in general. BA is Parra through & through & I can see a very bright future for the Eels with him at the helm.
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Apparently he thinks none of them are better then Vai Toutai...
Jim, I really am looking forward to see the club evolve with more of our local Juniors in the top squad. The way things are at the moment is that those who are ok & show promise either think they are better than they are or know how good they can be, & have unreal expectations of signing big contracts to play with the club. We see some of them running around in other clubs now, & have realised their early potential whilst some, are running around very much in lower grades.
I for one am one who would love to see a higher standard comp then we have now, something above the NYC, with the same set up with the ISP which needs to be more of a reserve grade competition. These competitions should also be part of free to air TV games throughout the year, the QRL has such a TV based competition & has a great following.
I no longer understand the way the local comps fit in with the way eels network, the old 2 club - membership setup at least had Annual reports to the members for ease of following again something needed for the members of the football side of the club.
I extend to you as a coach of one of our local teams all the best for the future but also to all the coaches & helpers out there especially in eels land, for what remains of the season & into the future. Not forgetting all those behind the scenes who do so much without recognition, Thanks for your time & efforts.
Good point Coach. I played in that comp (many, many years ago) and it was the same then, you can see the rising stars, and whilst you may hate em for playing with the opposition, you'd love to have them in your side. Brad will certainly be aware of the ones he wants to come up thru the ranks, and he'll be steering em the right way.
Hey Jim, what age group are you current coaching?
Some interesting thoughts, and I while I see your point, I'm not sure if I really agree.
My experience to date, and this is based on having coached at Wenty from 6's to 9's this year, is you get to know, and have a relationship with all of the boys & coaches in your age group but it's pretty limited outside of that.
I have pretty strong thoughts about the juniors pathways and how Parra could better leverage that asset, and I think the first place they have to start is on a lot more data and measurement. If you start tracking kids from say Under 8's, over time you'll build up data that will show you that kids who make first grade are generally running x seconds by this age, or who hit particular benchmarks and milestones, then you can help make sure those kids of getting those core techniques right when muscle memory is in its most formative. And most importantly do a much better job at coaching the coaches.
Hi 1 Eyed, I coached the 14-2's for the second half of the season due to the coach being removed. Not ideal but that's the way it go's sometimes. This was the first year I had not taken on a coaching position in the last 10 years. I saw BA watching a couple of games a few weeks ago as his team was playing later in the day so I went up & shook his hand. He is an awesome bloke & was smiling & very welcoming.
Certainly like the database idea Phil, do you use something like it, its certainly one of those things that can provide a good source of valuable information over time.
Phil, what also needs to be worked on is skills training at a young age, this is something missing in a lot of players these days. How many forwards are running around in NRL with barely an offload in them. Plenty and Parra is an example of that in Mannah, Wicks, Terepo, etc. These skills coaches (employed by Parra) should go to each squad and introduce skills training for each age group that the coach could impart to their charges.
I hope one thing that is done going forward is we stop writing off our best junior talent, particularly, halves talent on the basis that they are too small.
We seem to have an over emphasis on size and strength, those things are important yes, especially in the forwards obviously, but players can bigger as they get older with the proper gym program and you don't need to be 100 kilos to play in the halves.
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