Next week is our last Supporters Group Alliance meeting for the year, so if you have questions for the likes of Jim and Mark, get them in.
As a reminder, the SGA is focused on the club's interaction with community, members and supporters on match days, online, and on topics like membership and apparel.
The SGA has now been around for just over 12 months. Our initial focus and priority was on the club reconnecting with fans through the 2024/25 pre-season. Our feedback and advice was used to help structure the fan days held across western Sydney. The Eels have continued with these fan days as a priority with the first one of this off-season already being held.
We've also got clarity on how membership packs are put together and provided robust feedback on what members want moving forward. I will be asking for an update on where things are at with looking into a new supplier for 2027 memberships.
We have been updated at our meetings on the club's approach to junior retention and pathways. While we don't provide direct feedback on footballing operations, we do ask questions around salary cap, contracting and squad composition.
I imagine Zac Lomax will be a topic for discussion next week alongside recruitment plans. We don't usually get in-depth info here for obvious reasons, but Mark has, in the past, answered questions regarding our salary cap expenditure and recruitment in broad terms.
Post your questions below if you have anything for the club leadership.
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Yeah i agree, 27' should be the start of the window.
As others have mentioned,
The quality and value of players that have departed the club far outweighs those that have been recruited, where has our cap gone?.
If the roosters can get Adidas as a merch supplier, then we can as well. I doubt they sell more merch than us. Even the titans and dragons had Adidas for 3-4 years in the 2000s.
I would love Adidas as a manufacturer.
I'd like to know in our plans for the future do we ever think ahead and identify a particular year where we go all in for a premiership.
Do we think about structuring our cap in such away we can make a run at a comp ,front loading contracts so we can be a big player in the transfer market in years where it's more talent and position specific to our needs.
When targeted players can be optimised and are available coinciding with a strong current and future junior pathways and current strength of spine.
Or are we intent on being also runs and hoping lightning strikes.
How much pre planning is in place now to give Moses every chance to captain a premiership winning side while at his peak.
Also considering the mass migration out of NSW to SE Qld , what's the club doing in establishing pathways in this area.
Are they looking at forming partnerships with clubs or regions and the same question in regards to the English super league, NZ and school pathway systems .
With the changing dynamics in population western Sydney will have more kids playing cricket then Rugby League so what are we doing long term to reinforce our pathways through different partnerships.
In terms of forward planning, yes. They were planning the 2027 squad at the start of this year. I will ask about the demographics and if that's a consideration.
Super, when Lomax left us, there was talk of a transfer fee.
We can assume at the time it was a R360 involvement, but where do we stand now in that capacity.
Finally in relation to Lomax leaving, I would like a club response as to why this was allowed to happen and it would seem that no work was undertaken to procure a replacement before approving his departure. If we had a "no playing" for another NRL club involved as part of his leaving, where do we stand as a club if he wants to play for an alternative NRL Club given it would then be apparent he left Parra for reasons outside what have been talked about.
Was he approached to come back when R360 fell through? Players were quoted as saying they would greet him with open arms, are those arms open from the coaching perspective?
I get the reason put forward is we don't want a player that doesn't want to play with us, but where does that leave us as a precedent for further such moves.
Is there a club aknowlegment that we will be a lessor team for his absence, a common belief by hard headed supporters with realism involved.
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