What a day! What a venue! What a crowd!
St Pats College at Blacktown was the host for Saturday’s junior rugby league representative trials between the Parramatta Eels and the Penrith Panthers. This was grassroots footy at its finest. With plenty of young, talented players on show, a huge attendance was guaranteed. Indeed, the people had already flocked through the gates in large numbers well before the first ball of the day was kicked. With the obligatory sausage sizzle keeping the faithful well fed, the stage was set for a summer footy fix.
Notable Attendees
From a Panthers perspective, the man of the people Mark “MG” Geyer was there nice and early. He’s a popular bloke and his friendly banter with the multitude who stopped him to say g’day was testimony to how he values his community.
From an Eels perspective, it was a who’s who of our football department. Bernie Gurr and Brad Arthur were very interested spectators. Arthur has an entire club approach in his role and has overseen the establishment of a positive culture in the junior grades. Eels CEO Gurr is a believer in the importance of local junior development. I was fortunate enough to watch a chunk of the 15’s development squad match in the company of Bernie. The top job is keeping our new head honcho extremely busy and we’re fortunate to have him holding the reins.
The TCT crew were also able to catch a few words with Joey Grima, Craig Sultana and Anthony Field. Anthony does a superb job with talent identification and the club is reaping the benefits. Watch for some of this talent to begin filtering through to the senior grades. We always appreciate the time that our dedicated football staff give to Eels supporters.
The Venue
St Pats High School is an impressive venue for junior football. With two full fields and an adjoining field allowing for warm ups, the clubs were able to stage simultaneous trials. Tiered seating alongside the main field accommodated a good proportion of the crowd under cover. Football staff were able to view proceedings from the enclosed rooms above the seated area.
The spectator facilities at St Pats
The Schedule
Trials were held for the following grades:
* Under 14s Development Squad
* Under 15s Development Squad
* Tarsha Gale Girls
* Harold Matts
* SG Ball
As the matches were trials, there were many modifications to the play. Not only were players rotated, whole teams were also shifted on and off the field. Furthermore, there were changes to the rules. No conversions were taken. However, there was a short break after tries to allow for the usual team talk that would occur during a conversion. The scoring team kicked off, thereby preventing any domination of possession. There were no kicks for touch from penalties, but rather the ball was advanced a nominal 10 metres for a tap restart.
General Feedback
This will just be an overall impression as it was impossible to watch every match. Also, a more detailed report on the matches and players will be provided by Forty20 in his write up.
It’s important to recognise that these were trials and it was young people taking the field. To be considered for this level is a credit to all of them. I’d also like to commend both Parramatta and Penrith for their role in developing girls/women’s rugby league. I was only able to catch glimpses of the Tarsha Gale match, but the skill with the ball movement was impressive. Without knowing a great deal about the participants, one would have to assume a background in touch footy has helped with their skill base.
The Parramatta squads were missing a few key players and had significant players participating for limited minutes. No doubt Penrith were possibly doing similar with their line ups. Nonetheless plenty could be learned from the hit outs.
Virtually all of last year’s Parramatta Harold Matt’s squad have graduated past this grade, with the notable exception of Tyler Field. After having difficulties with the Bulldog’s physical aggression in their last trial, the Eels looked to be a different unit against the Panthers. The improvement has also been kicked along through the injection of a few players missing from the last trial, but there were definitely a number of forwards who acquitted themselves much better this time around. (I’ll leave the details to Forty20)
The Eels Under 15 Development team were a very impressive unit. The halves controlled the play well and the players seemed to have a great instinct for when to shift the ball or when to tuck it under the arm and run. Given that they will form the nucleus of the 2018 Harold Matts team, the future looks bright.
The SG Ball team built into their performance, eventually dominating their Penrith counterparts. The amazing feature of the Eels players at this level is that a number of SG Ball eligible players will likely be named in the NYC team. Success in the Ball grade will only emphasise the depth of talent.
My overall impression from the day was that the Parramatta Junior Development Program has nudged ahead of the Panthers. The Eels have a program that supporters should be proud of. Having spoken to a number of families involved in the squads, I’ve learned that they couldn’t be happier.
It’s on again next Saturday against Wests at Liverpool.
Eels forever!
Sixties
Well put mate. It was great catching up with the fellows yesterday and enjoying the young talent on display. I think next weekends trails are going to be played at Kirkham Park just north of the Camden town.Please correct me if I’m wrong.
I had it as Hillier Oval at Liverpool. If I’m wrong I’ll let you know.
Definitely Hillier Oval. The following weekend there will be a NYC Trial at Kirkham Park but that unfortunately I believe that clashes with the Auckland Nines.
I sure all the footy savvy people recognise the sweeping changes to personel and nrl culture since BA’s arrival but obviously hes not stopping there, hes fixing the roster and culture from top to bottom, add to that gurr, donnely and a new factionless board, the saleyards, new stadium, carpark and shop precint at stadium and its looking like the loyal supporters are in for some really good times, BA’s blue and gold thats the secret, its hard enough to get an nrl gig but when the coach gets the club he loves, well!!
When you see these key people in action, at the grassroots level, you know how important it is to people like BA and Bernie for Parra to be successful at every level. Being successful at every level ensures longer term success. It becomes part of the culture. Bubbles, I reckon most Eels supporters now recognise that BA loves this club.
I am most pleased to read the aspect of BA and the CEO being in attendance, that has to be a huge positive to supporters, club but most importantly to the players themselves.
Tells me that the appointment of BA as coach was the best signing we have had for some time and with Burnie we at last have a professional CEO, who knows RL, and loves it, he is professional and that combination has to be tops for the club.
PS. I actually like some of those rule changes as well, especially no line kick after penalty with restart at 10 metres advanced.
Colin, I’m ecstatic about our future. There are plenty of other good people making the club great again too. You have every right to feel positive.
Col, I echo those sentiments mate about BA and Bernie. It seems the club is in one direction. I wasn’t close to the club when B Smith was in charge but I know he was big on this to with juniors etc.
It sounds like it was a superb day Sixties.
From an ex west Sydney interest how was the level of the penny panthers 18? And 16’s? Some boys would be familiar to me.
Hi mate, Forty’s superb report is now up. I thought that Penrith were just a step below. Of course we were watching from a Parra perspective and without knowledge of any significant absentees from their line ups. Because it was a trial, there were times when I thought that they had boys trying to make individual impressions. I will say that their Ball line up in trial 1 featured some strong running forwards, with good organising around the ruck.