The Cumberland Throw

The Review We Had to Have – Part 1

The Review We Had to Have

When Parramatta Eels Chief Executive Officer, Bernie Gurr, announced 4-5-weeks ago that the Club was undertaking an 8-week Football Department review, it was met with mixed reactions across the Eels fan base. Some questioned the need for a review so early into our relatively new Board’s tenure, while others applauded the acknowledgement of the results from the current systems and the need for change.

It’s a strange position we find ourselves in right now, particularly given the heights of the 2017 season – it very much feels like a ‘two steps forward-one step back’ situation on the surface – but herein this situation lies an opportunity to identify the source(s) of our team (club) performance, and how we can go about remedying the situation for sustained success across our football program.

Just like the internal review being conducted, I’ll conduct my own “brief” review of the nine areas of our Football Department review, with the aim of providing insight to our current situation, and some suggested changes that can help us move forward. These nine areas include:

  • Governance and Leadership
  • Recruitment and Retention
  • Player Roster Management and Salary Cap
  • Coaching and Support (NRL, Intrust Super Cup and Junior Representative Program)
  • Parramatta Junior League
  • High Performance
  • Player Wellbeing and Education
  • Medical Support
  • Facilities

Now, those of you on here who have followed my work on here know that when I use the word brief, it can be an oxymoron of sorts and I must admit, this is subject-matter that I will find difficult to contain to the canvas of an article (in fact there’ll be a couple of articles covering the nine areas), but in the interests of our readers, I’ll do my best to keep it succinct.

Why the Review?

Whether it’s a transnational corporation on the global scale or your local corner store, every business will undertake a review of sorts at some point in time in their lifecycle and the Parramatta Eels National Rugby League Club is no exception.

There’s a connotation, rightly or wrongly, that comes with undertaking a business review. To many it means the need to implement mass change, to others, a slight adjustment in day-to-day operations – but to all it should mean simply this – doing what we do better and doing it more effectively.

Every aspect of operations within the Parramatta Eels should be done with one main purpose – to support the facilitation of our rugby league program. The Parramatta Eels are a rugby league club first and foremost, so all of their actions should be done with the view of creating and maintaining a sustainably successful football program that wins NRL premierships.

When you regress as we have on the field in 2018 and no immediate cause can be identified, it raises a series of questions. So, in order to get the most out of the review, these questions have to be effective and solution-focused.

If it were me undertaking the review some of the questions I’d be looking to ask across our nine Football Department areas would be divided over three main review areas: What happened? Can we win again? How will we win again?

  • What happened?
    • A review of the results, on and off the field, with a cause-and-effect focus
    • Why we produced the results we have?
    • What could have been done differently – and when?
    • What we could have achieved had things been done differently?
  • Can we win again?
    • All things above considered, what will it take for us to win again?
    • Do we have the staff to take us forward in this situation? If/ if not, what changes need to be made?
    • Do we have the resources to take us forward? If/ if not, what resources need to be brought in?
  • How will we win again?
    • How will the club go about winning and achieving the above?
    • What will the club do in its day-to-day operations to win again?
    • What will the club do in the short-term, medium-term and long-term plans to win again?
    • What is the best case-worst case scenario for the club?
    • If those results and expectations aren’t met, ‘what will be the process to redirect the course of the ship?’ and how will we ensure it’s ‘just a blip on the radar?’ Who will be held accountable to these results? And what will be the ramifications for achieving/not achieving results?

And this is just scratching the surface.

 

Governance and Leadership

The terms ‘Governance’ and ‘Leadership’ are interesting choices of words for a football department review. In layman’s terms, governance and leadership would generally connote things from a board perspective. However, given this review is football department-specific, one would have to assume this is from a hierarchical point of view, as well as the structural resources implemented (or not) from a leadership standpoint – for the purposes of this discussion, I’ll treat them as such.

But before I tackle those talking points, I’m going to address something that may be slightly controversial – and what I believe to be, at least partly, the genesis of this merry-go-round the Parramatta Eels have been riding since their last premiership year in 1986 – our culture.

 

Culture is Key

Our Culture and Identity

For a long time, the Eels have been running from their identity.

It seems under the guise of winning multiple premierships in the 1980s (and the massive following of support that ensued) we quickly developed the notion and idea that we were a ‘super club’ – Hey, we were flush with cash, resources and players wanted to wear the Blue and Gold. It meant premierships and representative jerseys (and by god does it make a great headline for modern day clickbait. Nothing like 80s nostalgia to reel the reader and viewership in, particularly if those readers and viewers support the Eels – I digress though).

So, with all these things working in our favour, we slowly become complacent. Short cuts were taken. We start looking for the ‘get rich quick – Instagram-famous – overnight-success golden ticket’ by chopping and changing football staff and players – and either side of the Brian Smith era, it bit us on the arse – hard.

The proof is in the pudding. Since our last premiership in 1986 up until Brad Arthur’s appointment for 2014 (not including the Brian Smith era), the Eels have had 9 coaches who averaged 2.1 years in the role as Head Coach. When one considers that glorified coaches Jack Gibson (7th season), Wayne Bennett (6th season), Craig Bellamy (5th season), Des Hasler (5th season), Tim Sheens (6th season) didn’t win premierships with until x-years of first grade coaching, it’s easy to see part of the reason why success has evaded the Eels. Coaches need time at clubs to build.

Similarly, coaches need the resources, both on and off the field to support the club build and it is for this reason we need to reclaim our identity from a governance and leadership perspective, because from a macro-level the club has remained dormant on consolidating its greatest strength – it’s identity – but more on that later.

For years either side of the Brian Smith coaching era we had been in limbo, trying to find the magic key and if it didn’t work within 2-years that coach and his coaching staff would be gone. All with this pie-in-the-sky notion that we will replicate the success of the 1980s.

So, each time the new guy would come in, not win a premiership, the fans would get restless, the journalists would run articles, an echo-chamber would be created and the witch hunt would ensue until the coach was gone – wash, rinse, repeat.

Same deal with the executive management team and boards. No premiership come election time? You’re out. No results on the field, Mr. CEO? See you later, it’s someone else’s turn.

And it’s easy to see why (and how) people can get caught up in that line of thinking – by 1986 we were a multi-premiership winning club, successful across multiple grades, had generated wide-spread support and had a team full of representative players. When you accumulate that type of success in such a concentrated period of time it re-frames expectations both for the staff working within the club and the members, fans and pundits outside of the club. It’s a mantle we haven’t been able to shed, but desperately need to.

The methodology behind how we do this lies within the direction we moved under the Brian Smith era, albeit with a little bit extra.

So, what is our identity Eels fans? Well, to put it simply, we are a development club.

We create our own talent, bring it through the ranks and then win premierships at NRL level. Simple enough, right?

It is, when you have the right resources in place.

Developing talent was a large part of Brian Smith’s focus when he came to the club and a huge reason why we had a successful football program during his tenure. The majority of the years he coached at the Parramatta Eels the first grade squad was in a position to challenge for an NRL title. The couple of years they weren’t, rarely turned into second years (in fact his lowest ever finish, 12th, was followed up by a minor premiership the next year).

Brian was very much a man ahead of his time. He was zigging when everyone else was zagging.

Rugby league was still moving towards the professional era of sport in the mid-1990s. It was a time of uncertainty for the greatest game of all, as it was confronted with what will probably be it’s greatest ever challenge – the Super League War. It was set to decimate the rugby league world by splitting the Australian rugby league competition in two.

So, in a very public manner players were aligning themselves to one competition or the other and clubs were paying exuberant amounts of money to secure top talent, as they attempted to stack their sides with representative players – hell, we even got caught up in it ourselves, as the Canterbury four (Dean Pay, Jim Dymock, Jason Smith and Jarrod McCracken) defected to the golden west in 1996. And as it came to pass, by 1997 rugby league was split into two competitions – and it was during this time of unrest that the ARL-aligned Eels made one of the most astute coaching appointments in their history.

As the governing bodies attempted to find some type of middle ground to realign the teams under a unified competition for the 1998 season, clubs were still very much focused on recruiting the best talent they could buy. Some bankrupted themselves, either having to fold or merge with other sides, while others could afford it, and had teams that regularly challenged for (and winning) premierships, footing large bills for star players in the process.

Out Parramatta-way however, Brian Smith adopted a completely different approach. He found that the Eels already had the resources to be successful – a vast junior rugby league catchment area that housed some of the best up-and-coming talent in rugby league. All that was needed was a way to tap into it – a pathways and development program towards first grade rugby league.

Fast forward a few years and some of the following players made names for themselves after coming through this pathways and development program overseen by Brian Smith. Some debuted under his coaching, some not until after he left the club and others did so at other clubs:

Chris Armit, Jack Afamasaga, Luke Burt, Nathan and Jason Cayless, Josh Cordoba, Brett Delaney, Ashley Graham, Blake Green, Eric Grothe Junior, Weller Hauraki, Jarryd Hayne, Nathan and Ian Hindmarsh, Michael Hodgson, Daniel Irvine, Krisnan Inu, Jamie Lyon, Feleti Mateo, PJ Marsh, Casey McGuire, Wade McKinnon, Adam Mogg, Dennis Moran, Fuifui Moimoi, Luke O’Dwyer, Joel Reddy, Pat Richards, Chad Robinson, Andrew Ryan, Ben Smith, Tim Smith, Zeb Taia, Willie Tonga, Justin Tsolous, David Williams, John Williams, John Wilson, David Vaealiki, Michael Vella, Michael Witt.

A pretty handy list of players there (and there’s plenty of names missing) but created within our own club were 8 x Australian Internationals, 6 x New Zealand Internationals and 11 x Origin players. Additionally, 1 x 300+ NRL game player, 9 x 200-299 NRL game players, 19 x 100-199 NRL game players, the club’s top two highest try scorers, its second highest point scorer and its most capped player in history – a damn good effort and all this because we focused on developing our own. We may not have generated any premierships from it, but in 6 of the 9 Brian Smiths coached seasons at the club, we were very close.

The beauty of Brian Smith’s tenure was that he was an innovator. While other clubs focused on buying, we focused on developing – and we were doing so at rates other clubs weren’t.

But therein also lies the problem. Other clubs eventually caught on and we became complacent. As we started to go through a string of coaches, staff and executive managers, the foundations Brian Smith had created crumbled, with the systems regularly changed and altered before the flowers could push through to the surface.

Pathway Focused: Brian Smith was huge for the Eels during his 10-season tenure

The Future

Times have quickly changed since the Brian Smith era and rugby league is now a mega-multi-million dollar business. The clubs that are the most successful are those who have settled on their identity, while conversely the ones that are wishy-washy have struggled.

We’ve seen clubs like the Penrith Panthers embrace their development club identity and forge ahead with their rugby league academy, while it seems as though ‘super clubs’ like the Sydney Roosters can continue to buy whoever they want on the open market.

Since Brad Arthur’s appointment, we’ve slowly started to move back towards a development club identity. This has happened both behind the scenes in our junior development programs, as well as within the first-grade team itself, with some players finding their way as either debutants or inexperienced players, developing into first grade quality NRL players in the top-grade itself.

But the opportunities that existed during Brian Smith’s time no longer exist. As I said earlier, teams have caught on and progressed with these identities. They’ve implemented full-scale hierarchical structures that have their football program buzzing along, regularly producing players ready for the rigours of NRL in a variety of positions (see Panthers, Penrith). These structures operate with some of the best rugby league resources and infrastructure that you have seen, allowing players to not only develop, but thrive, and they do so playing under a unified club banner across all grades of football, with the knowledge that should they perform, an opportunity to play NRL will become available to them.

This is where the Eels have become unstuck, because as a club they haven’t fully committed to this identity yet and from an executive and financial level it needs to be fully supported before we can accurately judge the efficacy of Brad Arthur’s first grade results. To be honest, he’s done a fantastic job to date with the resources he’s had, but 2018 has also been underwhelming and there are things that he will be ultimately accountable for and to.

We began 2018 under-resourced from a staffing perspective. The football management team has to oversee approximately 56 staff in the junior development program, while trying to coach the first grade and reserve grade teams themselves – it’s one hell of a job, particularly without a Football Manager to oversee it.

They currently operate out of demountables, while other teams have academy’s and centres of excellence housing the best rugby league resources in the country.

Meanwhile our reserve grade team doesn’t even play in our colours, with players who aren’t contracted to our club, at a ground that isn’t affiliated with the Eels. It alienates those who are club contracted players, but not playing NRL, and it breaks the bond and identity these players can develop with the club. Players coming through our grades should only wear blue and gold with the Eels logo on their chest. Is it any surprise that we went from 4 back-to-back premierships under the Eels banner (the last one our first in Wenty colours in 2008), to not even looking like reserve grade premiers since that point in time? Meanwhile the Panthers go from strength-to-strength in that competition since they severed their relationship with Windsor and St. Mary’s respectively, re-centralising their reserve grade operations to the club, regularly producing NRL quality talent.

To say we’re behind is somewhat of an understatement and if this season highlights anything from a governance and leadership perspective for the football department, it’s that we need greater resources in terms of personnel and infrastructure to survive and thrive.

 

What the Football Department review needs to produce from a Governance and Leadership perspective?

  • A General Manager of Football: A well-experienced, credentialed operator who can oversee the program holistically (The club has already indicated that this will take place, if you fancy yourself capable of the job, feel free to apply here).
  • Strategic placement of select middle level managers in the football department to support the General Manager of Football: This may just require the re-organisation of people or the introduction of a couple more heads as opposed to mass-hiring. Focus should be placed on management of the salary cap and budgetary considerations, contract negotiations across all grades, football operations that support NRL, reserve grade and the junior representative programs, the junior league, game development, strength and conditioning/physical performance, and player well-being and education (including media training and public conduct).
  • Coaching resources: The NRL team lost a lot of rugby league experience when Assistant Coach Peter Gentle moved to South Sydney and Head Trainer Ronnie Palmer to Wests Tigers. It’s a truckload of rugby league knowledge and expertise that wasn’t replaced until well after the 2018 season commenced – and has likely had some effect on performance. Ensuring that these resources are in place prior to the start of pre-season 2019 and beyond will only help our cause.
  • Infrastructure: It’s become abundantly clear that we need some form of Centre of Excellence and it should be our strategic priority following the successful transition to Western Sydney Stadium. Our fans will get the best from 2019 onwards, now it’s time our players did too. Identifying and committing to a site, as well as the establishment of a revenue-generating operation, specifically designed for the purpose of creating our own Centre of Excellence is paramount. Just how we go about doing so is a discussion for another time.
  • Reserve Grade returning to the Eels: Sixities has written a couple of articles about this already here and here. If we are to return to and fully commit to the identity of ‘development club’ all players should be wearing our colours and our logo for the reasons he cites in his articles and the ones in this article above.

 

Recruitment and Retention

Recruitment and retention of players will always be an exciting point of discussion amongst the supporter base, but we mustn’t be remiss in thinking this doesn’t extend to football staff as well. It’s imperative to have the right people involved at all levels, but for the sake of this discussion piece, I’ll focus purely on the player aspect.

Leading into the 2018 NRL season both Eels fans and media personalities questioned our lack of size in our forward pack. For the most part they felt it was the missing piece in our quest for premiership glory, but the truth of the matter is you need tremendous balance across your whole roster to put yourself in a position to consistently challenge for the premiership and this relies on so many caveats such as the current salary cap position, the ability to recruit players (internally or externally) into the senior squads, as well as the balance in personnel across the senior squad(s).

Yahoo Tahu: Timana Tahu fronted some shrewd recruitment decisions for the Eels in 2005

Ideally, you have a certain type of player for each position in the top 17 team somewhere within the club’s roster. An example of how this may look is the following:

  • Fullback: The supportive fullback pushing up on each play or the additional playmaker to support the halves.
  • Winger: Big wingers who can finish off backline movements and ruck the ball out of the red zone consistently, or if your team can support it, a smaller winger with blistering speed that will score the second they’re in open space.
  • Centre: Defensively strong and can finish off a backline movement through either pass or run.
  • Halves: Strong kickers who either consistently set up other players through their passing game or through their running game.
  • Middle forwards: Bigger attack-orientated middle forwards who can consistently make metres but may be defensive liabilities or a smaller defensive-orientated middle forward who doesn’t get over the advantage line as consistently, but rarely misses a tackle.
  • Edge forwards: Attack-orientated edge forwards that run hard lines and pose a threat as a runner and decoy but may miss the odd tackle, a larger playmaker who can defend closer to the ruck or two or defence-orientated edge forwards act as guards for defensively weaker halves, never missing a tackle, but unlikely to be consistently damaging in attack.
  • Hooker: A creator with great passing service who can generate a threat from dummy-half through either their passing/running game or a tackling machine who provides quality service to the halves.

If you can generate a roster that has balance across all these positions, with all these different types of players, mixed with a combination of experience in key positions and youth rounding out the squad, you’re going to be well positioned to challenge for a premiership.

The last time the Eels were doing as such across all their senior teams was 2005 – for the record, the NRL team were Minor Premiers (knocked out in grand final qualifier), Reserve Grade were Premiers and Jersey Flegg were Grand Finalists. Listed below is a copy of team lists across our NRL, Reserve Grade and Jersey Flegg teams from that year:

2005 Parramatta Eels Squad

Position NRL Reserve Grade Jersey Flegg
Fullback Wade McKinnon Joel Reddy Michael Basan
Winger Luke Burt Matt Peterson Jarryd Hayne
Centre Ben Smith Ashley Graham Ben Farrar
Centre Timana Tahu Brett Delaney Krisnan Inu
Winger Eric Grothe John Williams Simon Micallef
Five-Eighth John Morris Jeremy Smith Blake Green
Halfback Tim Smith Marcus Perenara Kris Keating
Prop Nathan Cayless Adam Peek Weller Hauraki
Hooker Mark Riddell Ian Henderson Matt Keating
Prop Paul Stringer Aaron Cannings Craig Heslop
Second Row Nathan Hindmarsh Daniel Wagon Jack Afamasaga
Second Row Glenn Morrison Henry Perenara Zeb Taia
Lock Chad Robinson Luke O’Dwyer Kurt Sorenson
Interchange PJ Marsh James Storer Scott Jones
Interchange Dean Widders Chris Muckert David Williams
Interchange Michael Vella Josh Cordoba Broderick Wright
Interchange Fuifui Moimoi Justion Tsolous Tim Wynn

As you can see across all three grades there was tremendous balance within the squad and players who fit all types of position descriptions. Is it any surprise we enjoyed the success that we did that season? We were well stocked for each position with each type of player – this is the model we have to move back towards.

And why? Because for too long we’ve been avoiding our identity – we’re a development club.

 

What the Football Department review needs to produce from a Recruitment and Retention perspective?

  • Greater balance of players across our three senior squads: As mentioned above, the balance of a squad is imperative to it’s long-term success. To succeed like this there is a need to identify the core group of 7-10 players for a 5-10-year period, while using the systems to facilitate the spots around them. It’s something the Melbourne Storm have done to tremendous effect for many years now (even if they weren’t salary cap compliant for a period of that time) via external recruitment of role players, and it’s something we can replicate with our juniors internally in years to come.
  • A variety of types of players within the rugby league programs: If you have too many of the same type of player or you’re missing a certain type of player within your football program, it leaves a hole in your club – and your NRL team is ultimately going to be affected at some point. For us in 2018 it’s been the regular presence of two big-bodied players in our back three to ruck us out of our red zone and to develop some momentum for our forwards to play on the back of. If one of your main players go down, you want as close to a like-for-like replacement as possible. When you ensure there’s variety of players you can prepare for a variety of game plans against a variety of different teams – another thing Brian Smith coached sides did to great effect.

 

Player Roster Management and Salary Cap

Player roster management and salary cap very much ties into the discussion above about balance in the squad and the recruitment and retention. The equation is relatively simple – ensure we have as much balance in the squad as possible at all times. This protects limits the amount of deficiencies in our game across the season, as we have players capable of stepping up to first grade to fill the void.

Let’s use our wingers as an example to illustrate this point.

At almost all points of 2017, bar our opening 6-games, we had at all times, two of our back three (fullback and both wingers) as bigger bodied players who could ruck the ball out. This generally a combination of either of the following:

  • Bevan French/Will Smith, Semi Radradra and Kirisome Auva’a
  • Clint Gutherson, Semi Radradra, Kirisome Auva’a/Josh Hoffman

Our win rate with either of those forms of combinations was 14-wins, 6-losses (two of which were our finals games), with a differential of +36. Conversely, our win-loss rate with two smaller players in the back three was 2-wins, 4-losses with a differential of -18 – a 36% swing.

A relatively small sample size I hear you say? Well let’s carry the trend into 2018, where we lost Semi Radradra and were down a bigger-bodied outside back to ruck the ball out of the red zone, a place we have notably struggled this year.

Missed: The Eels have missed the try-scoring and metre-making Semi Radradra in 2018

4 of the 5 games we’ve won to date have been when we’ve had at least two bigger players in the back three – our biggest coming when we had 3 bigger players in our back three against Manly in round 7. Conversely, our biggest losses have come when we’ve had two smaller players in the back three. The final results? Of our 20 games in 2018 so far, we have won 1 game with two smaller backs and lost 7 with a differential of -120, while winning 4 and losing 8 games with at least two bigger back three players and obtaining a differential of -4.

Now this isn’t necessarily complete causality, but it does seem to suggest having at least two bigger back three players help improve the Eels chances of winning, because ultimately, they’re making more yards and helping improve the teams field position. It also seems to suggest that we’re likely to score more points and concede less as a result of this field position.

So, what does that mean for player roster management and salary cap? We need to ensure we’re in a position to have at least two bigger outside backs in our top 17 and first grade capable replacements through either astute reserve grade recruits or development of junior players within our systems.

Given the recent recruitment of Maika Savo from the Panthers reserve grade side, the development of Haze Dunster within our own systems, George Jennings progression in the NRL team, under 20’s metre eater Greg Leleisiuao and the recruitment of the highest metre-gainer for season 2018 to date, Blake Ferguson, the Eels will be much better served in this area moving forward, having players across the program capable of doing that job and pushing for Top 17 selection.

And this is just an example of one position in the squad. It’s an approach we’ll need to adopt squad wide, as we did during the Brian Smith era, to help position us for sustainable success.

After that point in time, it’s simply about determining who is surplus to needs at any given point of their contract. I.e. if we have a similar player in our system who is capable of taking over the role of a more established NRL player, both are off-contract and the NRL player has been offered an inflated wage to go to an opposing NRL team, we should have no qualms in letting that player seek that deal and replacing them with the similar-styled junior player for less on our roster. Simple in principle I know, but as we’ve shown before, achievable as well.

 

What the Football Department review needs to produce from a Player Roster and Salary Cap perspective?

  • Ensuring that our development players are as close to like-for-like as their NRL counterparts are: I referenced earlier the need for both a balance in the variety of type of player you have, but also the need for balance in like-for-like replacements. Let’s say hypothetically next year our starting wingers are George Jennings and Blake Ferguson. Two big-bodied players capable of rucking the ball out of the red zone. One has a height advantage that can be used for cross-field kicks (Ferguson), the other is a bit more nuggety but is more likely to run the length of the field than the other (Jennings). Should Blake Ferguson go down next year, we ideally have a replacement that can both ruck the ball out and use their height for cross-field attacking kicks. Enter Maika Savo, a bigger-bodied player with height, has scored plenty off cross-field kicks in reserve grade, but is currently bought as an NRL-capable project player for the reserve grade team. Replicating this across our squad will injury-proof us and ensure all roles within the NRL team can be performed when injuries inevitably come.
  • Leverage our Juniors to limit Salary Cap expenditure: The beauty of being a development club means that you can leverage the players you develop to offset having to pay “overs” for any players on the market. When a club prioritizes its core group with the salary cap, it means only role players have to be brought in around them. These role players can absolutely push themselves into the core group, should their form warrant it, just as when players age or lose form they can move out of the core group. Ultimately it means the club doesn’t have to bullied into a position by player agents to meet contract demands that will force them to compromise their salary cap position.

 

The truth of it all Eels fans is that this review probably won’t reveal anything that’s a real major surprise to any well-educated fan. What matters is how we implement systemized structures that allow us to produced sustained success within our football program and give us the best chance to regularly challenge for NRL titles.

Governance and Leadership, Recruitment and Retention, and Player Roster and Salary Cap are just some of the ways we can tighten the bolts and I’d love to hear your thoughts on these discussion points below.

Stay tuned for the next edition where I’ll tackle the Coaching and Support, Junior League, High Performance, Wellbeing and Education, Medical Support and Facilities discussion points.

Yours in Blue and Gold,

Clint

All images courtesy of the Parramatta Eels, NRL.com and Getty Images.

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41 thoughts on “The Review We Had to Have – Part 1

  1. Anonymous

    V good and informative read Clint; Smith was v good but imo was allowed to stay too long. I just hope they get things right asap as new stadium etc. we need a big season.

    1. Clint Post author

      Thanks Anon. Smith was great for the club and there are some definite clues he left behind for us to progress. However, this isn’t about looking back, it’s about leveraging his success to help forge our future identity. Like a golfer trying to land the ball on the green, we need only adjust ourselves a quarter of an inch.

  2. sixties

    Much appreciated Clint. I’m looking forward to part two.
    As you are well aware, I have been on my crusade for returning ISP wholly to the Eels. I’ve also been vocal about the need for a centre of excellence. If we can’t have it immediately (which obviously we can’t) we need to know that we are on the path to one. Hopefully this will be officially confirmed.

    1. Clint Post author

      My pleasure Sixties.
      It’s not a crusade you ride alone in my friend. ISP needs to be returned as soon as possible, while a centre of excellence commitment needs to be our next strategic priority. The club will gain plenty of support in vocalising this, as well as sharing a plan with the membership on how to do so. I have a few ideas on how we do this myself and remain open minded to the way in which we generate the necessary revenue to achieve this.

    2. John Eel

      Is there any indication yet that we may transition to a Parramatta Eels run ISP side?

      Also the new chairman did indicate that they were committed to a Centre of Excellence whin the nest 5 years. I do not believe that he would have offered up this information unless he believed it was feasible.

      1. Clint Post author

        As Sixties said below John, operationally is where the concerns have always lied. It’s what prompted the move in the first place.

        As for the Centre of Excellence and Sean’s comments, I’ll take a deeper look at this in my next article – stay tuned!

    3. Jimmy Corbo

      Excellent read Clint, my sentiments are as per Sixties above, they go hand in hand in terms of success, give them a place to develop and then a place to flourish.

      Let’s wait and see what comes of the review and importantly our financial position moving forward, all well and good identifying what we need but do we have the funds to pay for it. Also great to see the advert is out for the GM of footy, this role needs to be filled by 1 Nov to start the new season with all the pieces in place.

      1. Clint Post author

        Ohh 100% Jimmy, dollars and cents will always determine what we can/can’t facilitate, but identifying the opportunities for growth are just as important. I think from a supporter perspective what would be most advantageous for all of us to learn is that, if we’re not in a financial position to make such moves immediately, what will be done to ensure we can make it happen by x point in time. This is what I was referencing in my three main review areas – What happened? Can we win again? How will we win again?

        I agree – it’s important we wait to see what the review will reveal, as well as the advert for the GM of Football. I think we’ll find that it will be filled before November 1 and the appointee will have a good month in the role to acquaint themselves before the commencement of 2019 pre-season.

  3. Colin Hussey

    Clint excellent blog/post that makes one look forward to the review being completed and the associated recommendations that will come as a result.

    The one big thing for me which you touched on is the need to have an Eels ISP team rather than the current Wenty combination, the questions though are how can it be implemented and how soon?

    Realistically Wenty are hampered quite a bit by the marriage and no doubt the same with the eels. Without knowing how the eels can get their own ISP team, I would like both the Wenty and Eels officials to get together ASAP and be ready for a decision and application to the NRL and NSWRL when the review is handed down. I would believe its in both clubs interests to have the divorce (as such) ratified in readiness for next season.

    By both clubs having their own teams, it likely means one less bye needs to be taken in the season, which gives all the ISP another team to play against.

    Having it start next season should also mean the eels Isp teams play on the same day and ground as the NRL plays in.

    Again great blog and I hope my above comments are not seen as a diverting of the blog away from the review rather it being part and parcel within the review.

    1. Clint Post author

      Thank you Colin, I appreciate the sentiments.
      ISP has been the (often forgotten) pink elephant in the football department. It’s just not a sustainable model for the club moving forward and there needs to be some public clarity behind why we continue/discontinue our relationship with Wenty.
      Ideally the ISP team would be the curtain raiser to all NRL games, but I know Venues NSW will have limitations re same-day utilization. Our ability to navigate these limitations, as well as the flexibility of Venues NSW will determine whether this is something we can proceed with or not.
      In the case we can’t get them playing out of the same ground, the view and goal should be that our ISP and Flegg teams could play out of a purpose built centre of excellence field. That way they at least stay a part of the club as opposed to another clubs badge, identity and facilities.

    1. Clint Post author

      Thanks Sheila, I do too. It was difficult to contain the verbose in me to what I wrote, but I think there’s a framework we can run with that will set us up long term.

    2. sixties

      Sheila, the humble qualities in Clint prevent him from revealing that many moons ago as a young player he was a part of the Development system implemented at Parra. Having also worked at the Eels, he writes with experience.

    1. Clint Post author

      Thanks Max, I appreciate your sentiments. It’s great to hear the positive feedback.
      There’ll be more to it than what I cover in my articles and had I been carrying out this review myself, it’d be a lot longer than this article, such is the depth of reviewing a multifaceted operations such as a rugby league club. As I said to Sheila above, there’s a framework that we can run with that will set us up long term and it’s necessary for us to operate effectively structurally and operationally.

  4. BDon

    Informative read Clint. Tks for your time and effort. A couple of queries: Does Venues NSW cover all NRL grounds or just particular ones? Do you know if the review will be publicly released? Also, is it possible for your report to include a section on finances? An overview of major income and cost items. This would indicate how an NRL club is financed and the challenges of being efficient. The relationship between football and licensed club seems an interesting and dark mosh pit.

    1. Clint Post author

      Thanks BDon, it was my pleasure. I always aim to bring balance to my discussion pieces.

      To answer your queries, Venues NSW has these stadiums sit within their portfolio: ANZ Stadium at Olympic Park, McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle, Western Sydney Stadium in Parramatta and WIN Stadium in Wollongong. Other venues in NSW are either run by trusts, local councils or are club owned.

      I doubt the full findings of the review will be publicly released. It would be a lengthy document with some detailed recommendations. I’d suggest what the club will do following the completion of the review is take a couple of weeks to go through the recommendations and the media team will release an email/article on the website from Bernie Gurr, much like they did to announce the commencement of the review, with some of the key findings and changes they’re implementing. The main thing to consider in this instance is that the club is not under any obligation to release these findings to the members. As a Propriety Limited business, they don’t have to reveal any of the findings to us and it’s probably within the best interests of the club that our competitors, be they NRL clubs or other sports, not be privy to this sensitive information. However, paying members do deserve some form of outcome and I have no doubt the club will do so in the format I referenced above.

      I could cover some budgetary considerations in my next article, but without having up-to-date P&Ls and the current budget at my disposal, I would be making some educated guesses. Throwing those numbers out there like that risks fans taking it as gospel and feeding that echo chamber I referenced in my article. What I would suggest is a good place to start however is the Leagues Club’s financial position. They are the clubs biggest benefactor and exist for the purpose of supporting sporting and community operations. Given the Leagues Club has just made some refurbishments and opened it’s new carpark (and still set to commence stage 2 of their $110m upgrade with a sports and aquatic centre, plus high rise hotel), I’d suggest their ability to provide extra revenue might be a little tight (we must consider that the salary cap scenario cost them funds they would have otherwise had). However, that’s not to say other things may not be prioritized ahead of stage 2 either. There are interesting times ahead!

  5. Longfin Eel

    Great report Clint. When I read your paragraphs about the football operations team, I was wondering if the club would be better placed to have these types of activities located in the Parramatta CBD to leverage business exposure. The new stadium may bring the CBD a bit closer to the Leagues Club, but at the moment it is a bit removed from that. This could also help build relationships with local businesses for TPAs and sponsorships, something the club desperately needs to build on.

    I agree that the Centre of Excellence needs to be fast tracked, but finding a space for this close to Parramatta is difficult, as most (or all) sports fields have pressures on them for junior sports and councils will be reluctant to limit usage to one club. Also, where do we build the infrastructure so that it is located on the site of the training field? The solution may mean opening the centre to schools and universities, which would only help the club’s development credentials anyway.

    1. Clint Post author

      Thanks Longfin, glad you enjoyed it.

      It’s a dichotomy of sorts because as you stated, there is limited space available in Parramatta CBD, particularly for an operation such as this. Given the amount of work that’s taking place in the CBD already and accounting for the amount of DA lodged properties that are sitting with council, there may not be the opportunity for us to build it in Parramatta (I say this without full knowledge of the arrangement with council over the Salesyard site, but I believe, and I’m sure Sixities can clarify here, that we’re currently leasing or renting this in some capacity). Ideally, we’re able to move forward with the Salesyard project and base ourselves out of there.

      However, as un-ideal as it may be, if Parramatta is not an option I’d suggest the Hills District may be the next best place to look for a site. The North-West is still very much in our junior catchment area, over 40% of the Hills population identify as Eels supporters in some capacity (Neilson Sports Study, 2012) and they’re the most affluent of our supporter base. Considering the ever growing Norwest Business Park and Marsden Park Business Park and the existing supporter base in these areas, it could be a feasible option. Other neighbouring councils in Cumberland, Ryde and Blacktown could also present opportunities. At the end of the day it’s about the availability of space and it’s limited in this city as it is, let alone within our own catchment areas, but we must be prepared to exhaust all options.

      TPAs generally come from people who are big supporters of the club. Given the deals have to be at arms length, this is the only way to organically generate TPAs. Even some of our main sponsors are based out in the Hills. Actron Air, our current sleeve sponsor being an example of this. So there is growth and business connection opportunities there too and it’s important that we investigate all potential opportunities.

      From a sponsorship perspective it’s the remit of our corporate team to maintain and grow revenue generating opportunities. Football operation staff aren’t meant to have anything to do with the organisation of any such deals.

      Generally speaking, unless you can fund the project yourself, as the Panthers did, you are probably looking at some type of council assistance and opening up the facilities to the local community. If that’s the path we have to travel, so be it, I have no problem with this, but ultimately, we have to ensure that we don’t compromise the financial position of the club. This needs to be a calculated operation that’s fast-tracked, but not rushed either.

      1. sixties

        Saleyards is Crown land, that the Council operates and leases to Parra. I’m not sure whether it could ever be developed, but I’m not privy to such details.

  6. John Eel

    Clint a good read from you as always. firstly let me say that I agree with the comment of Anon about Smith maybe being left in place a little too long. at the end of the day he never won an NRL title and that must be disappointing for him.

    Further I was not thinking at the start of the investigation that we would not get so much in depth appraisal on recruiting but as you outline it certainly is critical and clearly has been an issue. Also with coaching staff I heard BA’s words the other day about players glazing over when the only person talking to them is him. Their needs to be replacements for Gentle and Palmer even if it is just to get some fresh ideas and a different voice

    I also believe that the Eels ISP team and the Centre of Excellent is critical if we want to keep up with the Jones’s based on being a development club.

      1. Colin Hussey

        The bringing in of Adrian Jimenez has added very much to the way the eels are playing, (how long ago did he start?) even though there has been more losses than wins, certainly the team as a whole has shown they are not the losers they were prior to his arrival. The extra voice and ear with him has been more than worth it, and I sincerely hope he is here longer term.

        Sixties, any chance of a blog, as overview of the season with some aspects of the support staff such as this fellow and the difference he has put in place. I will be very interested in watching how things pan out for next year.

        1. sixties

          From memory, Adrian joined the club in the week of the match in Darwin. The squad work through Lachlan Wilmot’s sports science drills as well as the drills introduced by Adrian.
          I’ll be writing a season review. I hope to speak with both Lachlan and Adrian again prior to that.

          1. Colin Hussey

            Thanks mate, that certainly goes hand in hand with the improved showing of the team.

            Look forward to the season review.

    1. Clint Post author

      It’s been doing the rounds for just over a week now (I had drafted my article prior to it’s publishing). Isn’t it fantastic to see this proactive measure from our club, even before the review has come to an end? I love that the new Chairman in conjunction with the CEO are getting on the front foot and not waiting until the end of the review.

  7. Shelley

    Fantastic read. It is good watching our juniors coming through. It is interesting to see a return to a mixture of local juniors and those who have come into the junior program through good junior identification.
    Under Smith, even going back to the golden 80’s we always had a mix of local kids and those who came from out of the district into the junior program, players such as Hindmarsh, Andrew Ryan and Jamie Lyon, or Cronin and Sterling.

    For some reason post Smith we thought that local kids who started at Parra district when they were 5 would be good enough and no need to look further. Sure we need to ensure we have the money and facilities but we must also have the right people to identify and nurture the talent, all the way up to first grade.

    1. MAX

      Shelley – Post Smith is when Kevin Wise was taken out of the Junior program and we have never been the same since, both Kevin and his wife Lynn had a massive impact on our Juniors and how they came through the system and how our Junior programs and talent identification systems were run.

      1. sixties

        Fortunately Anthony Field has done a fine job with junior talent identification, as evidenced with the current group pushing into NRL, ISP and Flegg.

        1. MAX

          Agreed Sixties, however it is done very differently these days and there was a void in that area, following Kevin’s departure, that we have felt the effects of. Certainly not critical of Anthony in any way!

          1. sixties

            Cheers Max, didn’t think you were critical. That Junior role is critical and it takes time to be effective. That’s the problem – systems can break down quickly if not attended to, but take so long to build again. Fortunately the decision was made to build.

        2. Clint Post author

          Fieldsy is a great operator and has great football intelligence. I hope one of the things that comes out of this review is the identification and implementation of more support for he and his operations – it will know no bounds, should the proper resources be put in place.

      2. Clint Post author

        Kev Wise is one of the most Parramatta Eels names you’ll ever hear, but most don’t know. An absolute gentleman who has done everything at the Eels. The Blue and Golds were lucky to have him. I’ve spent some time with Kevvy in my time and could not speak more highly of he or Lynn. But as Sixities said below, fortunately we have Anthony Field who has been the key man in the development and progression of some of the young guys we’re starting to see coming through now. Like Kev, Anthony is also every bit the gentleman and someone who I could not praise more highly in both a professional and personal capacity.

        1. Colin Hussey

          His name in many ways is synonymous with the eels over a long period of time and one held in high esteem, he laid a wonderful foundation for the juniors in our area, and thankfully from what I read regarding Anthony Field he is doing a pretty fair job as well. These two served and serve the eels very well indeed.

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