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It is time for the first takes on the upcoming 2022 season and The Tip Sheet is starting with the announcement of the Junior Representatives squads. Long time friend of The Throw and The Parra Podcast regular, Ham, joins the show to add his familiarity and expertise with the juniors to the discussion.
The trio welcome back Joey Grima after a considerable hiatus and waste zero time getting into the nitty gritty of junior footy. Joey, as always is both incredibly accommodating and informative and details the boys on the full lay of the land in Parramatta’s farm system.
From there Ham helps Sixties and Forty20 breakdown the three junior representative squads announced this week across the Harold Matthews, SG Ball and Tarsha Gale. Who is returning and who are the new faces? What positions will be a strength for their respective squads and who will star for those teams?
This episode closes out with another installment in The Parra Stories series. Club President Paul Fuda joins The Tip Sheet to talk about one of the biggest movers and shakers in the Parramatta junior district in the Rouse Hill Rhinos. Paul takes Sixties and Forty20 through the history of the club, their brilliant development of their coaching staff and the importance of Pink Day for the Rhinos.
Cheers fellas, thank you for the time with this one.
Just tuning in now. When Joey talks about the academy / development 14’s / 16’s years, was that for girls only? or boys too? It did not seem clear in his answer.
Thanks Milo. They are looking to establish development squads for the girls as the lead in programs for Tarsha Gale.
Ok, i was unsure. So do we have 14’2 and 16’s development squads for boys? I missed this.
Yes, 14, 15 and 16 development squads. Lists are on the Eels website.
Thanks mate, have not caught up to this yet. I am still getting over the semi final loss……
As am I!
Have the age limits for Matt’s, SG Ball and Jersey Flegg changed permanently?
If it has I think that it is a good thing. Keeping slow maturers in the system longer may well throw up some more quality players.
The other issue I would like to see pursued is weight for age limits. I saw an interview with Nathan Cleary a couple of years ago on that very subject.
He said in that interview that growing up playing in New Zealand he likely would not have continued playing if they had not had weight for age size limits.
It’s difficult to see how those age limits could revert back without losing a year of players in the age groups. Eg if they reverted next year, then the 18 year olds held out of SG Ball due to being young would have to try to be graded in the Flegg without ever playing Ball.. Given the loss of the 2020 competitions, and the loss of local footy in 2021, it is probably a challenging time to do that. The interesting thing is the players who might skip Ball any way given the 18 and 19 year olds debuting in the NRL, so who knows? I think the Flegg being for 21 year olds is better than stopping at 20.
Weight divisions – They need to have a model which doesn’t restrict kids from playing with their mates.
eg – when I was a kid they had weight restrictions in primary school competitions (Union) and I had to wait till year 6 to be able to play. All of my mates in my weekend club played for the school team but I couldn’t. It was a big deal for me as a kid as all I wanted to do was play and there were no open weight teams in the younger ages.
i think the model would be two year age team eg 6, 8, 10, 12 etc with an under weight, and open weight. Still, I see problems because some big kids aren’t necessarily athletic and those kids have no major advantage playing against smaller fast kids. But they might have a major disadvantage against bigger athletic kids.
My memory is that at one point the old third grade competition was under 23
John when the 3rd grade comp was changed to under 23’s I believe it was the catalyst for the dropping away for many players who ended up either giving the game away or having to go to the 2nd division teams. While the concept was ok in the end though it really saw the beginnings for the demice of RL in a lot of areas.
How many 2nd division teams are there now? and we now only have the NRL comp & the Knock on cup, and that takes a fair number of players of both senior and lower grade levels into a small competition itself.
I remember going to many of the junior rep matches, Presidents cup, was the pinnacle stepping stone for younger players that were in the Flegg and other age based grades. Presidents cup in particular was very much the primary stepping stone to the main game, as the comp was only short and was used to blood and see what talents were available that could/would go to the next ladder, 3rd grade.
The old 3rd grade was said to be full of old players who would not go any higher, true to a point but it also made an opening for easing players injured back into the game, in many cases it meant some of them were no longer able to play even in that grade owing to injuries and treatments was much less back then.
The 3rd grade eventually died owing to the under 23’s being the new song as players could still play in that grade if they turned 23 in that year, but if not good enough for reserves, that was when their careers finished in the game in that time.
Also it did not take long for the 23’s to go out as well, as it was a psudo version of the Schools Amco cup, and mid week Wednesday night games.. & the slide continued with those comps dieing and where we are at now.
The only aspect that is positive from it now, is that the Knock on cup, is to played as a forerunner for the NRL games, if & when that comp gets going.
Colin, I didn’t have a problem with the under 23s being the stepping stone to reserve grade. The demise was the degradation of that level of footy. It began with the promotion of the NYC as the curtain raiser and the promotion of players directly from NYC to NRL, such was the poor standard of the NSW Cup. I didn’t have a problem with NYC, more so how clubs used it.
i believe that Parra is in a better place by fielding a NSW Cup team that they treat as a genuine reserve grade.
Great listening boys, personal think young Sinclair could be our own Daniel tupou ,..in the future,
He’s very tall isn’t he! I’m still of the belief that he could become an edge player.