The 2022 Parramatta Eels Junior Rugby League season was finally wrapped up following Tuesday’s official presentation night. Held at Oatlands House, the event recognised some of the outstanding achievements of the Parramatta District Junior Rugby League Clubs.
Over the last two years, TCT has profiled the fine community work of the clubs that participate in the PDJRL. It’s been a learning experience for us, one where we’ve also found out about the significant investment in junior rugby league made by Parramatta Leagues Club. Essentially, their generosity assists in greatly reducing the cost of playing footy for every club and every junior player in the district.
Two years ago Trivett Subaru came on board as a supporter of the Parramatta Junior Rugby League. Eels fans have probably become familiar with Trivett Subaru’s involvement via their popular raffle to win a Subaru Impreza, with tickets sold at Eels home games. During 2022, that raffle raised over $40K for the junior clubs.
Special recognition was also given to Matt Brady for his work over the past 8 years. Matt is transitioning from working as the Pathways and Participation Manager into another executive role within Eels pathways.
Forty and I attended the event and are pleased to list the following award winners:
Appreciation of Service – Wayne Smith
Coach of the Year – Sam Rutherford, Hills District Bulls
Sam Tuivaiti – remember that name
Volunteer of the Year – Mathew Picone, Marconi Mustangs
Secretary of the Year – Jen Ramzan, Guildford Owls
Modified Football Incentive Shield – Hills District Bulls
Junior Incentive Shield – Hills District Bulls
Phil Carey Memorial Award (Player of The Year) – Sam Tuivaiti (Wenty Magpies)
Referee of The Year – Olivia Lawne
Club of the Year – Hills District Bulls
Club Championship – Hills District Bulls
Hills District Bulls – receiving the Club Championship award
It was obviously a massive night for Hills District Bulls, certainly one that was richly deserved. As Mick Gremmo noted, volunteers in junior clubs don’t put in all of their time to win awards or to produce the next NRL player. They do it to help make each young boy or girl a better person.
We extend our congratulations to all of the award winners, and our thanks to each and every one of the clubs for the important work they do with young people in their communities.
Eels forever!
Sixties
So 60’s, can you comment on the allegations that only two or three clubs get any significant assistance from the Eels and the rest are left to wither. Please note, this is a legit request for insight, not a thinly veiled implication of wrongdoing. The stories I hear, which I sincerely hope are inaccurate, is that internal politics in the junior leagues is rampant. Given that all the juniors that we seem to be producing atm seem to come from Rouse Hill Rhinos, can you elaborate ?
To be honest Brett, this post was put up in recognition of the terrific work that all junior clubs do. As such I am quite unwilling to turn this into a debate about such matters that you’ve raised – this is not the forum for it. Anytime I’ve felt that something needs to be known, good or not so good, I have spoken to people within the club directly. I know nothing about the Eels favouring certain clubs ahead of others in terms of assistance.
But here’s a truth. Right back to when my father played A grade in the early 1950s for a number of Parra junior clubs there has been a perception that you needed to play for this club or that club to succeed. And the thing about perception is that it becomes self-fulfilling as the talented players or those with ambitions gravitate towards the “strong” clubs. It’s true of any junior league.
This awards night was a celebration of achievements of the junior clubs. For example, the coach of the year was an under 6 coach who helped to drive the tackle ready program. The Hills Bulls were big winners on the night and are an amazingly run club – and if you haven’t done so, read our profile on them or visit their website.
In addition to the elite pathways review conducted by Nathan Brown, Parramatta completed a review of the Junior Clubs. There are changes afoot within the organisation to maximise assistance to all clubs.
As for your comments regarding the Rhinos, you will find that there will be clubs that will have particularly strong teams in different eras in Parra’s history. For example, Cabramatta had an amazing group back in Jarryd Hayne’s time, Wenty have long produced dominant teams and filled plenty of spots in last year’s Matt’s side. Rouse Hill had a very strong team that went through together and included the likes of Jake Arthur, Will Penisini, Sean Russell, Sam Loizou, Peter Taateo, Jontay Junior Betham Misa and Toni Mataele and won titles. Every one of those players were playing at Parra this year, so you can imagine that as a club team they were extremely strong – and they had the benefit of BA coaching them for a few years too.
Anyway, over the last few years the Eels have endeavoured to identify development squad players from as many clubs as possible and the recently selected 2023 Eels development squads have players from 13 different junior clubs, and included players from below division 1.
Thank heavens for rhinos then , sneaky comment backfired brett!!
Nothing sneaky about it, it was a statement of fact, not an accusation
To be clear, this wasn’t a dirt digging exercise on my part, it was a genuine unbiased request for information. You’re in and around the club, I am not. A simple, “despite what the trolls are saying, it’s nothing out of ordinary” type response is all I needed, if that was the truth.
Brett you know who the trolls are. When they are posting you’d be able to have a fair guess about whether they would have any way of knowing the truth or not. For the record, I’ve not heard anything out of the ordinary.
Ok, I’ve just seen some comments from people who claim to be involved with the junior league saying that unless kids come from a few favoured clubs, I’m guessing Wenty, Cabra, Hills, RHR, that they just get ignored. I was hoping you could shed some light on whether there is any truth to that
Seems answered.
Brett, the well run clubs do not need any financial support from the Eels. Hills, Rhinos,WEnty for instance have strong sponsors ( Wenty Leagues for instance) and run very profitable cafes which feed into the junior clubs. Hills for instance have successfully run the largest touch football summer comp for decades which in turn assists the junior club,.all these are done on the back of volunteers and hard working committees.
Active committees, working on sponsors and good coaching and then winning teams has been the basis since the 70s/80s and nothing has changed. Some of the clubs just struggle to attract the finance of some clubs, as I understand it the junior league tries to work with the smaller clubs in a much more pro active way . Maybe clubs like Cabra and Mounties should have more teams and players in the top divisions , they would be expected to have solid financials .
This was the type of response I was looking for. Cheers BD
Grateful for the clubs your so worried about because the board havent supplied coaching staff with a major signing since theyve been in power , the parra canarys , everything cheep cheep , no vision !!!!
Agree ,,board havent made a major signing since theyve been in power , the top clubs make a least 1 decent signing every season , 4 seasons =o so far .
The board has nothing to do with recruitment
How little you know!!!!!!!