Well it appears as though 2007 will be a rebuilding year for us. While I thought this year was meant to be our rebuilding year, it appears that now with a new coach that will extend to next year.
With the introduction of the Gold Coast to the competition in 2007 and the increase in salary cap, that made the player talent dispersal quite competitive with teams having to compete against both current clubs, others and a new franchise to either purchase or retain players.
This year, we've seen another tremendous exodus of players to rival clubs with Penrith currently only picking up two nuff nuffs, Nathan Smith...a talented Centre/Winger who has been plagued by knee injuries since making his debut 3 seasons ago. The past two seasons he has been lucky to play 4-5 games due to 3 knee reconstructions. He is back in PL at centre last week and this week and it could be an indication of where he will be at Penrith.
The second signing is Brendan Worth. A young prop from Newcastle who has struggled to be a regular starter for Newcastle Premier League. I'd be a liar if I said I thought this was a great signing because I believe it is an absolutely dreadful signing, and there are so many other better props who would play for a minimum $50,000 contract at Panthers. My choice would be Jack Afamasanga, but he is now signed with Manly or re-signed with Parra...they had the foresight to observe the talent he had. Just needs a kick up the arse, something Elliot would have provided.
But while the new signings are not well known, we have since been told for next year that we will be developing our juniors and placing faith in them to do the job for us. Matty Elliot has taken a rags team in Canberra this year, to the top 8 on the back of the notion that everyone must play for each other.
If at the start of the year you looked at the Canberra roster and ours, you would be stuffed as an independent person to say Penrith didn't have the superior roster. Elliot instilled something in Canberra that we didn't have this year. Teamwork, working for each other and the self belief that they were good enough. They talked in the defensive line, something we did not. They put in attacking kicks, something we did not. They used angles and decoy runners and second phase play...something we did only for 5 games the whole season...we won 4 of them.
I guess what i'm trying to say is, when Elliot comes into the organisation, we will hopefully see a squashing of ego's...something I think has plagued us the last two years...not enough games where we play as a team, rather playing for individual honours. These players are quite evident in our organisation and its quite embarrassing for me to see these players....some are players that fans think "put in every week", when in reality they don't and are quite over-rated in my eyes, because they arn't team players. Some are actually very high profile.
I think if Elliot can come in, and smack down these ego's to the point where he reminds them why they play the game then we will be all the better for it. If these high profile, overpaid players can't get that and don't like it, then they can ship out as far as i'm concerned. Its no secret really who I believe these players are.
But when all is said and done, we are still inactive in the marketplace to the point where it appears as though we are tremendously weakened with regards to our depth for next year. But what options do we have available? What players are left on the open market? This will be analysed in the next post.
With the introduction of the Gold Coast to the competition in 2007 and the increase in salary cap, that made the player talent dispersal quite competitive with teams having to compete against both current clubs, others and a new franchise to either purchase or retain players.
This year, we've seen another tremendous exodus of players to rival clubs with Penrith currently only picking up two nuff nuffs, Nathan Smith...a talented Centre/Winger who has been plagued by knee injuries since making his debut 3 seasons ago. The past two seasons he has been lucky to play 4-5 games due to 3 knee reconstructions. He is back in PL at centre last week and this week and it could be an indication of where he will be at Penrith.
The second signing is Brendan Worth. A young prop from Newcastle who has struggled to be a regular starter for Newcastle Premier League. I'd be a liar if I said I thought this was a great signing because I believe it is an absolutely dreadful signing, and there are so many other better props who would play for a minimum $50,000 contract at Panthers. My choice would be Jack Afamasanga, but he is now signed with Manly or re-signed with Parra...they had the foresight to observe the talent he had. Just needs a kick up the arse, something Elliot would have provided.
But while the new signings are not well known, we have since been told for next year that we will be developing our juniors and placing faith in them to do the job for us. Matty Elliot has taken a rags team in Canberra this year, to the top 8 on the back of the notion that everyone must play for each other.
If at the start of the year you looked at the Canberra roster and ours, you would be stuffed as an independent person to say Penrith didn't have the superior roster. Elliot instilled something in Canberra that we didn't have this year. Teamwork, working for each other and the self belief that they were good enough. They talked in the defensive line, something we did not. They put in attacking kicks, something we did not. They used angles and decoy runners and second phase play...something we did only for 5 games the whole season...we won 4 of them.
I guess what i'm trying to say is, when Elliot comes into the organisation, we will hopefully see a squashing of ego's...something I think has plagued us the last two years...not enough games where we play as a team, rather playing for individual honours. These players are quite evident in our organisation and its quite embarrassing for me to see these players....some are players that fans think "put in every week", when in reality they don't and are quite over-rated in my eyes, because they arn't team players. Some are actually very high profile.
I think if Elliot can come in, and smack down these ego's to the point where he reminds them why they play the game then we will be all the better for it. If these high profile, overpaid players can't get that and don't like it, then they can ship out as far as i'm concerned. Its no secret really who I believe these players are.
But when all is said and done, we are still inactive in the marketplace to the point where it appears as though we are tremendously weakened with regards to our depth for next year. But what options do we have available? What players are left on the open market? This will be analysed in the next post.
