I had a very interesting day today and thought I would share it with you, seeing as everyone who posts on here has in interest in what is happening at our beloved Parramatta Eels.
Sorry about the length of the post, but I am sure you will find it as worthwhile as I did. Firstly, I should give you a small bit of background about me, so you know where I was coming from and why I did what I did.
I am 44 years of age, have been at every Parra GF since 1981 and am a Season Ticket Holder, Leagues Club and Football Club Member and definitely a fan. In my worklife, run my own company and have managed annual budgets in excess of $80M for one of the most recognisable brands in Australia so I am used to dealing with CEOs and Boards and when I want to know something about a company I am interested in, I have no hesitation in picking up the phone or sending an email to the CEO or Director or whomever and asking what I want to know.
At 12.15pm today I sent an email to Bob Bentley, CEO of Parramatta Leagues Club to ask him a few things about the club and make the odd suggestion to him. The email is reproduced below (not all of it):
At 5.25 this evening I received a telephone call from Peter Nolan, who has been asked by Bob Bentley to give me a call. This call lasted for 45 mins and whilst a lot of what we discussed was and will remain confidential, Nolan did agree to me posting some things on here for all to read.
Firstly, we talked about the mess that Kearney and Nolan found the club in when they arrived and it wasnt about a losing culture but rather one of confusion for the players and staff. A high turn-over of coaches over the years had led to no-one being sure of what the focus should be on things like fitness, body shape, etc and players were unsettled in their preparation for each season and each game.
We talked about the salary cap and how there was a level of in-balance in it that definitely limited the ability to sign the type and level of players needed. Recruitment had been haphazard and an example given was that there was no-one in the club in the under 20s that was suitable for a particular position no one. So they had to recruit someone to play in the 20s and build for the future.
Nolan explained a great deal about the system and how the belief is that the system makes the player, the players dont make the system and our system was loose and a mess. He described a 3 tier pyramid model with the base layer being physical, the middle layer technical and the top layer about tactical and how the layers and players need to built on from the bottom up.
We talked at length about recruitment and retention and Pete did say that I could post that we should all expect some announcements in the next 2 weeks about player retention and maybe recruitment. One thing that has been a focus of the management team is not to talk to the media about signings, etc and that we shouldnt read what is written in the papers cause they simply do not talk to the media. In fact I got the impression that we potentially would lose signings if the player or his manager thought it would leak to the media before they wanted it announced.
So there you have it my interesting day.
I am not going to go into any more details about what was said but let me be clear I have no affiliation with the club or its board than what I stated at the top of this post. I am not a mouthpiece for the club and I am not trying to feed any club propaganda. I took action as an interested fan and I got what I believe was an open and honest dialogue with one of the key members of the staff at the Eels.
GO PARRA!!
