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Eels in the media

Happy MEel

Happy MEel

First Grade
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9,845
Obscene Assassin said:
No he didn't, but when the NSW cup season ended and all 3 hooker prospects were eligible for Flegg finals he was the one chosen despite the other 2 being 2 years older. He's our top hooker prospect.


There is one thing, his manager. The club could've wanted to upgrade him for 2024 and 2025, taken that to his management who would've said they'll agree as long as he gets an extension for the following year. I'm not 100% sure but I think you can only be on a dev contract for 2 consecutive years max.
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Really? I hadn’t heard that 2 year rule about development contracts. I’ve looked around for it and couldn’t find anything. Are you sure?
 
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Obscene Assassin

Obscene Assassin

First Grade
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6,309
Happy MEel said:
Really? I hadn’t heard that 2 year rule about development contracts. I’ve looked around for it and couldn’t find anything. Are you sure?
Click to expand...

I remember reading when they brought in the development list that it didn't matter what age the development player was but they couldn't have more than 2 years of being a development player at one club. But I can't find anything concrete on that rule
 
Happy MEel

Happy MEel

First Grade
Messages
9,845
Obscene Assassin said:
I remember reading when they brought in the development list that it didn't matter what age the development player was but they couldn't have more than 2 years of being a development player at one club. But I can't find anything concrete on that rule
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Well in the absence of anything official anywhere on the NRL website or even in media articles I think I’ll assume that’s not the case.
 
Poupou Escobar

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
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91,039
Happy MEel said:
Is it? Do you have some similar examples?
Click to expand...
I know Jackson Hastings was one. The Roosters signed him straight into the top 30. At our own club we have Mataele coming into the top 30 next year. That was determined well over a year ago. I see it often when looking at the NRL’s signings page, with Development list players moving into the top 30 in future years. Then sometimes that detail is removed from that page.
Regardless, don’t we have the advantage that his dad is the head coach? We shouldn’t need to take these risks under these circumstances.
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It’s hardly an advantage. Both coach and player are invested in the player’s career. I’d be telling my own kid to do what’s best for him. Don’t let the club take advantage of you.
 
Poupou Escobar

Poupou Escobar

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91,039
Obscene Assassin said:
If this was the level that we (or any other club) give players T30 contracts I don't think there'd be any players signed.
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Some merkins think you should only have 30 genuine first graders in the squad while others think it should be 17 + 13 SG Ball players.

But whatever happens, we know better than the club.
 
emjaycee

emjaycee

Coach
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13,806
Aplogies for The Ram length post:

This is an article written in 2021 which explains why MA, Loizou, Hollis, Hughes, Matele, etc. might have been signed to Top 30 contracts earlier than some of us nuffies would have liked.
In 2 parts due to posting limits.

Part 1:

Why relentless NRL gamble is costing clubs the very players they desperately need​

Darcie McDonald from Fox Sports@darciemcdonald
October 22nd, 2021 10:34 am

It’s the gamble many NRL clubs are continually happy to make, even when it blows up in their face.
In a desire to unearth the next teenage prodigy, clubs are overlooking experienced reserve graders in the hope of discovering the next Sam Walker, the next Reece Walsh or the next Joseph Suaalii.
But while clubs like the Roosters and Warriors have been lucky enough to get it right this time and have discovered stars to build their future around, others have been left licking their wounds.

Tom Dearden was touted as the next Alfie Langer. He was signed on a top 30 contract and made his NRL debut for the Broncos as an 18-year-old, becoming the youngest starting halfback in the club’s history.
He had played just four Queensland Cup games for feeder club Wynnum Manly before ex-Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold threw him in the deep end.
Dearden went on to play five NRL games that season, 12 last season and five this year for the Broncos before the club cut its losses and sent him up the highway to the Cowboys.
Despite showing enough talent in the junior grades to suggest he’ll be an NRL star of the future, Dearden struggled to find his feet playing in first grade.

Along came Tyson Gamble. A 24-year-old playmaker that had worked on his craft in New South Wales Cup before making his debut for the Wests Tigers in 2018 and then joining the Broncos on a development deal in 2020.
When Gamble got his first shot in the halves for Brisbane, his former Redcliffe coach said “about time.”
What he lacked in freakish skills he made up for with several years of experience playing against grown men in reserve grade. It had him primed for what the NRL opposition would throw at him.
Dearden and Gamble’s journeys are far from unique in today’s NRL. It’s a situation that has left a pool of capable players stuck on the outside looking in.

BREAKING IT DOWN
For those unfamiliar with what a player’s situation outside of the top 30 looks like, it’s not very glamorous.
A club can have up to six development players each season. There’s no rule on age or experience, it’s entirely up to the club how they use those spots. A development player earns $60,000 and is not included in the top 30, but they do train full time with the NRL squad.

Then there’s part-time players signed on a NSW Cup or Queensland Cup contract. Those contracts usually vary from $5,000 to $15,000 for the season. Or, for some that are separate clubs and act as feeder teams, players often receive a sign-on fee and match payments that change whether they win, lose or draw a game.

As for training, part-time players juggle work and/or study with a minimum of three nights a week of training.
Top 30 players not selected in the 17 for an NRL game drop back to play in either reserve grade (open age) or the Jersey Flegg and Hastings Deering Colts competitions (under 20s, however they were changed to 21s this year).

They don’t fill an entire 17 so in come the part-time players that fill the gaps. Majority of clubs will invite some of their part-time players in on a weekly basis to train with the NRL squads.
When injuries happen sometimes those part-timers become full-timers and are put in a week-by-week training contract worth $1,000 per week — the same amount as the train-and-trial contracts that are handed out before pre-season.

THE BIG QUESTION
This season, a total of 43 players that weren’t on a top 30 contract played at least one NRL game. Of that amount, 23 players weren’t even on development contracts and instead were on a train-and-trial deal or were a part-time player plucked from reserve grade mid-season. Nine of those players were 23-years old or older.

Fans may ask if these players are good enough to be selected for NRL then why were they not included in a club’s top 30 — or at the very least on a development contract — in the first place?

The job of sculpting a roster that includes the right balance of star power, adequate depth and the cheapies that you can squeeze a lot of value out of, while also bringing through the next generation is a difficult task.
Thirty roster spots may sound like plenty but if you factor in injuries throughout the year, it can look thin in no time. The Roosters’ 2021 season is the perfect example of that.

In previous seasons, development players and train-and-trial players weren’t allowed to be selected for first grade until after June 30 and part-time players weren’t allowed to be selected at all, unless a club got an exemption.
The game made a substantial change this year, scrapping that restriction and introducing a new rule that allows clubs to pick any player, from Round 10, no matter what type of contract they are on.
Click to expand...
 
emjaycee

emjaycee

Coach
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13,806
Part 2:

THE LIVING PROOF
The likes of Aaron Schoupp, Jayden Campbell, Makahesi Makatoa and Kurt De Luis all benefited from the new rule. Makatoa and De Luis are particularly intriguing. They were 28 and 25 respectively when they made their NRL debuts this year.

Makatoa was signed to the Eels last year on a NSW Cup contract. He, like many, lost a year’s worth of footy due to Covid when lower grade competitions were cancelled. Makatoa joined the Eels on a train-and-trial contract for 2021 and made his long-awaited debut in Round 22. He was picked ahead of 20-year-old David Hollis, an up-and-coming prop signed on a top 30 deal until the end of 2023 and ahead of Sam Hughes, another young gun forward with a top 30 contract.

Having played 106 NSW Cup games prior to this season, Makatoa isn’t a surprise package. In fact, those that have kept tabs on the lower grades would find it crazy that it took this long for a club to give him a shot.
He was overlooked for a top 30 contract in both 2020 and 2021 as the Eels moved to lock in their next generation of forwards. By the end of the 2021 season Makatoa had leapfrogged them all to become a key figure in the Eels squad.

De Luis was a laborer by day up until the Sea Eagles faced an injury crisis in their forward pack. He was told in May he would begin training with the NRL side full time on the $1,000-per week contract. He made his debut in Round 14 and like Makatoa, was impressive. De Luis was selected over Alec Tuitavake, a highly-rated prop that is signed on a development contract with Manly until the end of 2023.

Tuitavake spent the entire summer and this season training full time with the NRL squad. It is worth mentioning though that he was injured at one point. But coach Des Hasler opted to select and then stick with De Luis, who up until a couple of weeks before his debut was training three nights a week with his NSW Cup side.

There’s also a shortage of quality halves and hookers in the NRL at the moment. They are both positions where it’s proven time and time again that maturity matters. South Sydney superstar Cody Walker debuted at 26. It took that long for a coach to take a gamble on him and this year he finished third in the Dally M count.

Jamal Fogarty played two games in 2017 as a 23-year-old. He waited three years to play his third game. Titans coach Justin Holbrook recognised what Fogarty could bring after years in reserve grade that a young, fresh-faced playmaker couldn’t. He had a calm head, knew the game inside out, was well-equipped to go up against grown men and was confident and mature enough to demand the ball and lead a team around the park. Fogarty became a co-captain of the Titans and recently inked a deal with the Raiders.

Kyle Flanagan is a halfback that’s experienced the brutal world of the NRL. He only really had one full season in NSW Cup before stepping in as Cooper Cronk’s successor at the Roosters last year.
He was cut loose early in a highly publicised ordeal and the Bulldogs picked him up. But Flanagan, while clearly struggling with confidence issues, struggled to find his feet in the top grade. Not only was he axed from the side, but his confidence took yet another hit.

WORDS OF WISDOM
Recently retired winger Anthony Don debuted at 25-years old. He went on to play 152 NRL games for the Titans.
In an interview during his rookie season, Don acknowledged that cracking first grade later in his career served him well.

“Because I came up through the ranks pretty slowly, I don’t feel that out of my depth and I feel pretty comfortable especially with every game I’ve played,” he said in 2013.
“My speed kind of slowly came in around my early 20s — it wasn’t like I worked on it or anything. I don’t know how it happened.”

The Storm is one club that’s recognised the benefits of signing a more seasoned player.
Chris Lewis isn’t Melbourne’s brightest star but he’s been a reliable player off the bench for the powerhouse club this year. He was a high school history teacher when the Storm signed him on a development contract at 27-years old. He played five games last season and 20 this season.
“When so often it’s felt like I was the only person who thought I’d make it. But to now have Craig Bellamy see something in me, too? Yeah, that’s validation,” he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph earlier this year.

The Storm have signed NSW Cup veteran Bronson Garlick on a development deal for 2022. Like Lewis, he’s a second-rower that can play five-eighth. The 25-year-old has played 105 reserve grade games and if he gets a shot, you’d imagine he won’t be overawed by the occasion.

Sharks enforcer Toby Rudolf debuted at 23 and is now one of the club’s brightest stars after perfecting his trade in reserve grade.

Mark Nicholls spent the first five years of his NRL career bouncing between first grade and reserve grade before really nailing down a consistent spot in 2019. Now he’s referred to as ‘the GOAT.’

Sure, there’s been some genuine stars that took the pressure of first grade in their stride. Brad Fittler and Mitchell Pearce fall into that category, while nothing seemed to rattle Walker and Walsh this year.

But on the other side of the coin, Jordan Rankin’s premature debut arguably ruined his career.
At just 16 and 238 days, Rankin became the third-youngest in Australian rugby league history to make his first grade debut. At the time, Titans coach John Cartwright said: “Physically he’s not a man, he’s a kid, but he’s one of those ones where it’s only a matter of time.”

Rankin went on to play 17 NRL games for the Titans — but had to wait three years after his debut to get his second shot. He then had a stint in the Super League before returning on a deal with the Wests Tigers and then headed back to the UK again. This year he was signed to the Eels and although he didn’t get any NRL games, he was the steady hand in the club’s NSW Cup side, leading the competition in try assists and linebreak assists before it was cancelled.

“I’m not going to say I wasn’t thrown in too young but it was an opportunity I took ... that I was given... it is one of those things I have to live with now. Sixteen is obviously, when you look at it now, a bit young,” Rankin said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald in 2016. “I played one game and didn’t play for another two years and that dents your confidence... I didn’t play my natural game, I played a bit more conservative and didn’t give myself an opportunity to grow as a player.”

WHY IT’S EASIER SAID THAN DONE
So it’s simple. Clubs need to tell their young guns to be patient and sign their NRL-ready backups on full time deals, right?
Wrong.

It appears to be so much trickier than that.
When the manager of a star of the future comes knocking looking for an attractive deal or a guaranteed spot in the full-time squad, a club is pushed up against a wall.

They may believe that the kid is still two or three years away from playing NRL but they don’t want to lose him to a rival club and then risk looking silly if that kid does leave and happens to end up being the Walker-Walsh-Suaalii exception. So the club does what it has to do and locks in their future and then loses a spot in their top 30 that could have gone to the actual next cab off the rank.

Foxsports.com.au has spoken to several players in the mid-20s age group who wish to remain anonymous. All of them have played at least 35 reserve grade games, taking into account last year’s competitions were cancelled and the 2021 NSW Cup season was cancelled halfway through.

They have all either played at least one NRL game or were plucked from reserve grade to train with first grade.
Half of them are considering leaving the system.
Click to expand...
 
Happy MEel

Happy MEel

First Grade
Messages
9,845
emjaycee said:
When the manager of a star of the future comes knocking looking for an attractive deal or a guaranteed spot in the full-time squad, a club is pushed up against a wall.
Click to expand...
Interesting read mate and makes sense why we could continually play Hands earlier this season. I have to ask the question though, is MA really considered a similar talent to what Suali or Walsh were at that age? I’d say good young talent with potential but not superstar.
 
Happy MEel

Happy MEel

First Grade
Messages
9,845
Poupou Escobar said:
I know Jackson Hastings was one. The Roosters signed him straight into the top 30. At our own club we have Mataele coming into the top 30 next year. That was determined well over a year ago. I see it often when looking at the NRL’s signings page, with Development list players moving into the top 30 in future years. Then sometimes that detail is removed from that page.

It’s hardly an advantage. Both coach and player are invested in the player’s career. I’d be telling my own kid to do what’s best for him. Don’t let the club take advantage of you.
Click to expand...
I don’t reckon Hastings has turned out to be the type of
Player a club should have rushed a top 30 roster spot. That’s what I’m saying. He’s a first grader but that’s it. It’s an unnecessary gamble if you haven’t even seen them play against men unless you have an out and out superstar and you know it. I’m not even sure Mataele is that to be honest, but at least he had played about 10 games of NSW Cup.
 
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