Poupou Escobar
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Can't speak on the politics behind the move as I know absolutely nothing but assuming the club takes the right steps in establishing our own squad in the NSW Cup, I wouldn't be against it at all.
We need to make the NSW Cup a stronger tool for the final stages of player development and with the current joint-venture with Wenty, I'm not sure if Stuart and Nolan have enough control to ensure that it can function so.
Ideally the NSW Cup squad should be X% NYC graduates/accelerated talent : Y% Surplus NRL talent/second-tier players but right now we are running our (admittedly ordinary) X% and Y% to a worryingly large Z% of park footballers that do very little to benefit any aspect of the team (e.g winning, development etc).
I have already advocated that it would be ideal to see a large portion of the current NYC team transition into the core of our future NSW Cup team, where if you add any additional external youth signings plus the aforementioned Y% talent you can look to establish a Storm/Panthers/Roosters-like pathway to NRL within a year.
Penrith (who ironically are in a joint-venture with Windsor, which does weaken my point a tad) in particular have established an excellent model to follow this year as they have prioritised resources to the NSW Cup by promoting their highly rated NYC coach to the NSW Cup role mid season, pushing a lot of youth talent through, recruiting well in the second-tier cap and are now well positioned for depth and competition in spots across the NRL roster.
Obviously there would be a greater financial burden on the club to support the full brunt of a NSW Cup squad but if we are serious about long-term strength then it would most likely be the best option.
Good post.
I don't think money is the issue any more, since the last board sold off some underperforming assets, but the various salary caps are still a massive handbrake on player development.
The NSW Cup's profile (and eventually its quality as a competition) would also benefit greatly from having more of its teams carrying NRL branding.
I'd love to watch Wenty on TV every week, and more fans also would if they were called the Parramatta Eels second team. If more people wanted to watch it, it would be shown more often. And there would be more money for backup players in the next TV deal.
