Parramatta Eels Holden Cup & Junior Reps Thread Part III

[not graham olling]

The point is local juniors are irrelevant. Your juniors are whichever players under 20 that you have on contract.

Yep that exactly what the media report. If you get them on your books for the NYC squad then you can say you developed them as a " junior "

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Well who cares whether we say they're juniors or not? The important thing is which ones end up in your first grade squad. Semi Radradra scored 19 tries last year on less than $80k, because we signed him in 2011. He's not from Guildford or Wentworthville but we still benefited like any other junior.

 

[Delboy]

Just got back from the first trial of the year

Spent most of the time at the Talents Squads, parra won the U14 well - probably 14 tries to 4 over 4 halves and constant team changes.

Matts won 11 tiries to 2, and were very impressive , seemed to score when had field position - Penrith refs helped the home side a little ( played at Patrician Bros , Blacktown)

Finally let after 15 minutes of Ball, and Parra were up 2 tries, Cameron King scored the first, very handy front rower

The u15 Talent squad were also up 2 tries to 0, but things change when players come on and off, so will find out more when I cacth up with those who stayed

All in all, the depth looks good, think Ball may find it difficult as the Penrith side to play second half looked very big.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

How did the middle forwards for the Matts side look? I've heard our pack is rated very highly in that grade.

 

[Delboy]

Didn't see as much of that game as I was looking at the U14 Talent Squad more, but what I wasthey pretty impressive. Excellent line speed and their defence was spot on, I think it was Tui Afualo that smashed a few ball runners and thn took it up wel. He was a centre pr visually that they felt needed to be involved and it seems to be working

 

[Avenger]

Is that Dargan kid still looking like our new long term 7 ? How is he progressing?

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Didn't see as much of that game as I was looking at the U14 Talent Squad more, but what I wasthey pretty impressive. Excellent line speed and their defence was spot on, I think it was Tui Afualo that smashed a few ball runners and thn took it up wel. He was a centre pr visually that they felt needed to be involved and it seems to be working

Tui is certainly a big boy for a centre and is physically well developed for his age. The bigger kids at that age tend to be lazy, I believe it was you delboy who said that's why he was trialed at edge forward. At the moment though he looks like a good prospect.

Cheers for the info.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Is that Dargan kid still looking like our new long term 7 ? How is he progressing?

I don't know about in the trial but by the schoolboy games he played it sounded like he played well. the halves in front of him had played nyc this year. He still has another year before he naturally graduates into the nyc, although he may gain a spot through injury later on.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

If he's good enough they might just fast track him as well OA. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts round one in NYC. Matterson's spot on the left is available.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Yeah and there's strong reports that Jason Vidal hasn't been kept for the NYC. We also have: Dylan Izzard, Bevan French, and Troy Dargan who can play in the left half position in the NYC this year.

 

[half_back]

Is that Dargan kid still looking like our new long term 7 ? How is he progressing?

All the boys who are currently with NYC, those mentioned plus Doolan didn't trial yesterday. Penrith actually won the ball in a close one. In the Matts we dominated. 2 seperate teams played interestingly the top team(who played first) didn't feature Tui. Tui played in Jersey 11 in the second game with what would be our weaker squad and all the year younger players. Our forwards were way bigger than Penriths and dominated accordingly. Our backs then capitalised on the room and time. Standouts for mine were backrower Cassell, halfback Seve and centre Robert Afu. Afu particularly was a handful.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Cheers for the report HB. I imagine we lost against Penrith because those that have been training with the NYC weren't involved, if they were involved we probably could have edged them out. Do you think our HM team is too big? In the past clubs have been caught out because they picked the biggest kids and they just steam-rolled the smaller ones then they realised when they hit first grade they had absolutely no skills and when defensive technique was improved they just weren't able to steam-roll the opposition anymore.

Just quickly on Doolan, not sure if you can answer this question but I've heard he wants to play fullback, do you have any further info on this?

 

[Twizzle]

Pretty impressive wrap considering Penruff have very strong junior teams.

 

[half_back]

Cheers for the report HB. I imagine we lost against Penrith because those that have been training with the NYC weren't involved, if they were involved we probably could have edged them out. Do you think our HM team is too big? In the past clubs have been caught out because they picked the biggest kids and they just steam-rolled the smaller ones then they realised when they hit first grade they had absolutely no skills and when defensive technique was improved they just weren't able to steam-roll the opposition anymore.

Just quickly on Doolan, not sure if you can answer this question but I've heard he wants to play fullback, do you have any further info on this?

I'd imagine we would have won with our full complement. I assume Penrith played their full quota. It caused a bit of a reshuffle with Layoun playing halfback with Dargan and Doolan absent. Still it was a promising performance although if rumours are correct only some will return to ball, not sure who. Hadn't heard of Doolans desire to move to FB. Smart move on his part with not much in the position all the way through the grades. Personally I'm not sure he has the the speed for it. See him in the Matterson mould. Big kid with good skill who plays six well and could move in the middle in the long term.

The matts looked so much better than years past and it will be a very good team that beats them. The forwards IMO aren't too big, in fact the edge back rowers and middle (13) are very tall but still plenty of room to fill out, they are each athletes and were all impressive. Even our FR middles weren't overweight big they never seemed to be flat-footed or slow laterally. Even the bench forward were impressive athletes plenty of skill and impressive at the line.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

I'd imagine we would have won with our full complement. I assume Penrith played their full quota. It caused a bit of a reshuffle with Layoun playing halfback with Dargan and Doolan absent. Still it was a promising performance although if rumours are correct only some will return to ball, not sure who. Hadn't heard of Doolans desire to move to FB. Smart move on his part with not much in the position all the way through the grades. Personally I'm not sure he has the the speed for it. See him in the Matterson mould. Big kid with good skill who plays six well and could move in the middle in the long term.

The matts looked so much better than years past and it will be a very good team that beats them. The forwards IMO aren't too big, in fact the edge back rowers and middle (13) are very tall but still plenty of room to fill out, they are each athletes and were all impressive. Even our FR middles weren't overweight big they never seemed to be flat-footed or slow laterally. Even the bench forward were impressive athletes plenty of skill and impressive at the line.

Our spine in the SG Ball this year, if they do in fact play SG Ball, is very good between Layoun (At fullback), Doolan, Dargan, and Tramontana there's a lot of points there. I only heard of Doolan's intentions to play fullback through the grapevine so it mightn't be correct but with him playing fullback for Westfields there could be something to it. We do have a few players who can play fullback though through the grades: Nathan Davis, Bevan French, Dillon Khoury (If he's still with us), Anthony Layoun, Sione Katoa. I think it might help him in the long run though, getting him to pass on both sides of the field is massive in the development of a future half, especially if they aren't going to be a dominant kicker.

Good to hear we have a strong Matts team, and it's also great to hear that they aren't overweight. Sorry for the questions but was one of the edge forwards Josh Curran? He played last year in the Matts and was picked in an Indigenous team this year, he looks to be a good prospect for the future.

Once again a big thanks for the info, I'm hoping to get out to a few Junior District games this year.

 

[Forty20]

Huzzah! Player profiles are up! It is a massive squad at this stage with 37 players in it currently. Lots of SG Ball talent and quite a few new names beyond the 2014 junior rep squads.

Clicky

 

[Poupou Escobar]

f**ken mad merkin Forty. I check that shit two or three times a day for updates. I even checked it this morning already.

Well spotted.

 

[Forty20]

Aloiai, Josh (2014)
Anderson, Jack (2014)
Aukafolau, Erickson (2014)
Bush, Alec (2014)
Clarke, Jared
Davis, Nathan (2014)
De Luis, Kurt
Doolan, Michael
Field, Craig
Field, Tom
French, Bevan
Fuimaono, Tyrell (2014)
Gafa, Atini
Hunt, Shane
Izzard, Dylan (2014)
Katrib, Anthony
Kaufusi, Paula (2014)
Lussick, Joey (2014)
Markus, Jeff (2014)
Mati-Leifi, Jermaine
Miski, Abbas
Morris, Jack (2014)
Mose, Jonathan
Muna, Jordan (2014)
Oloapu, Tui (2014)
Pene, Aaron
Raeli, Brandon (2014)
Seve, Faimanifo
Smith, Reimis
Speechley, Brad
Stowers, Jamie
Suli, Suliasi
Tepu-Smith, Tepai (2014)
Tonise Denzal
Twal, Alex (2014)
Vidal, Jason
Walpole, Sean

Full listing with returning NYC players denoted by the 2014 tag.

 

[Forty20]

No Zach Dockar-Clay which would seemingly suggest he is donning the black and white this year for Wenty.

 

[Y2Eel]

Zdc still in first grade squad on site will be good to play some NSW cup.

Who knows in which position.