Penrith Crowds

[Big Mick]

One other thing that should be considered is this: at my sons school, the AFL Development Squad visit monthly at assemblies, recruit kids for the after school Auskick program, give them freebies and at every visit they have been pushing to the kids the GWS team big time. We havent had a visit from anyone at the Penrith Development team... I spoke to Mario Fenech at a function about this and he himself couldnt understand why. I then spoke to a Penrith Devpt person who said he hadnt heard of our school, so wasnt sure if the teachers had been contacted...

Most of the kids at our club go to this school or surrounding schools, but are doing Auskick after school because that is what is being offered.

That is very concerning.

Particularly the fact Penrith officials don't know about your school.

Revenue has been tight I know that particularly recently, but I would have hoped the NRL had revenue aside to help the local teams interact with their communities better.

 

[StormChaser]

A few people have mentioned that there isnt a lot of support for the players in the area even though their junior league is really big..

My son plays in Penrith comp and I have actually noticed that a lot of the kids in our club go for Parramatta mostly and other teams. We arent in the Penrith area..we are borderline Penrith and Parra comp, but I think perhaps if the club involved the kids a bit more in what was happening at the club.

All the kids do get their players pass (free pass) to all Panthers games but I dont think a lot of their families use them, unless their actual team is playing against Penrith..which is a bit sad I guess.

I dont live in actual Penrith, so I dont know what involvement the team has there..maybe heaps! But one thing I know is this, when i asked Penrith could they send a player out to our club on a training night I was told no and last year for our end of year function when I asked I was also told no...to their credit though they did allow my sons team to attend their training session this year and meet the boys.. this was fantastic for our kids but sadly apart from the ones who study footy and read Big League (probably two of them inc my son) the rest didnt know any of the players names etc, however after this session meeting the boys..the kids were really familiar with them and we took them to a game and they were very excited to yell out oh there is Petro or there is Kevin etc ... so this exercise worked but isnt actually something that is offered, it was only after I sent an email requesting a player.

But that is only 8 boys out of an entire club, so perhaps they really need to start broadening their PR.. we as junior league families receive a letter to join membership every year.

One other thing that should be considered is this: at my sons school, the AFL Development Squad visit monthly at assemblies, recruit kids for the after school Auskick program, give them freebies and at every visit they have been pushing to the kids the GWS team big time. We havent had a visit from anyone at the Penrith Development team... I spoke to Mario Fenech at a function about this and he himself couldnt understand why. I then spoke to a Penrith Devpt person who said he hadnt heard of our school, so wasnt sure if the teachers had been contacted...

Most of the kids at our club go to this school or surrounding schools, but are doing Auskick after school because that is what is being offered.

I dont have solutions, but I think if kids are actively involved in supporting a team their parents will feel more like taking them to watch a certain team??

I think Panthers has enormous potential to be huge, but so many surrounding suburbs seem to be big Parra fans...

Sorry but this is ill informed. I have a friend who works very hard in Panthers Junior development, and they have programs like "Panthers on the Prowl" and "panther bytes" programmes, that go out to all schools in the district. The players are also made to do certain community services every week, and a lot of that involves mentoring and coaching clinics for juniors.
i find it hard to believe they turned you down when you asked someone to come out to your function. Maybe you were speaking to the wrong people there? I suggest you call Don Feltis directly or even shoot an email to their PR people.
I don't know, but to question their dedication to the juniors in the area is just wrong.
I'm not a Panthers fan, but I have to admire the hard work they do in the community, especially for the local juniors. Many other clubs would do well to take a leaf out of their book.

 

[Big Mick]

Their Panthers on The Prowl program is amazing.

That's why I was surprised by the allegation as well.

I suggest getting in contact with either Don Feltis or Shannon Donato as well.

 

[simostorm]

I pay my membership cash. I live far enough away from the ground to make it an inconvenience. I have the right to go to the game or not if circumstances dictate I cannot.

And no scummy f**kwit Storm twig is gonna tell me off if I can't make one game out of 13. Who made you judge and f**king jury bitch?

I can't wait for your scummy team to be ripped apart.

Go have a cry in you room. :lol:

 

[Flapper]

Don Feltis is literally useless. Just putting it out there. He is when it comes to the junior league anyway.

 

[murraymob]

yeh i do think they care truly, but i think it might be a lot more penrith-centric... and here in blacktown it is a little bit on the border with parra and right smack bang near the AFL team.. See last year Parra players came to Stanhope Gardens twice for fan signings etc...

I try and take my son to all the home games at Penrith just so he gets to see NRL games.

On a brighter note though..he does tell me if he ever makes it to NRL cause he is a Penrith junior he "will" be playing for Panthers!

Obviously with them doing so well, they will pick up some momentum. I remember back in the 80s going out to Penrith games it was always pretty packed...

I think all teams have ebbs and flows...

I am not a Penrith supporter but I truly hope they continue getting lots of people to their games. They are a great team and a nice bunch of boys!

i would say your school is not within the penrith boundry.Kellyville sevin hills are all parra schools.Penrith do a mountain of work in the schools running a programe called panthers on the prowl if they have not visited your school this may be why

 

[murraymob]

elie just a further point if the school is in the parra boundarys there is a as you would say a friendly agreement between parra and penrith to stay out of each others territory.That may also explain no penrith people at the school

 

[elie76]

hi there..im not dissing the program development panthers do, but I am also not ill informed!

I know the programs are there!! I just wish it was at our school. I did speak to a guy the day the allstars came to blacktown and he was as suprised as I that the school didnt have a program running (this was also the day I spoke to Mario). He said he didnt know of our school but gave me his mobile number and said can someone at the school call him. I passed the number on to the school but still no NRL (lotsa AFL)..Now my guess is the school didnt call this guy, but I would have loved for them to be pro-active and called the school because our kids LOVE league.

Secondly, the point about being suprised that a player couldnt come to visit our football team at their training..I sent the email as per Panthers website that asks for it to be sent in writing as to what the event is, why, etc etc...

so the correct procedure was taken both last year and this year. Last year they said it was not good timing as the players had just finished for the season and I dont know what reason there was for not coming this year - but as I said we were offered the option of taking our boys to watch the Panthers train and again this was a fabulous opportunity for the boys and they really loved it. I guess my point is I was pro active in organising this for our team of 8 but again it would be great to see the club being more proactive in sending invites etc. In our case it was a great situation cause we did go there ..but most team managers or coaches wouldnt even know this option is available to them!

And thirdly the comment about it being Parra/Penrith border and therefore a no go zone..aahhh I wish it was that simple. I actually did apply to Paramatta to have a player come to our training as well and a lovely girl from Parra called to explain that as much as they would love to send a player, our area is definitely a Penrith area and therefore they couldnt send someone. She said she had a lot of requests from our area but as THEY send players to lots of junior football events in Parramatta (and I know they do because Nathan Hindmarsh has been to Kellyville Bushrangers etc) they couldnt send anyone to our area as it was exclusively Penrith.

You can imagine my frustration at the time. One team cant come over cause its not their zone but would have loved to otherwise and the team that we were in the zone of doesnt send players to training!! When your kids are so passionate about football it can be pretty disheartening but as I said it was a great outcome for us in the end cause our boys got to meet the boys and watch a training session..

In the school holidays there is a development program being run by Panthers devpt but again I had to go on the junior website to find this and again Panthers team themselves arent involved in it.

So whilst I do not for a second disagree that the junior development in our area is above average and so good for the kids..there seems to be some disjointed areas relating back to the actual Panthers team.

I will say that when my son was in Kindy he went to another school Oxley Park which is near St Marys and Lachlan Cootes who was not really known at the time did come to the school for a healthy breakfast promo and they did do a football program too..but thats obviously closer to the Penrith area.

We are probs just a bit too far away for Penrith and close enough for Parra but not in the zone!!

Please understand I am not having a go at Penrith..I do attend every home game. I dont have membership but pay for each game I attend, but I am just presenting a few reasons as to why they might have low numbers

 

[elie76]

Sorry but this is ill informed. I have a friend who works very hard in Panthers Junior development, and they have programs like "Panthers on the Prowl" and "panther bytes" programmes, that go out to all schools in the district. The players are also made to do certain community services every week, and a lot of that involves mentoring and coaching clinics for juniors.
i find it hard to believe they turned you down when you asked someone to come out to your function. Maybe you were speaking to the wrong people there? I suggest you call Don Feltis directly or even shoot an email to their PR people.
I don't know, but to question their dedication to the juniors in the area is just wrong.
I'm not a Panthers fan, but I have to admire the hard work they do in the community, especially for the local juniors. Many other clubs would do well to take a leaf out of their book.

StormChaser, just to reiterate, I truly dont question their dedication to the juniors. We almost switched to Parra comp this year but really wanted to stay in Penrith comp. It is a great junior development area and we love the teams we play against. I'm just trying to present some areas that could be targeted in trying to get more fans... like i said a lot of our kids get the free passes but just dont use them! Which I think is sad..so they do try and again I dont pretend to have the answers..I wish I did! And yeh some ppl did say to contact Don etc but in our case as I said we are very happy with our outcome and as I said in the earlier post our 8 little fellas now think they know the boys personally so now actually ask their parents to go see the game cause they want to see the boys they met. We actually also try and get our boys to as many NSW Cup Windsor Wolves games so they will be familiar with future players..

 

[oval]

As a manly supporter I wouldve gone to the game if it was on Saturday or Sunday, but there's no way I could get out to Penrith on a work night, unless I got the train from work then tried to scam a lift back to the northern beaches. But I reckon a panthers game is always a good day/night out. Good ground, good leagues club, pretty friendly place. sh*ts all over watching games at ANZ.

 

[Big Mick]

Go have a cry in you room. :lol:

My name isn't Cory Paterson, Ryan Hoffman or Craig Bellamy so I'll be all good thanks.

 

[LRC]

I always refer to this link for a reasonably accurrate look at team support.
Panthers and sharks are a fair bit behind the others both on their peak and their bottoms.
Penrith have more growth prospects than the sharks though.


http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2009/948/