Rumoured/Confirmed Signings and General Drivel XV

[hindy111]

Melbourne will be sniffing rnd.Heard there hunting players

 

[Poupou Escobar]

The 'academy' is as much about talent identification and retention as anything else. It's designed to give us the edge in scouting the young players that come through the system, as well as the ones we bring in.

It is intended to give us the best chance at correctly identifying whether a player will ever play first grade, whereas opposing clubs have to try and guess by watching games of NYC, SG Ball and Harold Matthews. But junior footy matches aren't a reliable gauge of whether a player will play first grade. Testing and observation during training scenarios (including things like sprints and strength testing) is actually far more reliable.

And of course 'academy' is a buzzword. But it represents something essential to NRL success.

As for who else has an 'academy', probably every club has one. But we were one of the few who had a shit one prior to Kearney, Arthur and Nolan turning up in 2011.

We have the young talent (time) - we have won the Harold Matthews (under 16s, formerly under 15s) nine times in the last twenty years.

But how has that translated to retention of talent? In the same period we have only won SG Ball (under 18s) twice, and we haven't won the under 20s (Jersey Flegg until 2007 and National Youth Competition since 2008) at all - our last premiership was in 1990.

I hope you can grasp that retention becomes more important - and therefore more competitive - as youth players get older, and we have been getting destroyed in this area.

In the NYC we are the only club to have missed the finals for five straight years - our champion SG Ball team of 2007 (Brian Smith's 'academy') made the NYC finals in '08 and since then we've finished outside the top eight every year. There are a couple of clubs nearly as bad as us - Cronulla and Newcastle have only made the finals once as well, but they at least made it more recently.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

We are currently second in the NYC and first in SG Ball, and I think that's good.

 

[Wizard Sleeve]

Has anyone thought that just maybe we have better coaches ?

 

[Joshuatheeel]

. FORMER Origin star Willie Tonga will be on the move at the end of the season.

He’s stripped 13kg in six months, and looked good against the Broncos on Friday night, but we hear new Eels coach Brad Arthur is not a fan and he’ll be out of Parramatta at the end of the year.

http://mobile.news.com.au/sport/nrl...ts-cold-shoulder/story-fndujljl-1226876098290

Not sure what issue Arthur has with tonga (if true). I reckon tonga has been good

 

[Parraren]

That's a strange one. Willie's been great for us this year, great combo with semi.

Only on a modest contract too apparently

 

[emjaycee]

http://mobile.news.com.au/sport/nrl...ts-cold-shoulder/story-fndujljl-1226876098290

Not sure what issue Arthur has with tonga (if true). I reckon tonga has been good

I call "bullshit" on this article.
Arthur wants players who train well, follow instructions, keeps mistakes to a minimum and plays what's in front of them when they see something is on.

Tonga ticks all of these boxes and is a large part of the reason Semi has 8 tries so far.
I reckon Tonga is exactly what Arthur wants in a left centre.

 

[Pazza]

i call BS too, BA could have easily have had Morgan in FG this whole time.

 

[Maroubra Eel]

Has anyone thought that just maybe we have better coaches ?

That goes without saying.

 

[spiderdan]

http://mobile.news.com.au/sport/nrl...ts-cold-shoulder/story-fndujljl-1226876098290

Not sure what issue Arthur has with tonga (if true). I reckon tonga has been good

if it's true that tonga will be moving it may not be about arthur's' being a fan of his but more about freeing up some $ to retain the young players that seem to have shown they're capapble of high quality first grade.

the reports and his own form suggest that tonga has been excellent in the way he prepares and goes about things on game day.

 

[I bleed blue & gold]

Everytime ive seen or heard Arthur speak about Tonga he has had nothing but praise for him.

 

[Gronk]

Tonga has a contract for 2015.

 

[Gronk]

Everytime ive seen or heard Arthur speak about Tonga he has had nothing but praise for him.

Ask Semi how good Tonga is.

 

[I bleed blue & gold]

Ask Semi how good Tonga is.

If i see him i will.

 

[Daneel]

I think the sharks offered him like 50k less

Ask Semi how good Tonga is.

Don't think he has been there. Grew up in Fiji

 

[Gronk]

If i see him i will.

Don't think he has been there. Grew up in Fiji

Merkins !

 

[TheRam]

What a great weekend, so many a$$hole teams lost

I Agree totally. Actually I have a theory as to why the ratings & crowds are down this season. I think there are two main reasons.

1. The games have generally been very boring and quite frankly shit due to the slowdown & wrestle in the ruck for the past two years, to the point that I would switch off after 15-20 mins last year on most games. Life's to short to watch crap footy.

2. Also for the last two years the majority of league fans know that their teams are just making up the numbers and only Easts, Manly, Souths & Melbourne had any realistic chance to win the Grand Final.

So combining these two factors together we have a public that will only just now start to see and feel that things maybe just about to change for the better.

With the new rules this season, the game is getting back to it's amazing attacking spectacle that it used to be pre 2011. There is still a ways to go, because I have started to see the refs, start to slacken off again over the weekend on many infringements in the ruck. But overall the footy has been really, really, good this year compared to the last two seasons, and hopefully will only get better.

Also with Easts, Manly & to a lesser extent Melbourne all being up there as 3 of the 4 teams that have a realistic chance of winning and the footy being so predictable and boring, is it any wonder as to why the ratings and the crowds are down, even though club membership is way up across the board compared to only a few years ago? In fact aren't memberships at an all to record breaking high?

So why are people staying away and not tuning in at record numbers? I think my theory goes a long way in answering that.

But the good news is that slowly but surely people will start to see the positive changes and start to feel hope again for their teams chances and when they tune in to watch will see much less of the arm wrestle and much more of the attacking footy that brings us all to our feet.

P.s. I know Easts only just started to play well last year, but the point is who the hell gives a crap about Easts? Even their supporters haven't been turning up this year. They are a cancerous blight on the league, a bankers club that no one but a small hard core group of supporters care about. Therefore if they have more then one great year in a row, it is a negative for the overall good of the game.

 

[I bleed blue & gold]

Merkins !

Hey! Ive actually seen him a couple of times in Parra on my way home from work..not that id really ask him though lol.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Ask Semi how good Tonga is.

Ask him 'what is the largest elephant in the world?'

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Has anyone thought that just maybe we have better coaches ?

Plenty of simpletons will have.

While I'm sure we do have a better coach it's obvious we have a better roster - young players improve every year, and we have a lot of young players. Just like how old players get worse each year - it's not Brad Arthur's fault that Fui is on the decline. He's just lucky we don't have many players over 30.