I'm no expert, but through a combination of speaking to the right people, and trying to think critically, I can say this much:
We are still paying for the mistakes we made when we signed Stuart, and Hagan, to coach this club.
Under their watch, opposition clubs tore our junior systems to shreds, and nothing was done to address this, because the head coaches at the time were confident they could sign enough talent to counteract the bleeding.
They were naive, and wrong - and in Stuart's case, he never truly, really bought in at Parramatta, and so he never cared what happened, whichever way it went.
Stable club administration has finally been brought in, and huge issues in our junior pathways have been identified - but from the people I've spoken to (a mate of mine who is a player agent, who mostly represents younger players, as well as a former Eels NSW Cup player), the damage that Hagan began, and Stuart/Kearney continued with their ineptitude and/wilful indifference, was far greater in scope than first thought, and measures have been put in place to rectify this (such as hiring Nathan Brown to do a review of our pathways systems).
Fortunately for the healthy administration of the club, but unfortunately for us fans, this process takes time.
Mate, Gould turned the Panthers, who were basically ready for administration when he came in and their juniors systems were a car wreck around and winning playing 3 grand finals and winning 2 so far in less then what 6-7 years? But leading up to that they were producing real talent almost from within the first couple of years. I doesn't take that long. Just like Semi, talent is talent. You just need the right people in charge that can identify and then bring it along.
Where are the real gems in our nursery? You don't need to create, speed, power, stepping agility or instinct? They are there or they aren't. I'm not talking about gifted play makers here. They do need intense development. What I'm talking about is raw athletic ability like most NRL players have. We then just need to build on it with endurance and footy smarts. That happens in the lower grades. But their ability is already evident.
So what are you trying to say? We have all these great kids coming through that we have been taking on board but then because it takes years to set things right, we have been somehow butchering them and their natural talents? I don't buy it. I think we have been failing mostly on identification and some on retention. Otherwise if we have been blessed with a good handful or two of quality kids and all we have managed to do is stuff them up because of our structures still being sh*t over the last 10 years that is outrages and ridiculous and I call bullsh*t.
Like I said, it only takes a year or so to set up the systems you want to build and play under. They are just managerial decisions ffs. No one has to go out and build the Harbour Bridge. Make the right decisions in the office, then go out and hire(no one does it all on their own) the right people for each task, then build on that and tweak and adjust where necessary and watch with in a couple of year the kids developing and within 3-4 years max, you should start seeing the fruits of your labour sprout and ripen if you got it right.
But obviously we are still trying to get it right and offering a million and one excuses as to why it hasn't happened yet. While Gould in the space of what 12-18 months with almost no juniors in his catchment area has started to add and develop in his lower grades players that he can call on to the point that he has excess outside backs and it is just the beginning.
If you get it right it take 3-4 years max before you start seeing them in the NRL. We are still trying to get it right which is nonsense. What you are saying is we have all these football experts from the Head coach to the Head of Football down, and none of then in the 9 years before we hired Brown has a clue as to how bad it was? Like I said, I call bullsh*t. If that were true they have all been stealing their salaries and they are totally inept.
But anyway again we wait and see. Nothing else we can do.
To highlight the point. Look at our only outside back real success story in Penisini, why has he been able to rise so prominently in the NRL? I'll tell you why, genuine good attitude and talent. Not our processes. He was already showing these qualities back at Kings Collage and he is the only one that we IDENTIFIED correctly and then our processes put the stamina and durability and a little polish on him to handle the NRL. Identification comes first, then the processes.
