PARRAMATTA have turned to a former Australian Test cricketer in their quest to create a state-of-the-art training facility.
Architect Graeme Watson, an all-rounder who played five Tests for Australia in the 1960s and 1970s, has been enlisted to upgrade the outdated training base as the Eels try to climb off the bottom of the ladder. The 67-year-old, who also played 18 VFL games for Melbourne and was the first person to play in the Sheffield Shield for three states, had an integral role in designing South Sydney's Centre of Excellence at Redfern.
Watson's brief is two-fold - to build the Eels their own centre of excellence, a project he predicts could take between two to three years to complete. However, his immediate focus is on providing the club an immediate facility that will satisfy their needs when the players return from their Christmas break.
Officials had been eyeing off the recently decommissioned Parramatta jail, which had previously housed notorious criminals including Arthur ''Neddy'' Smith, Darcy Dugan and George Freeman.
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However, that option now appears unlikely and several other potential sites are being investigated. Watson will meet Eels powerbrokers on Wednesday to put forward a proposal to address the issues.
''What they do have at the moment is totally unacceptable from an NRL standard,'' Watson said. ''They've got a training field which is just three-quarter sized. How one expects to have an NRL team train on that, it's just archaic.
''We have the immediate issue of getting them a training field that is up to the standard of NRL, but equally so determining the infrastructure we'll need to support that. We're looking at about five or six different facilities.''
Watson, whose cricketing career almost ended prematurely when he copped a Tony Greig bouncer in the face, aims to provide coach Ricky Stuart with the resources needed to be serious NRL contenders. ''Our high-performance centre would be not dissimilar to what we did with the South Sydney Rabbitohs,'' he said of the longer-term project.
When Parramatta Stadium opened in 1986 it was the envy of rivals. However, the facility is now in desperate need of a makeover. The state government's stadiums strategy has earmarked the building or rebuilding of a ground to service Sydney's west and the Eels will lobby for the funds to be spent in their area.
The strategy of the Sports Minister, Graham Annesley, strategy does not augur well for suburban grounds, with Leichhardt and Brookvale ovals most under threat.
The head of the Brookvale Oval Committee, Kerry Sibraa, has organised a meeting with Annesley for January 10. Sibraa said that one of the options they could pursue was placing the ground into a state trust.
''That's something we could agree to, especially if the mayor and the council support it,'' he said. ''We will also need to seek federal funding.''
) because unless you are practicing length of the field run away runs, you are mainly operating on about 30m, plus kicks.
