chanticleer
Juniors
- Messages
- 720
This isnt an attack on Gould by any means, however from listening to what he has said publicly I would be concerned about the success of penrith in the near future next 2-3 years...
Gould has said many times publicly that he thinks Penrith does well when they have a quality group of juniors developed and come into grade and that will be his focus for the first grade team. He has said he is looking at junior development 14 years plus and looking why penriths large pool of juniors hasnt resulted in many good juniors coming into first grade and being successful. He has said he wishes to address junior coaching and make sure they are given the best chance to develop into first grade players.
Now the problem I have with this is there is no talk about our first grade team and the personnel changes that are needed to make this group stronger and able to challenge for the premiership in 2012 and 2013 not 3 or 4 years down the track.
The problem for a while has been the recruitment of quality first grade players to penrith. Sure the juniors are there but no club can completely rely on quality juniors being developed into top first grade players.
For eg, Newcastle want success. They have gone out and shed big $$$ for a top coach and have already recruited top players Boyd, Snowden, Buderus etc. They arent going to only rely on just their large pool of juniors in the short term.
The Dragons who went from no where in 2008 to a dominant force recruited a top coach and top players to give them a kick start. Boyd, Gasnier, Fien, Weyman, Smith, Costigan...
The point here is recruitment does play a part in being successful. No club can wait till they have a great crop of juniors who push for first grade at around the same time and all develop into handy/top first grade players. This does not happen often it is very rare. It happened to us in 2003 and the Bulldogs in 2004 (SBW, Asotasi, Mason, Price, Maitua, Anasta, Sherwin, Masri, Utai, Tonga, Thurston plus a few good recruits in Omeley and Ryan)
Development takes time, and once a developed junior reaches first grade most still usually take a few years to further develop into good players.
The other problem with focusing and relying on development is once a player is strong in the lower grades they are open to being recruited from other clubs. Anyone that knows about the junior leagues is aware clubs like the Roosters and manly in particular are very good at first identifying good talent and second making a great offer that is difficult to refuse. B stewart, G Stewart, D Williams, T Williams, Cherry Evans, etc etc played their junior football elsewhere. Mitchell Pearce was made an amazing offer when he was 16-17 to go to the Roosters. My point here is even if our junior development is great (its a positive) it is far from a guarantee that we will be successful in first grade.
I honestly dont believe too much is needed to be a premiership force trust me. We have a great fullback Coote, great winger Gordon, great centre Jennings, handy 6 & 7 a good hooker a top prop Civo, great lock - Lewis and some really strong forwards - Mckendry, Waterhouse, Bell, Grant. Add a couple more quality backs and second rowers and we can win a comp.
A few more solid recruits and a good coach we can repeat and do better than 2010. My fear though is that recruitment of decent players is not the plan for 2012 and this junior development focus will mean we will sacrifice on challenging for a premiership for at least the next few years.
This isnt an attack on Gould, if he improves the discipline and culture which it seems he is doing that is great. I just dont think he alone and all his ideas should be taken as gospel and followed blindly. Do not forget he was a coaching director at Souths and was a complete failure at that.
We need a good coach, that will make the biggest difference. We dont need to shell out big $$$ for many stars, just some smart recruiting on a few good players that are on the up.
Gould has said many times publicly that he thinks Penrith does well when they have a quality group of juniors developed and come into grade and that will be his focus for the first grade team. He has said he is looking at junior development 14 years plus and looking why penriths large pool of juniors hasnt resulted in many good juniors coming into first grade and being successful. He has said he wishes to address junior coaching and make sure they are given the best chance to develop into first grade players.
Now the problem I have with this is there is no talk about our first grade team and the personnel changes that are needed to make this group stronger and able to challenge for the premiership in 2012 and 2013 not 3 or 4 years down the track.
The problem for a while has been the recruitment of quality first grade players to penrith. Sure the juniors are there but no club can completely rely on quality juniors being developed into top first grade players.
For eg, Newcastle want success. They have gone out and shed big $$$ for a top coach and have already recruited top players Boyd, Snowden, Buderus etc. They arent going to only rely on just their large pool of juniors in the short term.
The Dragons who went from no where in 2008 to a dominant force recruited a top coach and top players to give them a kick start. Boyd, Gasnier, Fien, Weyman, Smith, Costigan...
The point here is recruitment does play a part in being successful. No club can wait till they have a great crop of juniors who push for first grade at around the same time and all develop into handy/top first grade players. This does not happen often it is very rare. It happened to us in 2003 and the Bulldogs in 2004 (SBW, Asotasi, Mason, Price, Maitua, Anasta, Sherwin, Masri, Utai, Tonga, Thurston plus a few good recruits in Omeley and Ryan)
Development takes time, and once a developed junior reaches first grade most still usually take a few years to further develop into good players.
The other problem with focusing and relying on development is once a player is strong in the lower grades they are open to being recruited from other clubs. Anyone that knows about the junior leagues is aware clubs like the Roosters and manly in particular are very good at first identifying good talent and second making a great offer that is difficult to refuse. B stewart, G Stewart, D Williams, T Williams, Cherry Evans, etc etc played their junior football elsewhere. Mitchell Pearce was made an amazing offer when he was 16-17 to go to the Roosters. My point here is even if our junior development is great (its a positive) it is far from a guarantee that we will be successful in first grade.
I honestly dont believe too much is needed to be a premiership force trust me. We have a great fullback Coote, great winger Gordon, great centre Jennings, handy 6 & 7 a good hooker a top prop Civo, great lock - Lewis and some really strong forwards - Mckendry, Waterhouse, Bell, Grant. Add a couple more quality backs and second rowers and we can win a comp.
A few more solid recruits and a good coach we can repeat and do better than 2010. My fear though is that recruitment of decent players is not the plan for 2012 and this junior development focus will mean we will sacrifice on challenging for a premiership for at least the next few years.
This isnt an attack on Gould, if he improves the discipline and culture which it seems he is doing that is great. I just dont think he alone and all his ideas should be taken as gospel and followed blindly. Do not forget he was a coaching director at Souths and was a complete failure at that.
We need a good coach, that will make the biggest difference. We dont need to shell out big $$$ for many stars, just some smart recruiting on a few good players that are on the up.
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i am tipping a very srong finish and we will be returning for the second year straight for finals footy. 
