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Uncle Nick Politis

Whip Whitaker

Juniors
Messages
808
Gus made a few bad decisions toward the end of his time at Penrith, but the foundations he had already built are solid. I shudder to think where we would be without the things he did. The whole 5 year plan he gets judged on was a throwaway line taken completely out of context.

Look at our named 17 this week. 1 player only that didnt debut at Penrith. Now that would mean shit if we were bottom 4. But a thing to be proud of when you are sitting on top. The pathways are working, it was never going to be a quick fix, but things are looking pretty good now.

A lot of you may be too young to remember when the Roosters were a shit show. Uncle Nick got Gus over there and things slowly improved. The Super League fiasco gifted them Freddy which helped but it still took time. They didnt win the comp until Gus was out, but he laid the foundations. They didnt have the juniors we have so they went for talent identification & targeted the right kids. We all joke about how they poach, but aside from Melbourne their strike rate at recognising young talent & developing it the right way is extraordinary. Uncle Nick is a brilliant businessman, but Gus taught him how to do Rugby League. It's still paying dividends.

Rumour has it that Gus's last act at Penrith was a Nespresso machine at the academy. I think we are f**king golden for a few decades now.

Gus was coaching the Roosters. Ricky Stuart just posed for the cameras.
 

soc123_au

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
18,451
Weren't panthers going broke before he arrived despite having a huge leagues club?
On field they'd rarely make the finals?
Juniors were finding success at other clubs?


He left Panthers in a much better state then what he found it in.

We were a financial mess. The football side was an inconvenience one needed to build a pokie empire. Then the pokie tax came in....
Gus didnt fix it like some superman single handedly, but got the right people doing the right things to sort it out.

On the juniors they are still doing well for other clubs. Look at Jack Hethrington on loan to the Warriors, not very experienced but even in a shitful team not taking a backward step.

Shawn Blore debut for the Tigers, never looked out of place for a second.

The young ones are coming out of our systems first grade ready. We cant keep all of them, so other clubs get young men ready to play. They wont all be the next Freddy, but most of them will be at worst good solid players.

Gus may well be a blowhard, but he has done plenty to earn his stripes.
 

10$ Ferret

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
1,094
Gus made a few bad decisions toward the end of his time at Penrith, but the foundations he had already built are solid. I shudder to think where we would be without the things he did. The whole 5 year plan he gets judged on was a throwaway line taken completely out of context.

Look at our named 17 this week. 1 player only that didnt debut at Penrith. Now that would mean shit if we were bottom 4. But a thing to be proud of when you are sitting on top. The pathways are working, it was never going to be a quick fix, but things are looking pretty good now.

A lot of you may be too young to remember when the Roosters were a shit show. Uncle Nick got Gus over there and things slowly improved. The Super League fiasco gifted them Freddy which helped but it still took time. They didnt win the comp until Gus was out, but he laid the foundations. They didnt have the juniors we have so they went for talent identification & targeted the right kids. We all joke about how they poach, but aside from Melbourne their strike rate at recognising young talent & developing it the right way is extraordinary. Uncle Nick is a brilliant businessman, but Gus taught him how to do Rugby League. It's still paying dividends.

Rumour has it that Gus's last act at Penrith was a Nespresso machine at the academy. I think we are f**king golden for a few decades now.

Problem is at the Roosters he didn't do it by himself but thought he did. When others were able to achieve what he could not he had hissy fits and started trying to shaft people.
Besides that he is another one of these "once were good" types that hang around and stink out the game full of their own self importance
 

Vee

First Grade
Messages
5,075
Weren't panthers going broke before he arrived despite having a huge leagues club?
On field they'd rarely make the finals?
Juniors were finding success at other clubs?

Didn't gould completely revitalize their off field finances, get in a lot of corporate money, help get the team to the stage that they are regular finalists and completely revamped the junior system (his passion project) to the point that Panthers are now keeping their best kids.

He left Panthers in a much better state then what he found it in.
That's my take too.
 

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,146
I guess it is speculation what Gould did or didn't accomplish at the Panthers. But the main contribution to the game Gould makes is his TV commentary and everyone knows what he brings to that, its not a matter of speculation. He totally ruins that. He is the reason I wont watch Nines rugby league coverage. I pretty much hate his guts as a commentator. He is the chief ref basher.
He has also been one of the most influential people around at a time that the game had massive income but has wasted it all. He is responsible for the club wastage of money when the NRL should have been putting it aside for a rainy day.
He is a dumb guy. Doesn't have vision (eg: he could have gotten stadium upgrades just by getting the Panthers into the WNRL). That's also a sign he is a fossil. Get rid of him.
 

Delboy

First Grade
Messages
6,810
you think parra fans would give a shit if they won the comp this year with no local juniors in their team?
Junior Paulo, Oregon Kaufusi, Ryan Matterson, and Mitch Moses all say hello having played and started in Parramatta Junior League and reps. Dylan Brown has only played league in the Parra system too, so we can beg to differ .
 
Messages
11,595
Junior Paulo, Oregon Kaufusi, Ryan Matterson, and Mitch Moses all say hello having played and started in Parramatta Junior League and reps. Dylan Brown has only played league in the Parra system too, so we can beg to differ .


I don’t think Zadar seriously believes that Parra have no juniors and was speaking metaphorically? Raises an interesting point though. Some of the most revered Parra players such as Cronin, Kenny, Sterling, Edge, Grothe and Price are not Parra Juniors. The latter, although a local boy started in rugby and Grothe was a Liverpool schoolboy? Or is that part of Parra’s catchment? Anyway, is the success the club enjoyed when they played diminished in the eyes of Parra fans cos they weren’t juniors? They’re all quite rightly, blue and gold legends.
 

Delboy

First Grade
Messages
6,810
I don’t think Zadar seriously believes that Parra have no juniors and was speaking metaphorically? Raises an interesting point though. Some of the most revered Parra players such as Cronin, Kenny, Sterling, Edge, Grothe and Price are not Parra Juniors. The latter, although a local boy started in rugby and Grothe was a Liverpool schoolboy? Or is that part of Parra’s catchment? Anyway, is the success the club enjoyed when they played diminished in the eyes of Parra fans cos they weren’t juniors? They’re all quite rightly, blue and gold legends.
When Grothe came through, Parramatta controlled the west out to Campbelltown and that area was very strong, in a realignment the NSWRL gave Liverpool and out Campbelltown to Western Suburbs - the result was poor admin at the time and the junior league in the area suffered. Don’t think it ever fully recovered.
 
Messages
13,793
I don’t think Zadar seriously believes that Parra have no juniors and was speaking metaphorically? Raises an interesting point though. Some of the most revered Parra players such as Cronin, Kenny, Sterling, Edge, Grothe and Price are not Parra Juniors. The latter, although a local boy started in rugby and Grothe was a Liverpool schoolboy? Or is that part of Parra’s catchment? Anyway, is the success the club enjoyed when they played diminished in the eyes of Parra fans cos they weren’t juniors? They’re all quite rightly, blue and gold legends.

FYI Babyface, Brett Kenny was a Parramatta junior, he played for the Guildford Owls. Eric Grothe Sr was also a Parramatta junior, but I can't remember which club he played for.
 

Valheru

Coach
Messages
17,509
Junior Paulo, Oregon Kaufusi, Ryan Matterson, and Mitch Moses all say hello having played and started in Parramatta Junior League and reps. Dylan Brown has only played league in the Parra system too, so we can beg to differ .

Didn't Moses play for Holy Cross and Carlingford making him a Balmain junior?

If we are going to define junior as someone bought at a young age and developed through the rep system then there are plenty of roosters juniors running around.

The fact that you have come up with 3 (we aren't counting Moses) genuine juniors in the Parra team is pretty telling given we have the same (Radley, Crighton and Lam). The difference being you guys have 30 junior clubs or there abouts and we have 4.

Perhaps the concept of juniors is archaic and is not relevant int he modern era?
 

Zadar

Juniors
Messages
961
Didn't Moses play for Holy Cross and Carlingford making him a Balmain junior?

If we are going to define junior as someone bought at a young age and developed through the rep system then there are plenty of roosters juniors running around.

The fact that you have come up with 3 (we aren't counting Moses) genuine juniors in the Parra team is pretty telling given we have the same (Radley, Crighton and Lam). The difference being you guys have 30 junior clubs or there abouts and we have 4.

Perhaps the concept of juniors is archaic and is not relevant int he modern era?

this
 

Zadar

Juniors
Messages
961
Junior Paulo, Oregon Kaufusi, Ryan Matterson, and Mitch Moses all say hello having played and started in Parramatta Junior League and reps. Dylan Brown has only played league in the Parra system too, so we can beg to differ .

Moses is a Balmain Juniors boy, and paulo and matterson were already discarded by parra and bought back, but you get my drift, would you really care that you only have 1 or 2 juniors in your team, even though you have over 20 junior clubs to pick from?

Roosters also have toops,Manu,Cordner,Aubo,friend, and 6 others named in the team who have not played for another NRL club, JWH&SST have a combined 7 games for another club before becoming roosters.

it may have been nice to say in the past that a team is full of juniors, but since it has become a business, it’s rare for any club to win a premiership with half a team of locals in it.
 

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