Penrith Emus

[Knuckles]

heard through the grapevine that Penrith are in complete disarray. No coaches appointed, hardly any players at off season training. Can anyone confirm or deny?

 

[Cutter]

T'would be sad if true.

 

[blues recovery]

Certainly know they are making a concerted effort to steal Parramatta junior clubs such as Hawkesbury and Rooty Hill. Maybe if they concentrated their efforts on developing the game in areas that currently dont play Rugby within their catchment they would be better off. The clubs in the west of sydney need to work together not against.

 

[west is best]

If the emus where stealing juniors it is only because Parramatta have left them out. Parramatta do nothing much for the Juniors so they should go where they can feel some love. Good luck to the Emus.

 

[lily]

I'm wondering how you steal a jnr club. Do you stealth it at the dead of the night or is it a more brazen hit mid morning? I wonder how this is possible?

 

[Tahboy]

Until penrith can fill 3 colts teams for a season they will always struggle
They need to get there foundations in place then they can move forward
How can they increase there strength by playing just a 3rd colts side
They need to throw some dollars and get some good coaches into there colts
They can't do any worse then what has been happening for the past 12 years

 

[Slash]

If the emus where stealing juniors it is only because Parramatta have left them out. Parramatta do nothing much for the Juniors so they should go where they can feel some love. Good luck to the Emus.

sounds like you have some inside knowledge. How about tabling some evidence of such.

 

[Slash]

Certainly know they are making a concerted effort to steal Parramatta junior clubs such as Hawkesbury and Rooty Hill. Maybe if they concentrated their efforts on developing the game in areas that currently dont play Rugby within their catchment they would be better off. The clubs in the west of sydney need to work together not against.

what could Penrith possibly offer them?

a long and distinguished history of doing absolutely nothing in terms of growing a junior competition? or perhaps a concerted effort to continue to finish in the bottom 2 in ALL grades throughout their entire Shute Shield existence.

or maybe its just their recent history of alleged extensive contract breaches to players and coaches by continued non payment of agreed terms and conditions. Or maybe the club intends to levy the recruited junior clubs in an attempt to pay off the quite significant alleged tax debt...............

 

[lily]

As most on this forum would know I have championed Penriths existence. If the current position is true it is not very good. I was once again down at Manly during the previous winter and they gave up. I dont quite understand how your first grade team wins at Coogee and your second grade team gives Eastwood it's first loss. Hopefully your misery ends soon.

 

[Tahboy]

You have to admire the good people involved with Penrith and they are true rugby champions. To keep turning up each week when there team is more than likely to lose and in some cases badly. What does the NSWRU do? They have poored massive amounts of dollars and nothing, Penrith cannot get enough players to field colts sides and there lower grade teams are made up of players Doubling up from the game before. They have no money , no success and there ground and location etc is not going to attract outside players or enough outside players to make a difference.
I think they need to get away from there present location and maybe move more towards Katoomba or even Lithgow and tap into the country region? I am sure there are holes in this suggestion but just throwing it out there for other peoples thoughts because clearly the present situation is not going to work and I think NSWRU have given up and are just hoping it fixes itself

 

[west is best]

sounds like you have some inside knowledge. How about tabling some evidence of such.
Well if this forum was long enough I could go thru my 10 yrs experience with the Parramatta Junior system, and how for the last 10 yrs that I have known it continues to fail it,s Juniors and if you want proof of such have a look at the results of there Colts teams over the last few years, I had to endure a game where they where beaten 100 plus points to nil, and a season where the only team they did beat was Penrith. The problem with Parramatta is that the management believe that they are owed an exsistance and blame everyone else and any thing else for there own failures.
There have been some very successful players come from Parramatta juniors area and the question is why are they not still at Parramatta? because of the way they where treated as junior players. I thought that when Mr Ella was in charge of !st grade he cared about the Juniors and encouraged them, he even attended rep games just to watch who might be able to play colts and future grade players. Yes i do have proof of Parramattas failures it is in there results on the field every year. And when was the last time a grade official attended a Hawkesbury Juniors game or a Rooty Hill game or perhaps a grade player attending a presentation night?
Over to you Slash

 

[Slash]

sounds like you have some inside knowledge. How about tabling some evidence of such.
Well if this forum was long enough I could go thru my 10 yrs experience with the Parramatta Junior system, and how for the last 10 yrs that I have known it continues to fail it,s Juniors and if you want proof of such have a look at the results of there Colts teams over the last few years, I had to endure a game where they where beaten 100 plus points to nil, and a season where the only team they did beat was Penrith. The problem with Parramatta is that the management believe that they are owed an exsistance and blame everyone else and any thing else for there own failures.
There have been some very successful players come from Parramatta juniors area and the question is why are they not still at Parramatta? because of the way they where treated as junior players. I thought that when Mr Ella was in charge of !st grade he cared about the Juniors and encouraged them, he even attended rep games just to watch who might be able to play colts and future grade players. Yes i do have proof of Parramattas failures it is in there results on the field every year. And when was the last time a grade official attended a Hawkesbury Juniors game or a Rooty Hill game or perhaps a grade player attending a presentation night?
Over to you Slash

You could just cut the word Parramatta out and replace it with Penrith and the comment would still have the same meaning. I also think you must be somewhat a little delusional. If things were so fantastic under Mr Ella's management, why did the leagues club completely withdraw all financial support?

'Because of the way they were treated as juniors' - is that comment reflective of the behaviour of the senior club or some self centred junior coaches in the past? What influence if any, did the senior club (or should the senior club) have in those appointments? Most people in juniors land across a number of clubs, do not wish for their senior club to have a say at all in how the junior rep program is run. I know this is the case at my club.

I cannot speak for if or when seniors officials attend juniors games or functions, but Westie, when were they actually asked?

In the end, it is not my club and I don't really give 2 hoots what happens to Parra junior clubs, however, surely those junior clubs should be looking at Penrith and there results, lack of colts teams, and ask, is going there REALLY a better solution?

 

[Slash]

heard through the grapevine that Penrith are in complete disarray. No coaches appointed, hardly any players at off season training. Can anyone confirm or deny?

westie, I might add, none of your comments address the original question above. Care to elaborate?

 

[west is best]

westie, I might add, none of your comments address the original question above. Care to elaborate?

Penrith may be in dissaray, but if they start looking after a very rich source of players mainly Juniors they will not be for long, The Emus are very similar to Parra and will need to pick up there act. Both clubs should be more involved in keeping there Juniors and offer a solid pathway to colts and grade. And for far to long Parramatta have left this process out of there control and are missing some very talented players via neglect. And then complain that there Juniors go and play else where.
The Rooty Hill club and Hawkesbury juniors are a very rich source of future talent.
And I would also like to add that it was not a response to Slash really but a response to Blues Recovery about Penrith stealing Juniors

 

[Keithy]

I know one of the coaches who has left this season. He has had enough of losing and the players have had enough of Briggs.
When NSWRU brought Penrith into the Shute Shield they were never a Kentwell Cup powerhouse or a club flush with cash. Penrith were always a geographical selection. The Emus brand is now a negative when it comes to recruiting talent.
I say move, rename, new colours, new logo. Give the joint a fresh start. Maybe the Blue Mountains or St Mary's.

 

[en_force_er]

I think it's hard to expect a club who were never prolific to really revolutionise rugby in Sydney's West. The inititive to create a quality elite club and everything that goes with it in the west should have come from the NSWRU starting a club and poaring time (and as much money as feasibly possible) into it.

Instead you have them appointing a privet organisation to do it and saying "what more do you want?".

 

[en_force_er]

All they've done is essentially killed off a competitive subbies club is exchange for a crappy Shute Shield club when really they should have been working to have both in the area so there is a cross-section of rugby represented.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

I know one of the coaches who has left this season. He has had enough of losing and the players have had enough of Briggs.
When NSWRU brought Penrith into the Shute Shield they were never a Kentwell Cup powerhouse or a club flush with cash. Penrith were always a geographical selection. The Emus brand is now a negative when it comes to recruiting talent.
I say move, rename, new colours, new logo. Give the joint a fresh start. Maybe the Blue Mountains or St Mary's.

That could be an option. Nepean Rugby Park is an atrocious facility. I would go as far as to say let the Emu's go back to subbies and have them build a junior base at that level before reconsidering re-entry sometime into the future. To replace them I would suggest Campbelltown in the form of the Harlequins. Rugby is really badly neglected in the Macarthur region of Sydney, one that is rapidly expanding population wise. There's a large Kiwi and PI community in the region and with some investment a really strong local school's competition could be established in the area to act as a feeder for the team.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I recall reading a footy program in 1980 (age 18) in which the harlequins were included - i think they may have been 3rd division....and I thought to myself: "Campbelltown and Liverpool would be growth areas for Union. The SRU should do something about that". At that time Wests and Balmain were stand alone league clubs - one in Blamain and one in Ashfiled...so no top local league clubs in C'town.
None of the northwestern part of Sydney had been sub-divided so you could drive out along Windsor Road and it was all market gardens and chickens.

Oh well - those horses bolted along with many others......

 

[Rugby Central]

WCR you've nailed it right there. Campbelltown have been one of the most consistent Kentwell sides for a few years. While not necessarily a "powerhouse" they play solid rugby and are one of the best host clubs you will ever visit. By the way I'not involved with Campbelltown in any way.

If you're going to make a geographical choice then Campbelltown is the way to go. With a promotion to Shute Shield you could probably look to have some link with Wests Tigers (yes West Harbour have that at Concord) if only to allow them ocassional access to Campbelltown Stadium.