THE Parramatta Eels have forked out massive money to brings the likes of Corey Norman, Mitchell Moses and Michael Jennings to the club.

And it won them a wooden spoon.

Eels fans could be forgiven for throwing their hands up in frustration, questioning “where are all the local juniors?”

The answer, is playing elsewhere in the NRL.

The likes of, Luke Keary, David Klemmer and James Maloney all played for junior clubs within the Parramatta catchment.

None have played senior football for the struggling club.

Blake Green played six matches for the senior side before moving on. He has since played more than 150 NRL games.

In fact there are so many quality Parramatta juniors running around in the NRL that Foxsports.com.au has put together a starting 13. And it’s fair to say it would win a few games.

Now of course it would not be possible for the Eels to have identified and kept all these junior stars.

But retaining a fraction of them could have helped the club avoid the disastrous decade which has only been punctuated by brief moments of on-field success.

At last, however, the club seems to have been jolted into action.

After a disastrous 2018, the Eels have launched a review which will partly focus on the club’s pathways in a bid to stop juniors leaving their system for rival NRL clubs.

The Eels started their reviews well before their horror season ended with a 14th wooden spoon.

Their year began high expectations after a promising 2017 season where they were knocked out in the semi finals. But after just two of their first 13 games, the club fast-tracked their review to address the issues behind their faltering side.

Two months later and the review is still going, according to Fox Sports chief NRL reporter James Hooper.

“There’s a lot of self-reflection going on at the Eels at the moment,” Hooper told The Big League Wrap.
“The review will finish in a couple of weeks. This review, it’s been a never-ending story — it started about eight weeks ago and it’s still got another couple of weeks before it’s wrapped up.

“I think what we’ll discover is (coach) Brad Arthur is safe. He’s signed until the end of next season so his position isn’t in question. He hasn’t lost the dressing room which was alluded to earlier in the year.

“What it will point to is that they desperately need a general manager of football. They’re trying to get someone as high profile as possible from in the game into that position. They’ll have autonomy over recruitment, retention and those sorts of issues.

“They want to pump a heap of money into their juniors and get their pathways system reignited again because at the moment there’s so many local young gun Parramatta kids who are slipping through the cracks.”

Eels legend Peter Sterling has been critical of the club’s recruitment strategy this season, particularly after the club decided to bring back Junior Paulo in 2019 on a four-year deal, worth a reported $3 million.

Blake Ferguson and Shaun Lane will also join the club next season.

But perhaps the club wouldn’t need to fork out big bucks for players at other clubs if they had a prospering junior system.

PARRAMATTA JUNIORS AT OTHER CLUBS
Luke Keary (Hills Bulls)

Daniel Tupou (Guildford Owls)

Paul Gallen (Wentworthville Magpies)

Jorge Taufua (Toongabbie Tigers, Wentworthville Magpies)

Trent Hodkinson (Cabramatta Two Blues)

Blake Green (Cabramatta Two Blues)

Jamie Buhrer (Hills Bulls)

John Asiata (Wentworthville Magpies)

Matt Eisenhuth (Wentworthville Magpies)

James Maloney (Wentworthville Magpies)

Ryan Matterson (Wentworthville Magpies)

Will Skelton (went to rugby) (Wentworthville Magpies)

David Klemmer (All Saints Toongabbie)

Alex Twal (Parramatta City Titans)