VAI
Kennel Addict
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2008
- Messages
- 7,059
- Reaction score
- 16
WHEN Phil Gould declared his first priority at Penrith was to strengthen the club's junior stocks, not even recruitment and development manager Jim Jones expected that the most successful NSW coach in Origin history planned to coach them.
''Gus actually took our under-16 and under-18 teams for a training session during the off-season,'' Jones said. ''He just turned up at Blacktown, got his shorts on and away he went.
''You should have seen the way the kids reacted. They all see him on Channel Nine, calling the NRL games and State of Origin, and then all of a sudden there he is training them.
''All of the parents were watching, and the kids just loved it. They had a real spring in their step for the whole session and just trained out of their skins.''
That is just one anecdote Jones and Windsor Wolves chairman **** Prior related before tonight's derby against Parramatta to illustrate the changes at Penrith since Gould's return to the club he coached to the 1991 premiership.
Penrith's NRL team might be struggling, with just three wins from the opening 15 rounds, but the club is leading the under-20 Toyota Cup, and Windsor - the Panthers' NSW Cup feeder side - is also coming first in that competition.
In the corresponding round last year, Penrith were 13th in the Toyota Cup, with four wins from 13 matches, and Windsor were ninth out of 11 teams in the NSW Cup.
''This is the best that the Wolves have done in the six years we have been involved with Penrith,'' Prior said. '''Gus' and [Panthers head coach] Ivan Cleary come to every game, and if a player is dropped from first grade he comes back and plays for us, whereas in the past they were rested.
''We have some big names play for us this year, like Michael Jennings, and none of them have come back with the wrong attitude. The players all feel like we are part of the same club, and they know that if they perform well they will get seen and they will get an opportunity.''
Gould delivered a similar message to the players in the under-16 Harold Matthews Cup and under-18 SG Ball team at a function he organised for them and their parents at the start of the season.
''He went around the room talking to all of the parents,'' Jones said. ''Then he got up and spoke and told them all they had the support of the club and we were all one big team. It was just awesome.''
Before he accepted the role as Panthers general manager last May, Gould wrote a column in The Sun-Herald pointing out that the club's NRL team boasted few players from Penrith's famed junior nursery.
He also said most clubs only challenge for a premiership a few times a decade, at best, and predicted that the Panthers would only do so again on the back of ''another special group of local juniors''.
Not surprisingly, one of the first things Gould did when he took over was discuss with Jones what steps were needed for the club to produce those players, and already the likes of Harry Seijka and Blake Austin have been given a taste of NRL action.
To help attract the players to bolster the Panthers' junior teams, Gould bought a $1.3 million property at Cranebrook and hired Kiwis international Mark Horo and his wife, who performed a similar role at Parramatta for eight years, to look after the 12 players from the club's Toyota Cup and SG Ball teams that live there.
Gould also appointed former Newcastle under-20 coach Garth Brennan to guide the Toyota Cup team, and he was given charge of this season's NSW under-18 team that included three Penrith players.
Among them were Bryce Cartwright, the nephew of Titans coach and 1991 Panthers premiership forward John Cartwright.
''It is hard with the salary cap but next year we have bought Sika Manu, Dean Whare, James Segeyaro and Lewis Brown, and combined with that we are going to have a heap of these juniors coming through from our [under] 20s,'' Jones said. ''It is just a time thing and a patience thing. We are taking a little bit of pain at the top right now but there is a plan.''
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...unior-ranks-20120622-20thf.html#ixzz1ylAuDxON
''Gus actually took our under-16 and under-18 teams for a training session during the off-season,'' Jones said. ''He just turned up at Blacktown, got his shorts on and away he went.
''You should have seen the way the kids reacted. They all see him on Channel Nine, calling the NRL games and State of Origin, and then all of a sudden there he is training them.
''All of the parents were watching, and the kids just loved it. They had a real spring in their step for the whole session and just trained out of their skins.''
That is just one anecdote Jones and Windsor Wolves chairman **** Prior related before tonight's derby against Parramatta to illustrate the changes at Penrith since Gould's return to the club he coached to the 1991 premiership.
Penrith's NRL team might be struggling, with just three wins from the opening 15 rounds, but the club is leading the under-20 Toyota Cup, and Windsor - the Panthers' NSW Cup feeder side - is also coming first in that competition.
In the corresponding round last year, Penrith were 13th in the Toyota Cup, with four wins from 13 matches, and Windsor were ninth out of 11 teams in the NSW Cup.
''This is the best that the Wolves have done in the six years we have been involved with Penrith,'' Prior said. '''Gus' and [Panthers head coach] Ivan Cleary come to every game, and if a player is dropped from first grade he comes back and plays for us, whereas in the past they were rested.
''We have some big names play for us this year, like Michael Jennings, and none of them have come back with the wrong attitude. The players all feel like we are part of the same club, and they know that if they perform well they will get seen and they will get an opportunity.''
Gould delivered a similar message to the players in the under-16 Harold Matthews Cup and under-18 SG Ball team at a function he organised for them and their parents at the start of the season.
''He went around the room talking to all of the parents,'' Jones said. ''Then he got up and spoke and told them all they had the support of the club and we were all one big team. It was just awesome.''
Before he accepted the role as Panthers general manager last May, Gould wrote a column in The Sun-Herald pointing out that the club's NRL team boasted few players from Penrith's famed junior nursery.
He also said most clubs only challenge for a premiership a few times a decade, at best, and predicted that the Panthers would only do so again on the back of ''another special group of local juniors''.
Not surprisingly, one of the first things Gould did when he took over was discuss with Jones what steps were needed for the club to produce those players, and already the likes of Harry Seijka and Blake Austin have been given a taste of NRL action.
To help attract the players to bolster the Panthers' junior teams, Gould bought a $1.3 million property at Cranebrook and hired Kiwis international Mark Horo and his wife, who performed a similar role at Parramatta for eight years, to look after the 12 players from the club's Toyota Cup and SG Ball teams that live there.
Gould also appointed former Newcastle under-20 coach Garth Brennan to guide the Toyota Cup team, and he was given charge of this season's NSW under-18 team that included three Penrith players.
Among them were Bryce Cartwright, the nephew of Titans coach and 1991 Panthers premiership forward John Cartwright.
''It is hard with the salary cap but next year we have bought Sika Manu, Dean Whare, James Segeyaro and Lewis Brown, and combined with that we are going to have a heap of these juniors coming through from our [under] 20s,'' Jones said. ''It is just a time thing and a patience thing. We are taking a little bit of pain at the top right now but there is a plan.''
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...unior-ranks-20120622-20thf.html#ixzz1ylAuDxON
