Parramatta will bring their reserve-grade side back under the Eels umbrella and appoint a junior coaching director who will have veto over team selections for under-age sides in an unashamed bid to churn out more NRL players and bridge the gap to western Sydney rivals Penrith.
The Eels' wide-ranging football review has recommended a number of changes to free up Brad Arthur to concentrate on coaching the NRL side, which includes creating a general manager of football and head of recruitment role.
The only way is up: Parramatta coach Brad Arthur.Credit:NRL Photos
Former Tigers premiership winner Mark O'Neill will assume the former post.
And a head of junior rep teams will be given a licence to overrule under-age coaches at the selection table, even if it means compromising the chances of winning a particular game in order to develop a potential NRL player.
The Eels will disband their partnership with Intrust Super Premiership side Wentworthville at the end of the 2019 season in a bid to solidify the passage from under-age representative sides to the top grade.
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Leadership expert and consultant Shane McCurry led Parramatta's much-publicised review, which was sparked in the wake of the club to the wooden spoon after finishing the 2017 regular season in the top four.
Eels chief executive Bernie Gurr unapologetically claimed Parramatta wanted to be a better development club in the mould of bitter rivals Penrith and increase the percentage of their NRL squad which graduates from their junior systems.
"The No.1 thing it confirmed is that everybody in the club thinks we should be a development club," Gurr said.
"In other words, we should be like a Penrith, Brisbane, North Queensland, Newcastle. They're clubs that produce players, they come through their systems and graduate to the NRL and suddenly someone says, 'I've never seen that bloke before and he's been in the system for five years'.
"People keep saying you lose your juniors, but there's a myth to that. We have a very good junior rep program, but we want to make it better. From 2020 a decision has been made to bring our second grade side back into Parramatta. We have a great relationship with Wenty, but it's time to bring it back in-house."
O'Neill will start his new role in November, a position which will also allow Gurr to concentrate on the strategic side of the business as the club projects to cut its football club deficit in half for the current financial year.
O'Neill will work alongside a new recruitment guru, who will sit above Peter Sharp. Sharp will be charged with concentrating on NRL scouting rather than whole-of-club business.
In limbo: Jarryd Hayne is yet to re-sign with the Eels.Credit:NRL Photos
"We need to have a more sophisticated recruitment at both the NRL and junior level," Gurr said.
"You need to do both well and that's what Penrith have done, they've recruited well externally for the junior reps and they've milked their own junior league to come up with a powerhouse group of junior players who can potentially make it through to NRL level.
"The junior rep program is not about winning Matts, Balls and Fleggs, it's about developing NRL players. [The junior coaching director] will be telling [under-age coaches], 'here's a style of play we want to have, here's the type of player we want to have and, by the way, I have veto power of your team selection'.
"That particular game Player X might be the right guy to play, but Player Y might be five foot 10 and have the capability to play NRL."
The Eels will return to pre-season training on November 1 and will continue talks with free agent Jarryd Hayne, who has recently returned from an overseas holiday and is yet to sign a contract for next season.
Roosters grand final winner Blake Ferguson, Raiders monster Junior Paulo, and Manly back-rower Shaun Lane will add size to the Eels squad in 2019.
Adam Pengilly is a Sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.
