GNR4LIFE
Well-known member
PHIL Gould is close to walking away from his role as Penrith general manager.
When Gould took the job in 2011, the Panthers were close to rock bottom.
In the four years since, he has helped rebuild the club as a genuine premiership contender while overhauling the off-field operations.
Now, he says his job is nearing completion — and once that day arrives he will walk away from the club he captained as a 20-year-old in 1978 and coached to its first premiership in 1991.
Gould is contracted to the club until the end of 2017, but he hasn’t ruled out leaving earlier if all goes to plan.
“My aim is to get to a point where my job becomes redundant and the club moves on, and we’re getting close to that,” Gould told The Sunday Telegraph.
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“But, at the moment, there is still a little way to go and I’ll just keep working along and building the club that we want it to be.
“I’d been in the game for 35 years when I arrived back here at Penrith and it’s been tremendous for me.
“A lot of that experience, relationships I’ve built and contacts I’ve had have been very beneficial for us in the journey and the job we’ve done so far.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Gould also opens up on the pain of letting locally-bred Origin stars Michael Jennings and Luke Lewis leave, his relationship with coach Ivan Cleary and the depths of the problems when he first arrived.
THE FUTURE
ON the day Gould took over in May 2011, he said it would take five years to rebuild the club.
Based on the Panthers’ surge to last year’s preliminary final and the emergence of a number of young stars, they are on track to achieve the goal within the ambitious time frame.
Gould’s aim is for Penrith to become one of the most prominent sporting organisations in Australia to go with one of the nation’s biggest and best sporting precincts.
“It will happen,” said Gould, who plans to have a $10 million training and education facility funded by Crown Casino completed by 2017.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s when, and we’re always working towards that. I’m very comfortable with where we are at the moment with our development processes and where the salary cap is.
“This year we are about to start work on our new rugby league academy and we’ll have facilities better than any other.
“We know where we want to be in five years’ time and 10 years, so we’ve got all sorts of plans.
“I’ve always said the challenge of running a football club is to get short-term results with a long-term plan. Sometimes those short-term plans don’t occur for you, but you’ve got to be on track with your long-term plan.
“That’s where we are and my head is still three, four and five years down the track and that never changes, and I never get to an end point.
“My job is to shape what the club will look like in three or four years and that’s with the assistance of a lot of people.”
CONTRACTS
THE Panthers have 17 players coming off contract at the end of the season, but Gould said the club had the situation under control.
“I don’t think we’ll have any trouble retaining the players we want to retain,” he said. “Certainly our indications are that all players are keen to remain here.
“We’ve got a number of off-contract players at the end of this year and again at the end of 2016\. But what we are creating here is a club that no one wants to leave and that they are all happy playing here.
“I think the players can sense they are building towards a successful environment that can be very productive for them over a number of years.”
IVAN CLEARY
GOULD has always rated Ivan Cleary highly as a coach.
It’s why he lured him from the Warriors and it’s why Gould believes the former fullback has a job for life at Penrith.
“I can see Ivan being the long-term coach of this club and I don’t see an end point to his time here at all,” Gould said.
“I think he is very much a part of what we are building and he is also the coach that once it is built, he’ll take advantage of it.
“Ivan has been terrific and I said at the time that he was the perfect person for what our club was about to go through.
“I needed a coach who could put up with a couple of tough years and come out the other side.
“I also wanted someone who could buy into a long-term plan and had a reputation and demeanour for handling the short-term results, which I said to him at the time won’t be great for a while.
“It was great to see both the coaching staff and the players get rewards for their effort.”
LOST STARS
WHEN Penrith lost Lewis and Jennings it ripped at the heart of every Penrith supporter.
Gould said it was a necessary evil at the time due to significant salary cap and financial pressures, but he has vowed it will not happen again.
“I don’t think anyone truly understands what the situation was here at Penrith,” said Gould, who had to convince good mate and billionaire James Packer to give the Panthers Group a loan — just days within liquidation of debts amounting to $90 million.
“Anything that we’ve done at the club in the past was always done in the best long-term interests of the club and so we wouldn’t ever have to go through that pain again.
“We never want to have to go through the pain of allowing a Luke Lewis, Michael Jennings, Lachlan Coote and Tim Grant to have to leave the club. But that’s been a necessity and decisions that have been made in the best long-term interests of the club, so we can establish within the club so it never has to happen ever again.”
ROAD GAMES
A COMBINATION of poor crowd figures, scheduling and a tough financial climate have forced Penrith to move home games away from Sydney, but Gould insists Sportingbet Stadium will always be the Panthers’ home.
“In our current facility, it’s hard to grow this business any bigger than it is,” he reasoned. “That’s why we’ve looked at taking a game away to Bathurst for the next five years and we are looking at other opportunities. But you’ll never take the Panthers out of Penrith and this is where we are to remain.
“And when we have a stadium where we can make ends meet from the business, then this is where we will be.
“I thought our crowds (last year) were pretty good given the scheduling and the weather.
“I think as our performances improve we’ll start to get greater attention from broadcasters and perhaps our draw will become better.
“But we’ve got to work hard towards that and we’ll do what we can.
“There’s a financial reality to our business and we’ve got to make ends meet, and we’ve got to be financially responsible.”
http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/phil-gould-reveals-plan-to-quit-role-as-penrith-panthers-general-manager/story-fn2mcuj6-1227188161087?from=public_rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed&nk=3e134b7518a4cfb1c6ca472e6f32b6e9
When Gould took the job in 2011, the Panthers were close to rock bottom.
In the four years since, he has helped rebuild the club as a genuine premiership contender while overhauling the off-field operations.
Now, he says his job is nearing completion — and once that day arrives he will walk away from the club he captained as a 20-year-old in 1978 and coached to its first premiership in 1991.
Gould is contracted to the club until the end of 2017, but he hasn’t ruled out leaving earlier if all goes to plan.
“My aim is to get to a point where my job becomes redundant and the club moves on, and we’re getting close to that,” Gould told The Sunday Telegraph.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
“But, at the moment, there is still a little way to go and I’ll just keep working along and building the club that we want it to be.
“I’d been in the game for 35 years when I arrived back here at Penrith and it’s been tremendous for me.
“A lot of that experience, relationships I’ve built and contacts I’ve had have been very beneficial for us in the journey and the job we’ve done so far.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Gould also opens up on the pain of letting locally-bred Origin stars Michael Jennings and Luke Lewis leave, his relationship with coach Ivan Cleary and the depths of the problems when he first arrived.
THE FUTURE
ON the day Gould took over in May 2011, he said it would take five years to rebuild the club.
Based on the Panthers’ surge to last year’s preliminary final and the emergence of a number of young stars, they are on track to achieve the goal within the ambitious time frame.
Gould’s aim is for Penrith to become one of the most prominent sporting organisations in Australia to go with one of the nation’s biggest and best sporting precincts.
“It will happen,” said Gould, who plans to have a $10 million training and education facility funded by Crown Casino completed by 2017.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s when, and we’re always working towards that. I’m very comfortable with where we are at the moment with our development processes and where the salary cap is.
“This year we are about to start work on our new rugby league academy and we’ll have facilities better than any other.
“We know where we want to be in five years’ time and 10 years, so we’ve got all sorts of plans.
“I’ve always said the challenge of running a football club is to get short-term results with a long-term plan. Sometimes those short-term plans don’t occur for you, but you’ve got to be on track with your long-term plan.
“That’s where we are and my head is still three, four and five years down the track and that never changes, and I never get to an end point.
“My job is to shape what the club will look like in three or four years and that’s with the assistance of a lot of people.”
CONTRACTS
THE Panthers have 17 players coming off contract at the end of the season, but Gould said the club had the situation under control.
“I don’t think we’ll have any trouble retaining the players we want to retain,” he said. “Certainly our indications are that all players are keen to remain here.
“We’ve got a number of off-contract players at the end of this year and again at the end of 2016\. But what we are creating here is a club that no one wants to leave and that they are all happy playing here.
“I think the players can sense they are building towards a successful environment that can be very productive for them over a number of years.”
IVAN CLEARY
GOULD has always rated Ivan Cleary highly as a coach.
It’s why he lured him from the Warriors and it’s why Gould believes the former fullback has a job for life at Penrith.
“I can see Ivan being the long-term coach of this club and I don’t see an end point to his time here at all,” Gould said.
“I think he is very much a part of what we are building and he is also the coach that once it is built, he’ll take advantage of it.
“Ivan has been terrific and I said at the time that he was the perfect person for what our club was about to go through.
“I needed a coach who could put up with a couple of tough years and come out the other side.
“I also wanted someone who could buy into a long-term plan and had a reputation and demeanour for handling the short-term results, which I said to him at the time won’t be great for a while.
“It was great to see both the coaching staff and the players get rewards for their effort.”
LOST STARS
WHEN Penrith lost Lewis and Jennings it ripped at the heart of every Penrith supporter.
Gould said it was a necessary evil at the time due to significant salary cap and financial pressures, but he has vowed it will not happen again.
“I don’t think anyone truly understands what the situation was here at Penrith,” said Gould, who had to convince good mate and billionaire James Packer to give the Panthers Group a loan — just days within liquidation of debts amounting to $90 million.
“Anything that we’ve done at the club in the past was always done in the best long-term interests of the club and so we wouldn’t ever have to go through that pain again.
“We never want to have to go through the pain of allowing a Luke Lewis, Michael Jennings, Lachlan Coote and Tim Grant to have to leave the club. But that’s been a necessity and decisions that have been made in the best long-term interests of the club, so we can establish within the club so it never has to happen ever again.”
ROAD GAMES
A COMBINATION of poor crowd figures, scheduling and a tough financial climate have forced Penrith to move home games away from Sydney, but Gould insists Sportingbet Stadium will always be the Panthers’ home.
“In our current facility, it’s hard to grow this business any bigger than it is,” he reasoned. “That’s why we’ve looked at taking a game away to Bathurst for the next five years and we are looking at other opportunities. But you’ll never take the Panthers out of Penrith and this is where we are to remain.
“And when we have a stadium where we can make ends meet from the business, then this is where we will be.
“I thought our crowds (last year) were pretty good given the scheduling and the weather.
“I think as our performances improve we’ll start to get greater attention from broadcasters and perhaps our draw will become better.
“But we’ve got to work hard towards that and we’ll do what we can.
“There’s a financial reality to our business and we’ve got to make ends meet, and we’ve got to be financially responsible.”
http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/phil-gould-reveals-plan-to-quit-role-as-penrith-panthers-general-manager/story-fn2mcuj6-1227188161087?from=public_rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed&nk=3e134b7518a4cfb1c6ca472e6f32b6e9
