@balmain-boy said in [Official \- Wests Tigers Sign Stefano Utoikamanu](/post/1186840) said:
Anyone have the copy of today's article on him in the telecrap? 'Why tigers poaching raid really hurt the eels'
Why tigers poaching raid really hurt the eels
At a Concord coffee shop last November, Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire laid out a vision for young star Stefano Utoikamanu that would lure him from Parramatta and continue the alarming trend of the Eels losing their best young juniors.
The Tigers had identified prop Utoikamanu and Penrith backrower Shawn Blore as forwards they could anchor their pack around in the next three years.
Blore got an early release from the Panthers and switched to Leichhardt this year, and could make his NRL debut against the Eels on Thursday night
Utoikamanu, at that point yet to play first grade, had a three-year deal worth $900,000 in front of him from the Tigers, and a constant reminder at home of how insecure a future can be.
His older brother, Filia, had shown even more promise than Stefano through the juniors and was expected to become an NRL star before tragedy struck in 2017. Filia suffered a serious neck injury – doctors initially feared paralysis – before he recovered to walk, but will never again play football.
With the Eels having signed props Junior Paulo from Canberra and Reagan Campbell-Gillard from Penrith, and the money and opportunity on offer from the Tigers, Utoikamanu signed with the Tigers.
“It was a tough decision, but I have to do what is best for me and my family,” Utoikamanu said.
“It was probably the hardest decision I’ve had to make in my life.”
But Utoikamanu was already signed by the Eels for 2020, and despite the request for an early release, Parramatta refused.
Eels coach Brad Arthur would not budge, despite the Tigers granting an early release for Ryan Matterson – their best performer last year – to join Parramatta this season.
Matterson, a Parramatta junior, has strenuously denied that he told the Tigers he wanted to leave because they weren’t capable of winning a premiership.
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Nevertheless, the suggestion alone, and back and forth trading between the club’s players and staff – Eels assistant coach David Kidwell and general manager of football Mark O’Neill were previously employed by the Tigers – has set up a grudge match unlike any other in the NRL.
To Arthur’s credit, rather than leave Utoikamanu languishing in reserves just to spite the Tigers, he has blooded the 20-year-old this season and will throw him in against the club he’ll join next year at Bankwest Stadium on Thursday night.
“I stayed here and wanted to put my head down so I could get my debut this year, I’m grateful that Brad gave me that opportunity,” Utoikamanu said.
But his loss beyond 2020 underscores a worrying statistic — no Parramatta junior who has remained at the Eels has debuted in State of Origin in a decade.
Former skipper Tim Mannah, who played for NSW in 2010, was the last.
Blake Ferguson and Michael Jennings have since represented the Blues, but aren’t Parramatta juniors, while Tony Williams had moved to Manly when he broke through to play Origin in 2012.
Blues coach Brad Fittler named Utoikamanu as a potential Origin bolter earlier this year, comparing him to David Klemmer and Payne Haas, so it was particularly galling for Eels fans to hear of his defection to their rivals across Parramatta Road.
Alex Twal had been another Eels forward of the future. A Junior Kangaroos and NSW under-20s representative standout, Twal signed a three-year deal with the Tigers from 2018, but was released by Parramatta immediately, midway through the 2017 season, to join them.
At the time, Eels officials dismissed Twal’s departure as a blow to their forward stocks, instead talking up the emergence of then 17-year-old props Utoikamanu and his childhood friend Oregon Kaufusi.
But, having spent years investing in their stagnant nursery, to produce an Origin-calibre junior only to watch a rival swoop in and sign him, hurt the Eels.
They had only just started filling the U16, U18 and U20s Origin teams with blue and gold talent after a long, dry spell.
Now, they’ll be looking over their shoulder wondering whether rivals will try to take talented youngsters Sean Russell, Cody Parry and Will Penisini in coming years.
That path from Parramatta’s juniors to the NRL hasn’t always been clear.
Unfortunately for the Eels, amid the much-hyped arrival of Matterson in the off-season, another rising junior star – Uinitoni Mataele — became concerned about his journey to first grade.
The Newcastle Knights sensed an opportunity and poached Mataele earlier this year, infuriating the Eels.
Matterson’s controversial defection sets up a juicy showdown with the Tigers, but for Arthur – who is attempting to secure the Eels their first premiership since 1986, 14 years before Utoikamanu was born – the feud is irrelevant.
“I don’t have time to get caught up in it, it’s just about two good footy teams wanting to go out there for teammates and fans and club and doing their best,” Arthur said.
“This week’s no different to last week, or the week before.”
While Parramatta are second on the NRL ladder and undefeated at home in 2020, the Tigers cannot be dismissed as a club building for the future.
The signings of Utoikamanu and Blore, and retention of Tommy Talau paint a bright future, but Tigers veterans Benji Marshall, Chris Lawrence and Russell Packer are desperate for success in 2020.
Under then coach Ivan Cleary, the Tigers signed Russell Packer in 2018 on a $750,000-a-year deal until the end of 2021 that hasn’t yielded the results they’d hoped
It was only during last week’s 48-0 drubbing of the Broncos, after Tigers staff had identified how to treat a foot injury that had hampered the prop since last year, did Packer show his quality by running 148 metres and making 30 tackles in 52 minutes on the field.
Utoikamanu can expect a rough reception from Packer – who is keenly aware the rookie will be trying to take his starting spot in 2021.
Now seventh on the table and with the third-best attacking record in the competition, the Tigers loom as a tricky opponent not only for their foes but the rest of the NRL.
“I don’t think the boys are actually satisfied with where they’re at,” Maguire said.
“A lot of this is actually coming through the players now, that’s what I’m trying to achieve, is that they control what we’re doing and drive what we’re doing.
“The fact that we’ve done it once, they’re hungry to do it again and again.
“That’s when we can be talked about as the team on the run to where we want to get to.”
WTs should next target Eels Will Penisini and his brother Richard Penisini.
Richard Penisini is a very unfortunate name
His brother Willy is a slight improvement.
DempsModerator