The inaugural Peter Moore Bulldogs Academy held over the past four months at Belmore Sports Ground aimed to deliver a new strategic approach to engaging, developing and upskilling our junior league players has delivered fantastic results.
The Academy, headed by NRL coach Dean Pay and his football staff, focused on key skill components for a rugby league player, as well as highlighting disciplines and techniques to improve local juniors as people and players.
Canterbury-Bankstown District Junior Rugby League General Manager Nathan Mairleitner expressed his satisfaction with the Academy, saying it exceeded his expectations, as it brought the Bulldogs football community together.
“We only projected around 80 participants, but we had 181 come through the program which is absolutely fantastic.
“We are very happy with the outcome of the Academy and to have a community program led by the NRL performance staff was brilliant,” he added.
In successfully completing the program, Nathan believes it is essential that the junior league players understand the principal of becoming good people, before good players.
“Making better people over better players is fundamental. The discipline and attitude about becoming what a Bulldog is, intensifies in mainstream life as well,” Mairleitner said.
The Academy promised many benefits, both for the club and the individual participants, each of which the junior league believed was important.
“We can build on top of these foundations to create better people for the Bulldogs. They will understand what the attitude, the effort and disciplines are to become a better player for their respective team and club.”
In preparing for the Academy, there were inevitable challenges, which were dealt with by the General Manager, ensuring he had the right team around him to maintain a fruitful program.
“My philosophy is if you don't prepare right, you’re never going to execute at the level you need to. The challenges permitted me to have the right people around me to kick that off.”
The Peter Moore Bulldogs Academy proved a huge success, far exceeding expectations and leaving the juniors excited for next year.
WORDS: Anthony Eltarraf