1Eyed View

Imagine the Eels get off to a flyer. Riding high on the table and their stocks soaring again, as their young guns take the competition by the storm. What's the worst thing you could do at that point? How about running a Parramatta Leagues Club election, thrusting the club onto the front and back pages for all the wrong reasons again, and letting the political and factional warring again dominate the attention of the club.

One of the key tenants of the Parramatta Leagues constitutional reforms being proposed is the abolition of the ugly all-in elections, where every two years the Parramatta Leagues Club board is voted upon. Anyone who has had anything to do with these elections knows they are bitter, divisive and leave a stain of recriminations and spite behind them.

Tonight members will vote on the Tuck Shop proposal, which will accept the proposed constitutional reforms on the basis that all seven members of the initial board will be chosen from a general election. The proposal is the result of various factions within the Leagues Club aligning, in order to have one last general election. Those behind the push have been remarkably frank about the factionalism at play, here. Former board member Paul Garrard admitted at the last AGM that the constitutional reform process had brought the factions together and then told the SMH: “"You are always going to get factions – it doesn’t matter if you have a tuckshop or a club.”

There is enormous self-interest at play. The former board members, politicians and developers backing the Tuck Shop proposal all have put together little friends and family groups, as well as having the support of some popular former players. They no doubt feel that this is their best chance, perhaps their only chance, of ever winning back control of the club.

The last thing our clubs needs, presumably in the middle of a football season is another circus of a general election. One that promises to be bigger, and messier than ever, because for many who stand  little chance of being elected on their own individual merits, this would represent the last throw of the dice. For a club that is trying to re-build its foundations, I can think of nothing more damaging.

The argument will be that this is all about getting Max Donnelly out of the club, with claims related to how much his role is costing Of course the same people making those claims have now twice knocked down the constitutional reforms that would otherwise have had ended the club’s administration.

At stake, is whether Parramatta Leagues and its football club continue to be beholden to factional groups, or whether it moves forward, encouraging well-qualified candidates to put their hands up on the basis of their own individual merits. No doubt the factions will turn out in force, and if the rest of the membership exhibits the same kind of apathy that has been displayed at past AGM and constitutional votes, we will be right back where we started and the Eel's season will be threatened before it even begins.

The vote will be held tonight at the Novotel Hotel in Parramatta at 7pm. All Parramatta Leagues Club members with three-year voting rights are encouraged to attend and have their say.