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  • The 1950s was Parramatta's worst decade. Part of it was due to them being a new team and with very little funding they couldn't attract star players the way Manly could. They did manage to recruit an aging Vic Hey and Mitchell Wallace but they didn't have the systems in place to develop talent.

    By the mid-50s they were a complete and utter basket case. If you think now is bad, just be glad you weren't there. While they had juniors, they were far from stars. Between 1952-1961 they won just 35 matches and collected six consecutive wooden spoons.

    The big issues were: a lack of money as the Leagues Club was only established in 1954 and the fact Parramatta was the arse-end of Sydney at that time. It was not an attractive place to live and the majority of land near Parramatta was pastoral.

    • Makes me wonder why we entered the comp that early if we had that many negatives. Thanks for he run down
      • We actually tried to enter in 1936 but got knocked back. The NSWRL was expanding at the time and we'd had a district competition since 1909 so we were actually one of the most prepared at the time considering Penrith wasn't a city until 1959.

        The NSWRL at the time was also pretty full with Sydney CBD teams. You had Easts, Souths, Newtown, Canterbury and Norths. The furthest west they had gone was to Ashfield with Wests Magpies. Parramatta provided a brand new and untapped market.

        Technically speaking there was a Parramatta team in 1908 which was Cumberland and they wore blue and gold stripes but they only lasted a season before folding. They were set up to fail, the NSWRL wanted them to merge with Wests but Wests didn't want a merger (happened 90 years later). They won 1 game and were then scrapped by the NSWRL. 49 years later Parramatta joined the competition.

    • Were we truly worse than now? I mean, results wise yes, but at least they had a reason to be bad. We have funding now, we have a junior base (one of the top 3 supposedly) and one of the biggest fan bases in the NRL. Are we really better off now?

      Besides the 80's we haven't really been a successful club.

    • And we are still coming last and are an absolute basket case even though we have everything at our disposal.

  • They wore that horrible  jersey we saw this year . 

    • Actually this was the strip worn in the 1950s:

      throwbackvichey-lead.jpg?center=0.31%2C0.5&preset=hero-article-fill

      • Even worse , no wonder they had a long period of shit, pretty much validates the argument . Hopefully we can lose the one we’ve had this year to avoid another decade of misery . 

      • Well at least they had some decent looking players back then! Probably all Tradies or Farmers! That's why the Qld sides do so well because most of their players grew up in farms or properties and know a hard days work! They all look 'Anglo Saxon' no racism intended just an observation.

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