THEY were stripped of the title due to salary cap rorts but coach Brad Arthur has declared Parramatta will head to the Auckland Nines this weekend as defending champions.
Arthur said the Eels still considered themselves titleholders of the Nines, even though the record books proclaim they had their 2016 crown taken away for cheating the salary cap.
“We don’t feel like it was taken off us,” Arthur told The Daily Telegraph.
“You can’t take away the games that were played, you can’t take away the feelings and the excitement of when it all happened. That still lives with us.
“As far as we are concerned we followed the rules the same as everyone else with selection and we are doing the same again this year. Everything that we do in a Parramatta jersey we want to try and be at our best.”
It’s why Arthur has named a strong squad for this weekend’s two-day tournament, including big names Corey Norman and Semi Radradra.
“We’ve probably got a better team than what we fielded last year,” he said.
“That’s because we’ve got a full complement of 25 players in our top 25 for the first time.
“We’ve got Norman, Bevan French, Clint Gutherson, Josh Hoffman and Semi all going.
“The rules are you’ve got to send 12 of your top 25. It’s the same as last year when we followed the rules.
“But you need a lot of luck in these games and we got a bit of luck last year.
“In the second game with 30 seconds to go we scored to win, but if we lose that game we were out. You’ve just got to manage the players the best you can if someone gets a niggling injury.
“You definitely don’t take any risks, because you’ve got 18 players. If you do get a couple of injuries you just have to pull them out.”
French scored eight tries in six games at last year’s Nines to announce himself as a genuine try scoring threat and Arthur expects the Eels to excel in the speed stakes again, nominating
former North Queensland under 20s winger Scott Schulte as a potential surprise packet.
“I think Scott might get a few highlights there over the weekend,” he said.
“He has come down from the Cowboys after playing a bit of 20s with them and he played with Wentworthville last season.
“Scott has just trained well throughout the pre-season, so he has earned the right for us to give him a taste of NRL footy and we can have a look at him.”
Arthur is also hoping for big things from former Titans utility Josh Hoffman.
“Josh has trained really well,” he said. “He has had to manage his loads early in the piece, but he has become very resilient to our training and his competitiveness is a big plus for us.
“He and Gutherson are both the same. They both compete, scrap and fight over anything and they are really competitive players.
“I think Hoffman is going to be good for us.”
Replies
hahaha - looking back at this line-up is it any wonder they were found to be over the salary cap. Almost every single one of them either played for their state or country. what a rort.
Im surprised by this, i thought Brad was above this type of stuff, he also stated its all about looking ahead not backwards.
Is this your argument overall Wiz? That we signed players who came out of contract in 2014/5/6 for amounts we couldn't afford because we exceeded the cap?
I thought the main issue with the cap breach related to TPAs more than actualy "reported" cap breaches? I know Norman was mentioned as being a benefactor of dodgy paperbags but how much did his push us over.
Of the team that was sent last year how many were *really* an actual part of the cap breach? Now remember the Nines doesnt apply to the Salary Cap here so it doesn't make any difference if they were or not.....
Just as a reminder this was the team.
1. Corey Norman (c), 2. Semi Radradra, 3. Vai Toutai, 4. John Folau, 5. Bureta Faraimo, 6. Luke Kelly, 7. Mitch Cornish, 8. Junior Paulo, 9. Cameron King, 10. Peni Terepo, 11. Manu Ma'u, 12. David Gower, 13. Tepai Moeroa, 14. Bevan French, 15. Matt Woods, 16. Ryan Morgan, 17. Kelepi Tanginoa, 18. Cody Nelson.
So are you putting it all on Norman,Semi and Tep?? How many from this list do you think were attributed to the cap breach? I also thought things were "cleaned up" for 2016. Parra was under the cap until busted and made to suffer for previous indiscretions?
Just a side note I am not disaegreing with your point of view, the Eels pretty much got what they deserved, its just nice to debate these things and you seem to be the type who can put together a well articulted response :)
H-E-L-L-O CRAIG BELLAMEY.......
Mace is going to love this stuff lol
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