‘Badly exposed’: Comedy of errors and club fracture behind Eels’ ugly freefall — Hoops
Bizarre clauses as Parramatta in decline | 05:56
James Hooper
James Hooper from Fox Sports
July 4th, 2024 6:14 am
The Parramatta Eels’ Fawlty Towers search for a new head coach has done little to suggest the decision-makers calling the shots are in control of a club currently in freefall.
The Eels apologists will try and spin how the board has run a thorough process, the Eels have a strong roster and everything will be tickety-boo once the new coach is announced.
In reality it’s been a comedy of errors since Parramatta was flying high after making the grand final in 2022.
First came the decision to push their chips all-in on coach Brad Arthur with a contract extension until the end of 2025.
That was the right play off the back of going on a run and making the NRL decider against Penrith.
Yet here we are less than 18 months later and Arthur has been sacked only nine months into his new contract.
To be clear the two key figures calling the shots at Parramatta are chairman Sean McElduff and CEO Jim Sarantinos.
Both extremely well-qualified in the corporate world of banking and accounting it appears their lack of rugby league I.Q is now being badly exposed.
The Eels are a basket case.
The Eels are a basket case.
Source: FOX SPORTS
There also appears to be a fracture between the Eels front office and the current playing group which makes sense given where Parramatta is currently situated on the ladder.
Three months ago McElduff publicly stated how the Eels had Arthur’s back while secretly travelling to Wayne Bennett’s Queensland farm in a late Hail Mary play to try and sign the supercoach.
Meanwhile, in reality, anyone with an ear to the ground in rugby league knew the Bennett deal to return to South Sydney in 2025 was already done.
At the same time as they were trying to woo Wayne the Eels executives allowed Arthur to sign St George Illawarra flyer Zac Lomax on a four-year deal which now appears on shaky ground.
They’ve since sacked Arthur six and a half weeks ago and are still yet to appoint a new head coach.
Is it any wonder Lomax has got a bad dose of buyer’s remorse?
Zac Lomax backflip remains a possibility | 06:48
You could see the frustration in how the Eels decision-makers are handling things when senior forward Reagan Campbell-Gillard fronted the cameras three weeks ago.
And speaking of the roster it’s becoming clearer with every game some of the decisions the Eels recruitment and retention committee have made have badly missed the mark.
The roster appears bent out of shape and some of the playing contracts the Eels administration have ticked off on also look to have warts on them.
It looks like an option-a-thon in too many players’ favour.
Firstly, Kiwi Test five-eighth Dylan Brown.
Brown’s eight-year contract until the end of 2031 has two crucial get-out clauses listed as player options for 2026 and 2028.
That means Brown has until round 10 next year to inform the Eels if he’s remaining at the club for 2026 and it’s the same again in 2027.
Good business? We wouldn’t have thought so.
The blue and gold premiership window began to slam shut off the back of allowing quality players Reed Mahoney, Marata Niukore, Oregon Kaufusi, Isaiah Papali’i and Ray Stone leave after the grand final.
Since then – and sadly for the legion of Parramatta members and fans – it’s been a road to the bottom of the NRL ladder.
Whoever the Eels new coach is – Jason Ryles, Dean Young or Josh Hannay – we wish them good luck.
There’s no question the Eels could be one of the most powerful clubs in the game with the right people at the helm.
But at the moment they’re merely making up the numbers while their one-time little brother the Penrith Panthers show them what success really looks like.
Replies
Every decision should be made based on the club comes first.
What benefit is their to holding back announcing a new coach .
Id like to think the reason why is they want to not only announce the new coaching staff but some new recruits concurrently so it can be spun positively.
If that's not the case and your holding out because the coach, players or managers have requested for you to hold off your not beholden to club first ethos and you should piss off.
If it is Hannay then Origin could be a reason and he has known for weeks he has got it. If anyone else, yeah not excuse to hold it this long.
Bup, I guess or suspect like you, they're working out the whole coaching structure/team and that's part of the hold up. Signings would be a bonus.
What's interesting is Parra, Dragons and the Sharks all have the bye after Origin 3 and is probably when the club was looking to announce the new coach, probably on the Friday the 19th so the NRL news media has less chance to critique the decision with 7 games of football taking place to dilute any fallout.
With the Eels being a reactive club I can feel a Monday 11am press conference coming on after state of origin sides are announced to deflect criticism.
Oh the shock !! And here we all were thinking a lucrative 8 year deal with player options was a great idea and wouldn't put the club over a barrel down the track .
Even Dylan was shocked.with the speed and conditions of it It's a stinker of a contract for us.
I think you are going to see more sackings in the coming weeks with buckets O'Neill to be one of them
Hallelujah...
DylBoobs saved him last year with his bad publicity otherwise he'd be gone already., An Arthur / Oneill falling out wasnt going to be good for publicity on top of the sex pests antics , so he survived.
Goose we know very well about Dylan's contract being ridiculous over and over again. How's about telling us something we don't know...oh that's right he can't! No wonder he is getting shitty
clearly Bennet was lined up at south's earlier prob at start of year then we found out ha!