BREAKING: Eels dealt ANOTHER big blow as Mahoney joins rival on bumper deal

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Tino the Titan extends his contract | 01:08

James Hooper from Fox Sports

November 25th, 2021 12:44 pm

The Parramatta Eels have suffered another savage recruitment blow with archrivals the Bulldogs poaching gun hooker Reed Mahoney on a four-year deal for 2023 and beyond.

Mahoney informed coach Brad Arthur of his decision on Thursday morning in the latest cruel twist under the Eels’ roster management committe regime.

It comes after the Eels upped the ante in a last ditch bid to retain Mahoney.

The Eels initially low-balled Mahoney with a two-year extension worth around $900,000 while the Bulldogs went straight into serious negotiations with a four-year $2.4 million deal.

The Eels have borne the brunt of intense criticism for losing backrowers Isaiah Papali’i and Marata Niukore but if the blue and golds also lose Mahoney then it will be open slather on the club’s recruitment and retention strategy.

Fox Sports was told the Eels increased their offer to Mahoney in the past 24 hours.

Mahoney’s agent Sam Ayoub was reluctant to go into detail aside from saying: “We’ve had constructive discussions with Parramatta over the last few months and they’ve again improved their offer slightly in recent days.”

"Don't count on o'neill. Utokimanu, Khafusi, Twal, Blaze, Sanders - the best of our junior talent . Good luck with hoping O'neill has an eye for talent. "

"I have been told that Perth Bears scouts have been attending eels junior games of recent and circling on some of our juniors. So maybe expect some announcements soon of them poaching our juniors. O'Niel better have locked the best ones up long term."

"So 8 years isn't enough??? Ok.if we didn't have the right players in our development systems, why didn't we recruit young players from elsewhere just as Penrith did from country league, or identified from other clubs and brought into our flegg or…"

Replies

The Captain November 25, 2021 at 11:19pm

Have we still got Nathaniel Roache signed for 2022?
- Perpetual Motion > The Captain November 27, 2021 at 12:35am
  
  He is listed as no contract for 22. We could prob get him back for SFA. His injury status went from few weeks to rest of season so might be something not so good going on there. Keep hearing Brendan Hands is a potential star but cant find any evidence that we have sgned him yet.
EA November 25, 2021 at 11:37pm

I hope the crowd boo Mahoney everytime he gets the ball next year. If he gets pissed, force him to take hit ups himself so he can get floored. If NAS, Tamalolo or Haas are running at him, hope our forwards move out the way and let Mahoney get steam rolled so he can another corniflower ear.
Rise of an empire November 26, 2021 at 4:39pm

Absolutely filthy we lost Mahoney
josh jones December 3, 2021 at 1:14am

Can we change the title to "Pig Dogs...". To be honest that's how we should be calling them regardless.