NO team since South Sydney in 2008 has started an NRL season worse than Parramatta. Sitting winless after six matches, under-fire Parramatta Eels CEO Bernie Gurr spoke with chief sports writer David Riccio about the future of Brad Arthur, irate fans and why Jarryd Hayne must show the club he’s worth keeping.
DR: Even non-Eels fans view the loss of Semi Radradra as alarming. Could you have gone harder to keep him?
BG: No, I don’t think we could’ve. I know the offer he had over there (French rugby) and we were a long way short of it. We would’ve made him the highest-paid player in rugby league. Are we missing him? Of course. But with the development of the squad from last year and the buys we bought in, we thought we’d have an even better squad this year.
DR: We won’t ever see Semi back in blue and gold, will we? BG: You never say never. But we’re not even contemplating that at the moment.
DR: Aside from working hard, how do Parramatta overcome its worst start to a season since 1991?
BG: Brad is a very analytical coach. He’s looked at our team and there’s a discipline problem. We’re giving away a lot of penalties and as such have a much higher tackle count than the opposition and so we’re without energy when we do have the football. We can’t sugar-coat a bitter pill, our attack seems to have lacked not only energy but cohesion. We’ve had discipline problems and that’s where we need to fix things.’’
DR: Devastated Eels fans are threatening to tear up their memberships. What do you say to them?
BG: I feel for them. They’re upset and justifiably so. How we’re playing is not to the standards we’d expected. I have a huge empathy for Parramatta fans. I’m one of them.
DR: Has the poor start impacted the club’s bottom line? BG: No — it hasn’t as yet. The club is on track financially to have a dramatic improvement over the performance of the last couple of years.
DR: You face Manly today at ANZ Stadium. Anything less than 10,358 would be the smallest Parramatta home crowd since 2003, that’s got to be a major concern?
BG: You’re right, especially when typically Parramatta has the best crowds of the nine Sydney clubs. But fans don’t follow losers, particularly in the Sydney market. We boast the most passionate and loyal supporters in the game so I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t get a crowd over 10,000.
DR: Bernie, the club’s football structure is deservedly under fire. You are both the head of football and football club CEO. Will you be stepping down from one of the two roles? BG: I know the issue of head of football has come up now — and that’s a valid issue when you’re not going well. This was the structure that was implemented 15 months ago and worked very well for last year.
DR: So you would consider standing down from the head of football role and focus solely on the role of CEO?
BG: If it was the most cost-effective way to run our football club, yes I would.
DR: Two great servants of the game, Tim Mannah and Beau Scott, will they be at the club in 2019?
BG: Beau’s contract is up at the end of 2018, so his performances will determine that. Timmy has a contract for next year, so he’ll be here.
DR: All reports suggest you’ve signed Canberra’s Junior Paulo for next season.
BG: We haven’t signed Junior Paulo yet — but it’s fair to say we’re interested.
DR: So if Junior signs, who won’t come cheaply, how do you explain the club’s promotion — or lack there of — of local juniors to first grade?
BG: Since I came in 15 months ago, we’ve had a couple of real priorities outside just the NRL team and one of them has been to re-engage with our junior teams. With the investment we’re putting in, over the next two or three years, you’re going to see it (junior pathways) get back to where it should be for Parramatta. It’s going to be a bit of a journey but we’re going to do it — they’re our future.
DR: Corey Norman, even he admits he drives Brad crazy. Is that a healthy situation for coach and playmaker?
BA: It’s happened a lot over the years. I don’t think Turvey (Steve Mortimer) and Warren Ryan got on that well, but they managed to win two or three comps. You don’t have to be best mates — you just need a working relationship. Corey and Brad get on fine.
DR: The TV vision of the dressing rooms after the loss to Canberra was highly emotional. Is it now beyond breaking point at Parramatta?
BG: I was in there and I was devastated, too. It showed they cared. I don’t like players out on the field high-fiving and chatting away after getting lapped on the field. I hate that.
DR: From a football department point of view, will you be reviewing your injury prevention and injury management because you’ve already used 24 players — the most in the NRL?
BG: You’d have to analyse the type of injury that is occurring. We have a very sophisticated physical performance group so I’m sure they’re analysing it. Jarryd Hayne’s Eels future remains uncertain.
DR: It’s fair to say the jury is still out on the Jarryd Hayne experiment.
BG: Jarryd has had two games and being honest, he wasn’t stellar in either of those games. I don’t think we’ve got a representative sample of Jarryd’s performances yet to evaluate where he’s going to end up in 2018.
DR: Will Jarryd be at the club next year?
BG: We don’t know, he’s on a one-year contract. These players in many ways determine their own futures. A great old coach told me, coaches don’t pick teams, players do by their performances. Players also determine their future contracts, whether they’re with this club or another club. It’s up to the player. Any players that are off contract at the end of 2018, their future in the game and with the Eels will be determined by their ability to prepare professionally and how they play.
DR: So how long does Jarryd have to prove himself?
BG: He’s only played two games and he’s got 18 games to go. He’ll get an adequate time to prove himself.
DR: Lastly, what would a win mean to the club on Sunday afternoon?
BG: It would be huge. We need to get a win. It would pick up the morale. We’re lucky that we’ve got a very unified club at the moment. There’s certainly no cracks amongst coaches, players and management we’re all in this together, but we need to get a win
Replies
1) Looks like BG will stay head of football judging by "if it was the most cost effective way" comment
2) Beau could go
3) Mannah still here in 19
1) Is horrifying. Truly. “It worked last year”. No Bernie it didn’t work last year. Last year was the product of decisions made in 2016 prior to you being the Head of Football. This year’s recruitment, retention and player development has your finger prints all over it.
Let me give you some feedback mate. How cost effective will it be when we don’t make the finals again? Stop looking so closely at the bottom line when making resource decisions for our football department. Instead try looking at best practice. What set up do other clubs have and try emulating that.
Bernie is claiming others work as his own and it clearly didnt work last year as he bought nobody as head of footy and we are in the shit.
A prime example of a CEO not taking responsability.
And FMD uncle Arthur, what a dope for signing Mannah so long, what sort of an imbecile would do that.
Bernie has shown hes a dopey kent and its clear he thinks everybody is as dopey as him because he must think people will buy this shit.
" try looking at best practice. What set up do other clubs have and try emulating that."
Seems obvious doesn't it?
Talking about cost-effectiveness at a time like this is foolish. How many supporters want to hear about us tightening our belts when we're in this state on the field.
HOLD ON, HOLD THE PHONE, This contradicts what Bernie said last week,
Question DR, ''So you would consider stepping down from head of football to concentrate soley on the CEO role?''
Answer BG ''If it was the most cost effective way to run our football club, yes i would''
WOAH! STEADY ON RIGHT HERE, what does this mean?
Q, Is Bernie getting paid for both CEO and Head of Football ?
Is Bernie doing it for free as part of his CEO salary?
Of course its going to cost money to get a head of football in, whats he going on about here? i smell BS.
He stated the other day that he was in no way what so ever taking money away from the football dept but his statement here contradicts that, FMD.
And as far as saying ''i have a huge amount of empathy for Parra fans, im one of them', what a fucking blow in clown, yeah youve really been through the hard times with us Bernie, the difference between us and you is that nobody pays us to come back year after year and be fans.
Very first thing that came to my mine also was , is he getting two salaries ?
Yep there's a lot of contradictory information coming out of this guy. From the outside looking in, it seems like he's under pressure and out of his depth.
Message for you Bernie, you betta make sure this fool Mannah retires this year of you can get on the first plane back to the USA.
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