Eels Blogs

PARRAMATTA chairman Steve Sharp has made the bold and daring prediction his Eels can win next season’s NRL title, the club’s first in 30 years.

And, if Sharp’s ParraFirst board is re-elected at Thursday night’s Leagues Club election, he thinks Brad Arthur could coach at Pirtek Stadium for the next 10 years.

Sharp outlines his future plans for the club to Daily Telegraph journalist Dean Ritchie.

BLOW UP: Police called over Eels election stoush

Q: Not much seems to have changed so why are you still the man to lead Parramatta again?
 
A: I am doing it for the right reasons. It all comes from the heart, a love of the club and love of the game. And a desire to see a club such as ours sit on top of the pile for a long period. A club like the Bulldogs have a bad year and might drop to seventh or eighth. They hang around there for a couple of years and then build back up. We should be one of those clubs but we have somehow lost our way. We have gone to the cellar with salary cap restraints and poor junior development programs.

Q: If re-elected, can this current board take the Eels back to the top?

A: We are on our way now. What I ask of the members and fans is to show their support and belief in what we have done so far.

Q: Why should they?

A: So we can complete the plans and projects that we have started in our first two years. The first 12 months was spent trying rectify all the problems in the club, (including) the governance issues at the Leagues Club, which were extensive and are still ongoing with the Office of Liquor and Gaming. We came off the back of two wooden spoons and were one game away from three consecutive wooden spoons. We won the last game of 2012 to avoid the spoon.

Q: I could argue that you’re not going much better this year.

A: I beg to differ. I think what Brad Arthur is doing is building a football team that can without Jarryd Hayne. I don’t like to use Jarryd as an example but the club did rely so heavily on him over the last five to six years. Jarryd has now followed his dream and gone to the US. Jarryd was part of the plans for this year and we were building a side around him. That went so this team had to learn to play football and win without Jarryd’s x-factor. And I think we have been competitive in every game.

Q: Steve, tell me when this club can we win another competition?

A: Keep faith for this year for a start. The recruitment of a couple of players — and the junior development of young players through 2015 — and I am extremely confident that we will be in the top four in 2016 and I believe we can win the competition in 2016. We are also as good a chance of any team in the competition this year.

Q: What did it cost to take 40-odd people to Seattle in the off-season?

A: We had sponsors involved, staff paid $1000 each. We had Seattle Tourism involved. The players made a contribution, donating a portion of their Auckland Nines money. The club picked up the rest, around $92,000.

Q: You are running second last, is that money well spent?

A: We are running second last but are one win away from fifth spot.

Eels players Bureta Faraimo, Ryan Morgan and Joseph Paulo watch a Seattle Seahawks game.

Q: Steve, was it well spent?

A: The money was well spent. It created a belief in the playing group and gave the coaching staff an opportunity to assess where they’re at. Not only was the trip beneficial for the football, we took our senior administration staff over there, some board members as well, we did training and looked at organisations like the Seattle Seahawks.

Q: It sounds like a junket to me?

A: I wouldn’t say it was a junket, mate. We spent most of the time in the back offices of major organisations, the Disney Institute, we didn’t go to Disneyland. We did customer service training. We looked at our game day environment and trying to give fans and members the best experience they can possibly have.

Q: Over the last six years, four Leagues Club CEOs, four football club CEOs, four NRL coaches. What does that say?

Sharp has backed Brad Arthur as the club’s long-term coach.

A: It says there has been instability at the club and that’s what we are all about — stability.

Q: Will Brad Arthur be safe is you are re-elected?

A: We are committed to Brad long-term. He is currently here until the end of 2017. I believe Brad will be an eight-year, 10-year coach here. Brad Arthur is the coach for us going forward. The players relate to him and want to play for him. He has been pivotal in our recruitment of some of the better players in our game like Beau Scott and Kieran Foran. He is one of, if not the, best football coach in the game. He lives and breaths the game. I just want Parramatta to feel like a football club and smell like a football club.

Q: Was Denis Fitzgerald the puppetmaster who propelled you into office last election?

A: He wasn’t the puppetmaster at all. Was Denis involved in how we put our ticket together and some of the philosophies we believe in, yes he was. But he didn’t pull the strings.

Q: Do you and Fitzgerald still talk?

A: Umm, how do I answer that one?

Q: Honestly.

A: When I see Denis at functions or games I will say hello and shake hands.

Q: Does he shake your hand?

A: Umm, he did, yeah. Denis has had his time. He was here for a long time and had great success in the 80s and even through the 90s when we had up-and-down periods. But the club has moved forward now and I don’t mind saying the club is bigger than one individual. The club has moved on from Denis’ era. We are a community club and a united club. Once we get to the top it is our intention to stay there for a long time.