Eels Blogs

People it is football game - we need to came to grips with this adversity. 

In all walks of life, all countries of the world, people are faced with adversity. How people react to this adversity is often referred to flight or fight response. The fight-or-flight response is also known as the acute stress response. Essentially, the response prepares the body to either fight or flee the threat. It is also important to note that the response can be triggered due to both real and imaginary threat. We are not in a war, the sun will rise tomorrow. If you ever want a reality check walk into the Starlight room at Westmead Children's Hospital and see the kids with cancer who wont make it home. That is adversity. This is annoying and disappointing. 

Parramatta NRL is in pretty bad shape. There are no questions about that  - plain reality. The administration is being exposed as highly incompetent and unable to function within a framework provided by the governing body being the NRL. The Media are having a field day at our expense on the back of the on going club turmoil. Media gets stories and investigate and we are thrown into the gutter. You cant blame the media they are employed to generate news and sell papers etc. The leaks are coming from within our organisation and that is a cancer that must be stopped. How is the big issue. 

What has concerned me the most of this whole past week is the way we have jumped in and kicked the life out of club. The  way we as supporters have assassinated the chairman, the CEO, the coach, Operations manager. Everyone is open to a drilling.  The sad fact is we have/had  some fundamental errors :

• Inexperienced CEO over-sighting something that was clearly beyond his expertise. We often blast the salaries of some of the big companies CEO's as being out of touch, over the top etc. What price do you pay for COMPETENCE, TRANSPARENCY, CULTURE and INTEGRITY.    It all starts at the top. They get to the top of their game because they handle adversity, make tough decisions, control cultural issues, know when to hire and when to fire. They also know their PRODUCT, BRAND or BUSINESS back to front.  Great CEO's manipulate the MEDIA and create positive spins. They know when to pull it in or when to let it go so as to speak.  We failed here unfortunately. 
• We have a rookie coach who is an excellent people manager. He has been shown up at times tactically and made some poor calls. He has two assistants in GENTLE & MURPHY.   Are they doing their job ? Are they contributing effectively.  When you have a rookie coach - you need to surround them with the right people. There is an argument for every assistant coach in the NRL. But it is becoming a huge issue moving forward. The roles of these back ups is going to shape our club . We have seen how bad the experiment with HALES has been with the NYC team. A review looks at what part of the puzzle fits and what doesnt. 
• Poor tactical and strategies each game. We play the shotgun approach to the opening 60 minutes. Throw it everywhere and create holes, scores points and try and hang on.  It is fine if you have a game plan and effective halves to control the last third. We don't and haven't since JT. Boring Bennett gets the broncos winning games by getting into grind and playing their sets, making less mistakes and building pressure. They actually lift in the last 20 as all good sides do ( NQ, ROOSTERS etc ) The shot gun approach is great if your complete at over 75% and have over 55% possession and make your first contact tackles ( preventing off loads and 2nd phase ).  mmmmm we dont do this enough .

I love my club. I have seen every Parramatta grand final I have tasted the victory , I have cried with the defeats.  But I would never leave this club.  I will fight not run.

Lets all come together as a CLUB. Our job is to support this team. We need to be there on Saturday and support them like never before.  Develop a siege mentality  and FIGHT this adversity.  Flight is easy options. Nothing good never comes easy.

We are Parramatta