When I walked into my office this morning, people simply looked at me with sympathetic eyes and avoided asking me about my weekend. None of my friends over the past week sent me teasing emails or text messages crowing about the fact my side won the wooden spoon.
As much as I appreciate their thoughtfulness and their desire not to rub salt into a wound that just keeps bleeding, they’ve really only succeeded in making the pain so much harder. It’s one thing to lose. If you’re involved in sport or any kind of competition at some point or another you lose. There’s nothing wrong with that, because you need to know what losing is like to appreciate how great it is to win.
But when you’re just going so badly, that you become the subject of pity, you know it really cannot get any worse.
Losing on the field is bad enough, but when that is accompanied by a succession of stuff-ups and off-the-field dramas that most people just find impossible to fathom, that’s when you cast yourself as a mockery. When one of my staff finally got around to asking about the game, they’re first question was “So you didn’t get left at the ground with that bus stuff-up did you?”.
I mean seriously. Two of our club’s greatest players depart in front of 40,000 or so passionate Eels fans, and we’re making headlines about missing buses. I want to laugh, I do. But I feel that would only contribute to the mockery. And screw that. I simply cannot stomach being being the joke of the NRL. I don’t want your pity, goddamit.
I reckon that would have cut Hindy the deepest. As much as he likes to play the larrikin, at his core he’s a competitor and to not be competitive for so much of this year must have cut to his core.
And you know what, that’s one of the things I’m looking to from Ricky Stuart. A lot of people don’t like Ricky. His intensity and competitiveness irks a lot of people. Right now, I’ll take that in a heartbeat. I’m more than happy for opposition supporters to developing a vehement dislike for Ricky’s Eels. I want my friends to start bagging me every time we lose again. I miss that because without it, it just doesn’t feel like footy. And I miss my footy.
It’s an oft-used cliche that you have to hit rock bottom before you can turn-around a slide. God knows, we’ve hit the bottom. There is literally no further to sink than being an object of pity in Rugby League. As a club we have to make sure we draw a circle around this weekend’s date, declare it the club’s darkest days and forever leave it behind. A fresh start and an opportunity to commence a new era. Because I don’t ever want to feel like this again.
Replies
nice blog Phil, youve been quiet of late, good to have a blog from you.
I echo your sentiments about Stuart, we need his intensity at the moment, we are at crossroads as a club, he wants the challenge n we desperatley need him....
im looking forward to his honesty as a coach..
Hey how was your boys last game, is it all over, my highlight of the year was his left foot step n try......
You know I find it hard to blog critically, so my family and friends got my weekly rantings of late. But dammit, I now have a season to look forward to, and a club to save :-) So I declare myself back!
I look forward to his honesty as well Snake. I hope RS was taking notes on the last game and how the boys could not even deliver for Hindy and Burt's send off. Some arses need to be kicked severely and many of them need their horoscope read as well, and a spelling lesson on passion !
Great, i sensed you were prob pretty over the team this year like everybody else and Super has been doin a good job in you absence, but im so happy ricky is on board it gives me real hope for some professionalism to come into the club.
I predict its gonna be the biggest year ever on this site next year, im looking forward to it.........
phil we true eel supporters have been there before, right at the bottom,and got back to the top,40 years a eel fan we got it all.
what i loved about sunday was the amount of eels fans who still have the eels in there blood, like andy raymond.
40,000 people , most eels fans,come out to see hindy and burt play there last game for the eels.
how wonderful phil,to see.
if the eels make it back under ricky, we will see all the glory again, have a great day, love your passion mate.parra parra will fill the air..jack gibson must be watching from above ,when will you guys bleed again for the eels and back up your mates.
You see that crowd there on Sunday - and you ask yourself: How are we not the marquee Sydney club?
That was basically 40,000 Eels fans. There could only have been about 5k Dragons. If that wasn't a record for the most supporters from one Sydney club attending a non-finals match I'd be very surprised. And this to see a club that was last on the ladder.
Again, this is what has frustrated me most of late. That's the potential that we have as the Parramatta Eels to be the NRL powerhouse. Yet we're recording consecutive years of free-falling memberships. Argh!
It was a sad day yesterday, imo I feel a lot of those boys should take a good hard look at themselves, to send 2 legends off with that effort is disgraceful, they should have pushed themselves to complete exhaustion, put their body's on the line every tackle and hitup. The boys played it down in the press conference, but you can tell that loss burnt them up.
It is going to hit me hard come round 1 next year when 2 of my favourite players are gone, only thing I'm worried about is will someone step up and fill the void hindys left, I just hope so.
its sad Phil but i think we actually lack a bit of heart n soul from the club, the fans have tonnes of heart n soul but unlike the dogs n saints we are missing that something special at club level, the board needs to find it n realise that heart n soul are massive ingredients, they need to start thinking of the fans more n not treat them like nuffies......
We will be the powerhouse again when things fall into place, i hope..
We need some x factors in this forward pack !, players that make the opposition nervous and apprehensive around the rucks, just like Hilditch, Bugden and Pay used to !
snake , you are right on the money with what you are saying. the parramatta football team has possibly the greatest supporters base in australia, which is astounding considering the lack of success since 1986. for the club to succeed this support needs to be turned into members who can vote, then the club will be a true powerhouse and the nrl will ask how high when we say jump, the same can be said for the way the current board treat the parramatta supporters. the club needs to raise its profile in the sporting community, only then will we achive the respect we deserve. the best comparison i can think of outside the nrl is in the afl with collingwood, they always get favourable draws with respect to times they play and where they play at, i can never imagine the afl or the collingwood football club being brave enough to move a "home"game to another venue
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