Leeds: Former Parramatta coach Brad Arthur says he’s a better coach now than the one who was sacked by the Eels last year, admitting it was time for both him and the club to go their separate ways.
“A lot of people said I looked relieved and happy, and I felt like I was at the time,” he said about his mid-season sacking
“I was grateful for the opportunity they gave me. Eleven years, it was a great life and my family got to live a great life. There were negatives with it, but there were plenty of positives with it. I wouldn’t change any of it at all. Probably there’s some lessons there that I maybe knew or some things that I knew I needed to change or got wrong. But sometimes you don’t make those until you get sacked or terminated.
“I’ve looked at it from a perspective of ‘it is what it is, I’ve had a good life and enjoyed it, but what can I learn from it’? So if I got any opportunities again moving forward, is there anything that I could do differently? But I feel a lot of that just comes with time and experience. You don’t learn from anything unless you make mistakes. It’s just making sure you don’t make them over and over.”
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/i-needed-it-arthur-reflects-on-eels-sacking-and-his-desire-to-coach-in-nrl-again-20251104-p5n7sk.html
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I liked Arthur. His time had come to an end and we needed to evolve, but he built a top 4 side twice (13-17 and 19-22), and the first time with all the cap bullshit.
I never really rated Brad Arthur as a great coach..He definitely seemed like a caring person but as for coaching below average. Ryles is far better in my opinion
For all the praise BA gets for taking on the job when we were a mess in the early days .. no other club was giving him a gig . Our job wasn't very enticing but those years are a pass mark for him because they were impossible to succeed in. I think the salary cap stuff while a mess at the time was a blessing in disguise as it cleared out books . Personally I would've sent him packing then as we were out the other side but can be argued the club showed some loyalty for him taking on a hard job .. but geez didn't they show some .
He should've been punted 2018 but was given another chance with a revamped roster in 2019 and from there until 2022 we had one of the most stable rosters in the league . Covid was causing havoc with the comp but we had a really consistent team make up and I feel that more than anything else kept us around the 8. It was a good mix of experienced players, rising stars in the game and guys that had underachieved at other clubs. We were hit and miss within games all season .. certain teams like souths would pump us every time we played , we were mostly shocking on the road and we copped some absolute pastings but for what he reason .. maybe because they played a grinding style rather than put teams to the sword with expansive play , we gave a good account of ourselves most times v Penrith. To me it never felt like we were contenders we had flaws in our play every season but we had a side that could overcome a tonne of them .
Without getting into the nepotism stuff which showed he couldn't separate his profession from emotion .. I think a strong forward thinking club fires BA end of 2022 . It would've been shot down by the media but at the time we had key players not buying into our future and leaving , blokes copping suspension over small fines , options galore to retain our stars that came back to bite .. and we gave an absolutely shithouse account of ourselves in the GF. We lasted about 7 minutes with intent and effort then we were done . Maybe the worst GF performance of the Modern era. We were shocking. 2023 and 2024 were complete write offs from every stand point and our culture was in the mud . The club should've been more ruthless with BA and seen through his rubbish but his results always seemed to be just good enough for them to not show initiate and keep him around. Today's articles just prove to everyone he was all about himself , he was never walking away no matter how bad things got despite saying he would if he felt he wasn't the right guy for the job .. it was himself and his family first the club 2nd . The chapters finally closed and we can move forward but I think today's interviews are bitter sweet for fans who sat through his 'love the club ' bullshit for 11 seasons .
Only thing BA left for some was PTSD 😂 fire away.
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