Not a lot of football intellect’: The infighting threatening to turn Eels into ‘the next Broncos’
From foxsports:
The Parramatta Eels are stumbling towards the finish line and there’s fears they could become “the next Broncos” as the blame starts to turn towards the club’s recruitment efforts and in-house fighting.
Coach Brad Arthur has found himself in the firing line — fairly or unfairly — following three straight losses.
Parramatta’s CEO Jim Sarantinos publicly backed Arthur, declaring he is contracted until the end of next season.
But the rumours of unrest just aren’t going away.
Last October, Parramatta bowed out of the finals in straight sets. It shone a spotlight on Arthur’s record of one win from six finals games ever since he joined the Eels as head coach in 2014.
While there’s question marks over Arthur’s coaching ability, the roster has come under scrutiny too with The Daily Telegraph’s Paul Kent saying on NRL 360 that the Eels’ “issue” is that they’ve “got to be able to go out and land a big fish.
But what’s reportedly stopping the Eels from a premiership-winning recruitment drive is a five-man recruitment and retention committee that aren’t on the same page, headed by rumoured tension between Arthur and general manager of football Mark O’Neill.
That story about the supposed tension did the rounds last year and has popped up once again as many fans and pundits search for answers on why the Eels can’t seem to aim up when it matters most.
Fox League’s James Hooper told NRL 360 on Tuesday that he believes “there’s definitely friction between the two” and said it relates to that committee.
Kent says Sarantinos is denying that there’s any issues between Arthur and O’Neill.
“You’ve got Brad Arthur and Mark O’Neill who have got different ideas. I spoke to (Eels CEO) Jim Sarantinos today who disputed that there’s an issue between them,” Kent said.
“He said they have robust conversations — which is how he phrased it — about what they want. He did say that Brad Arthur has never been told to take a player that he didn’t want and he said while there obviously have been players that Brad wanted, he said that ‘in the whole negotiation process, we’ve lost them to other clubs.’
However, Kent believes Arthur and O’Neill “are not on the same page” and also pointed out that there are simply too many cooks in the recruitment kitchen — and not enough “football intellect.”
“You’ve got five people on the committee: (Eels chairman) Sean McElduff; Sarantinos; O’Neill; Arthur and (head of recruitment) Ben Rogers,” he said.
“There’s not a lot of football intellect in that room to be fair. I’m talking about boots on the ground, people that know a lot about what a football player looks like.
“So essentially they’ve only really got O’Neill and Arthur who have got that background in the game, and if they’re not agreeing then what to the other three do other than be subject to the politics?”
Brad Arthur is doing a mighty job at Parramatta when you look at them sitting fourth. They this year had one starting Origin player, who was Junior Paulo and they’re consistently staying up the top of the ladder,” he told NRL 360.
“However, that’s also their Achilles heel because they haven’t been able to sign a Latrell Mitchell or a Ryan Papenhuyzen. They went for Kotoni Staggs, they went for Dane Gagai.
“When Michael Jennings got stood down at the end of last year, I remember talking to Brad Arthur at the time. I said ‘who are you going to get as your centre?’ and he said ‘that’s a good question, you should ask Mark O’Neill.’
“These two have been butting heads since they came together. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of a robust conversation, but at the end of the day they’ve got to sign some players and they haven’t got the superstars to take them to the next level.
“Whether that’s Brad Arthur’s fault or it’s the committee’s fault or it’s Mark O’Neill, what’s happening at Parramatta is that they’re all responsible for not taking them to the next level.”
Crawley can see the logic behind the pressure on Arthur but believes it would be a grave mistake by the club to axe him.
Brad Arthur, this is his eighth season at Parramatta so he’s had a fair crack at trying to take this team to the next level,” he said.
“It hasn’t been a smooth run but it has been for the last few years, but if you don’t make it to the top level in eight years as a head coach...
“On the other side of the coin, you’re talking about the chairman and the CEO and Mark O’Neill, who is relatively inexperienced in his position. If they were to get rid of Brad Arthur now, there’s a potential there for them as a club to end up like the next Broncos and to have a bunch of people running the joint that have no footy IQ.”
They’ve got the best intentions but they don’t actually know what they’re doing,” Kent added
Mark O'Neill (born 19 June 1975) is an Australian former professional rugby leaguefootballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played in Australia for the Balmain Tigers, then the Wests Tigers following the joint venture of Balmain and the Western Suburbs Magpies, and in England for the Leeds Rhinos and the Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. O'Neill's usually played as a second-row.
Replies
Actually this could be a bit of a duplicate with what i just saw by Levi, under a banner of 360 Infighting.
Feel free to delete if required mods, or let it run its course as knowledge for our supporters on how our club is working in the front office.
This article nails it. Mark Oneil is a drongo, he was a drongo on the paddock and he was a drongo when the tigers fucked him off for being an unprofessional pisshead. Why we have him making these important calls at a club he's not good enough to be at baffles me.
BA is by far the best option available to us right now it seems and if he had some decent recruits I have no doubt he could take this team the next step. The blokes behind the scenes are total nuffies and the board need to fix it .
Brissy he said right now he may have changed his view in 4wks time.
Agree with all that
Wow talk about panickers, first it was B.A , then the players now its the board????. I get we are diappointed in our recent results, and we probably do need a strike player, but please lets just take a breath
Nice sentiments Bear, but is there really anything wrong with being informed , having an opinion as a supporter and or changing that opinion as new things come to light. Seems to me thats being responsible.
I'm personally of the opinion that we need to burn the place down and start again get rid of them all
Sterling for G M
That whole shit show last night was full of contradictions Mick. I’m really surprised that anyone could take it too seriously.
One minute we need only one marquee next min they infer our recruitment dept like a shit show - if anything our recruiting is one of the only aspects we pretty much all agree on, considering we play by the salary cap rules and that twerp Kent would know that as well as the others - so I’d fully expect there to be “robust” discussions surrounding who’s affordable.
And O’Neill was also quite within his rights to question what was going on end last year with training, every commentator and fan were asking the same know one knows what was really said there. Then when the question come up about why we are dying in the arse again this year - no traction in commentary panel last night at all didn’t suit the shit stirrers narrative maybe?
the Guts contract trying to put it on us for leaking - ummm no - Chammas article clearly said Ayoub is going around telling people ‘ in the game’ wants six figures - then last night Kent just arse covers for him saying hasn’t even got the numbers so it can’t be the club haha idjit Kent
Absolutely
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