Parramatta Eels 2020 Season Review

Position: 3

Wins: 15

Losses: 5

For: 392

Against: 288

Origin players: N. Brown, Paulo, RCG, Gutherson

Overall grade: B-

Parramatta came into the season as top four favourites and ultimately they delivered, finishing third for the club's best placing since the 2005 minor premiership. At the start of the year expectations were high around the Eels being a top four team and they, for once managed to fulfil those expectations.

However, like so many Parramatta seasons before, it promised so much, yet fell away to disappointment.

At the mid-point of the season the Eels had lost just one game, to the defending Premiers Roosters. They were being tagged as a genuine premiership threat.

And why not? They possessed the best defence in the league and were fairly ruthless in attack.

But the wheels began to fall off shortly after. Against the Raiders the side surrendered a two try lead in the dying minutes to head to golden point, although they were saved their blushes via a Clint Gutherson field goal.

It was in that match Mitchell Moses departed with a calf injury that would sideline him for a month and need to be managed for the rest of the year.

The back half of the year was very up and down with the side grinding out tough wins but were seemingly bereft of the free flowing attack they showcased earlier on and their edge defence became more and more frayed.

That being said, Parramatta's defence overall improved significantly from last year, with the middle in particular becoming a lot tighter. This further highlighted the weaknesses on the right edge.

Shortly after Moses' return Dylan Brown suffered a near season ending syndesmosis injury, putting him out for five weeks.

Reed Mahoney also spent time on the sidelines due to a shoulder injury with Gutherson the only member of the spine to play every game this season.

It was disruption the Eels could ill-afford with a lack of a ready made replacement in the halves or at hooker. 

Ultimately Parramatta's season ended in the second week of the finals as it had done for the two previous finals series. It is becoming frustrating for Eels fans to see their side unable to progress into the real business end of the year.

However, there were plenty of bright spots throughout the season.

Junior Paulo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard were the best starting prop combination in the competition.

Clint Gutherson produced perhaps the finest season of his career and has placed himself alongside some of the best fullbacks in the game.

Overall it was an improvement on the 2019 season. The side finished two positions higher, were tougher defensively and for the first time since the early 2000s, possess more than two players in State of Origin squads.

There of course are concerns with the ability for the Eels to take the next step and become a premiership contender and top two team. They will need to toughen up their edge defence while evolving their attack. The club will also need to recruit NRL level replacements with the departures of Kane Evans and Peni Terepo as well as the suspension of Michael Jennings.

The side will also require a recognised halves and hooker backup.

Parramatta though really only need incremental improvements, not wholesale changes. The club should seek to review the assitants around Brad Arthur and perhaps look at a new defensive system alongside perhaps a bigger focus on mental improvement.

Better bench options as well as genuine competition in the outside backs should spur better improvement across the squad.

This team though is not the one of 2017 that virtually lucked its way into the top four. It has a good mix of youth and experience while still having room to improve. The challenge now for the side and Brad Arthur is to ensure next season the side is in the preliminary final or grand final. 

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Replies

  • Good review but needs more "Sack BA".

  • Yeah, shit season. I know of a few teams that would have been happy to finish 1 spot behind us. 

    • Yes Parra Dice. In any competitive engagement there are lots of participants  and very few winners.  Maybe the higher you get in competition the bigger disappointment if you don't win outright 

  • " The side will also require a recognised halves and hooker backup "

    Enter Connor Watson, I think he would be perfect for that bench role.

  • Good summary  Sir Super. Maybe some mention about little opportunity for Sivo and Fergo. Both had a disappointing season compared to last year. 

  • Is this all your own work Super, or have you used pieces from other people?

    It is immpossible to respond to all the points you have made in a single reply, so I will cherry pick as we work through the apparent failings of 2020.

    1) While everyone seems to be on the "The coach needs better assistants" band wagon, one wonders what consideration has been given to the recent articles pointing out the Eels coach seems to be locked in a 1950s biff and barge, all we need is effort time warp.

    If the coach is as self opinionated as some pundits have alluded to, then no matter who is brought in as his assistants nothing will obviously change in the future of his tenure as head coach.

    From other publications it seems clear that Sports Science is not a subject that has ever been considered during King Arthur's reign.

    The player mental (psychological) aspect of a highly competitive, and physical sport has apparently been completely ignored. 

    Which now leads to the question; If after 7 years the coach has shown no indication he is prepared to change his actions, views or practices, then why is he still the head coach receiving early contract extensions for his last two terms?

    I will come back with #2 after we discuss this point.

    [Edit] great article mate.

    • It's all my own work mate. I'd say the need for different assistants comes more from a need of greater coaching experience alongside BA than anything else.

      I'd heavily disagree regarding disregarding sport science. The club has heavily recruited in that area and we actually have one of the best strength and conditioning units in the league. Only Moses and Evans suffered non contact soft tissue injuries this season which is a testament to the work done by our S&C staff in ensuring our players were right to go from the restart.

      Now sports psychology? BA does not strike me as someone who currently embraces that aspect and I'd like to see him do that. I think that's a major factor in making that next step.

      I think he has changed his actions and approach over the years. 2018 we went with a more aerobic style of play. That didn't work, the club fired that S&C coach and hired a new one and the past two seasons we've been pretty good on the injury side of things.

      • From Desieel's SMH blog.

        But as the dust settles on the reality of their shortcomings, there remains a huge question mark over the mental fortitude of his team, and how much he has to evolve as a coach to harden a perceived soft underbelly.

        Arthur has been somewhat reluctant to embrace the power of mindfulness when it comes to impacting results with the coach prioritising football matters over mental ones.

        That my friend negates most of whatever else he has achieved imo.

        S&C is injury and fitness related only. so from the persepective of "other" sports sciences, that are just as, if not more so important, we appear to have done nothing.

  • I dont think we improved overall from last year at all.

    Another wasted year, just like next year and the year after will be.

    I think just about everybody last year said winning finals games was where the pass mark was, everybody predicted us a top 4 finish including me.

    Our poor form basically the whole back end of the season tells me we were not as good as last year, we were disjointed and lacked everything Gould banged on about, he was right.

    For mine the season was a failure and weve gone backwards, taking into account where we were last year, we have not progressed at all, weve actually gone backwards

    A very gentle and soft review from you super with lots of excuses.

    Im hearing the board and people who matter behind the scenes are fed up with our dumb footy, have lost faith in BA and are already looking for Brads replacement, it cant happen to fast.

    • How do we go backwards when we improve two places? 

      IMO it's really hard to truly gauge why we dropped off at the end of the year. The Roosters uncharacteristically also dropped off to the point they lost their last three games in a row. I think a large part of it is to do with the lockdown. It was a unique season with unique challenges. To say we've definitely gone backwards is to ignore all of that.

      When you consider our end to last season consisted of flogging a hapless Brisbane then getting flogged by Melbourne, I don't know how our two finals results this year are worse than that considering we played Melbourne and Souths, aside from Penrith are currently two of the best teams in the competition.

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