Eels Blogs

Power struggle: Brad Arthur and Daniel Anderson.

Parramatta's bid to re-negotiate key terms of Kieran Foran's contract signals the beginning of the end for Eels coach Brad Arthur.

As revealed by Fairfax Media in May, Foran has a clause in his four year, $4.8m contract with Parramatta enabling him to walk away at any time if there was "political instability" at the club, including a change of management or coach.

The deal was negotiated by former chief executive Scott Seward, who formally resigned last week, and Arthur.

However, the Eels board are unhappy that Foran was allowed to have the get-out clause inserted in the contract as it means that they would risk losing the New Zealand Test star if Arthur becomes the club's fourth coaching casualty since 2010.

Making it even more prohibitive to sack Arthur is a second clause Parramatta general manager of football Daniel Anderson is also negotiating to remove from Foran's contract which states that the Eels would be liable for damages - believed to be worth up to one year's salary - if such a scenario eventuated.

After recently incurring a $525,000 fine for a raft of salary cap breaches last season, a pay-out of that size would make it impossible for the club to avoid another hefty penalty from the NRL.

Fairfax Media has been told that unease with the clauses was the reason the Eels had not offered Seward a new contract before his sudden resignation, although other sources say that no concerns were expressed to him or Arthur at the time the deal with Foran was done.

With the NRL team in danger of a third wooden spoon in four years, there are now also doubts about Arthur's future at Parramatta and it is understood that Anderson is preparing to take over in a move that would mark a return to the role he previously held in 2009 and 2010.

It is believed that Anderson has a contract with Parramatta until 2018. 

After taking the Eels to the 2009 grand final, Anderson was sacked for Stephen Kearney at the end of the following season.

Ricky Stuart replaced Kearney in 2013 but left to coach Canberra and Arthur was appointed for last season after a comical situation in which he was initially rejected by the board only to be offered the job after Jason Taylor refused to accept Anderson being over him in the position of general manager of football.

Anderson's appointment was intended to bring stability to Parramatta and was initially compared to the director of coaching role held by former Sydney Swans coach Rodney Eade at Collingwood.

Like Eade, who is now coach of Gold Coast Suns, Anderson has not lost the desire to be in direct control of his own team and Fairfax Media reported in February that there was tension between him and Arthur.

Parramatta officials held urgent talks with Arthur before the start of the season after becoming aware of a bid by a faction at Manly to lure him to Brookvale in place of Geoff Toovey as a means of keeping Foran and halfback Daly Cherry-Evans.

Despite Arthur's testy relationship with Anderson, the Eels were confident he would serve out a contract exension he signed last November, tying him to the club until the end of the 2017 season.

Foran's signing was announced on March 16 and he made no secret of the fact he was coming to Parramatta to play under Arthur.

However, the recent salary cap findings, Arthur's well publicised spat with halfback Chris Sandow and the team's position at the bottom of the NRL ladder now have the Eels starting to think about heading in another direction and being prepared to risk losing Foran to do so.