Eels Blogs

Sitting on the floor of my parents lounge room as a 6 years old in 1986 , completely oblivious to what all the grownups were shouting at on the television, if I’m completely honest I was more content playing with my toy cars , the day in question  grand final day 1986 , the day I came down with the dreaded Blue and gold fever (a fever which there is no cure I’m afraid).

Having not really shown any interest in league , I was being pushed buy both my parents to pick a team , preferable the Magpies (after my old man’s) or the Bulldogs ( after the old girl) , both of them were a bit disappointed when I announced at full time that I was going to go for Parramatta ! (Yeah I know bandwagon jumping six year old me!).

It wasn’t the fact that we won the grand final, but rather the fact that “Mr. Perpetual Motion” aka Ray Price had a gash on the side of his head and I thought he was tough! I distinctly remember thinking that the good times would keep on coming and all that I would have to do is sit back and wait for the premierships to come.

So I waited…..the years between  1987-to the 1990s , I waited and expected , success only to see our once champion team  get torn apart from Injuries , Retirement , and poor recruitment  , to finish at best in the semi finals but still with no silverware.

I waited during the lean years of the early to mid Nineties where a guy call David Woods was the only decent prospect in attack who often was instrumental in our very few victories only to be put out injured again and again, there was the brief bit of glory when we  beat the Great Britain Touring team which was probably the highlight of me supporting Parramatta as a Child\ young teenager.

I waited in anticipation during the Super- League War , where we recruited heavily buying in the big four from the bulldogs , Dymock ,McKracken , Pay & Smith , not to mention Garry Freeman  to steer us around the park along with a couple of young forwards from the Sharks, Adam Ritson and a Aaron Raper “surely this team must be able to do something !!??” I remember excitedly thinking , but alas it was not to be.

I waited with patience as I saw the potentially brilliant players coming through our ranks , Butner , Jason Taylor, Hodgson,  Hindmarsh , Caylass , Burt  and for the briefest of moments during 2001 I thought we would have the silverwear in the bag  , the most points scored , the least points conceded  this was our year ? … surely?... Andrew Johns had other ideas about that!

I waited patiently thinking” you have to loose one to win one “, that again proved to be not true , suffering a premiership hang over that lasted the next few years as again we lost a lot of players due to salary cap issues and poor recruitment.

I waited patiently until 2009 the team continuously showing so much potential from week to week but never for filling it , but what about that run ??  10 wins from 12 matches , forget the phrase “Hand Of Good” buy Mara donna , that hand was squashed flat buy “The Hayne train !!” , this has got to be it ! surely ???  nope it was the salary cap cheating storms turn back to the drawing board !.

I waited again for the  grand final dust to settle , for the no doubt impeding grand final hang over  to occur , which it did once again but this time with vengeance.

I waited while seeing our once great club fall far from grace, to see us have four coaches in five years

I have waited while watching us sink lower and lower, back to back wooden spoons, players attitudes being non committal to the club.

I have waited while watching the board fight like rabid dogs over their back room deals and old boy club handshakes, it’s almost enough to hear the music from Game of thrones start playing.

I am sick of waiting for the promised success  both at board and Player level , Ive been waiting 29 years for some sort of success

If the Parramatta Board let the best marquee signing we have had at this club slip through our fingers and into another jersey , I’m  predicting mass repercussions of fans ditching this club in tenfold to support another team.

Brad Arthur and Daniel Anderson need to be locked into one of the disuses bars in the leagues club and start drinking beers with each other until the sort out their obvious issue with each other.

As for the board , Im done waiting for you to sort yourselves out , they say you cant have a good back office ( the players\ team ) unless your front office (the board)is in order  and I would whole heartedly support the NRL coming in and independently running \ appointing a board to get rid of all of the pent up Bull _ _ _ .