Eels Blogs

At 26, off contract Chris Sandow is officially the game’s most experienced player never to have played finals football.

And with the Eels currently struggling in 15th place, Parramatta chief executive Scott Seward has conceded the club is “not in any great rush” to sort out Sandow’s future.

 

Now in his eighth NRL season, Sandow has played 152 games — but has never tasted the big end of season matches.

The only other current NRL player to have played more than 100 games and be in the same position is Parramatta teammate Joseph Paulo (111 games).

Coming to the end of a four-year deal at Parramatta worth a reported $550,000 a season, Sandow has stated that he wants to play on at the Eels next year so he can team-up with incoming recruit Kieran Foran in the halves.

But the question the Eels are asking themselves is whether they can afford to keep Sandow as they strive to be a consistent finals team, at any price?

Seward told The Daily Telegraph that the final decision on Sandow’s future would be determined by coach Brad Arthur, who has said he wants to see more consistency in Sandow’s performances.

“There has certainly been talks but at the moment Brad just wants to have a look and see how he goes the next couple of weeks,” Seward said.

“We are not in any great rush at this stage.

“I am not sure what will happen there.”

Given Corey Norman has a year to run on his contract at the Eels and has been in good form, it remains to be seen what will happen with Sandow.

Will Hopoate last Friday locked up another three years at Parramatta but his future appears to be in the centres, which could open the door for five-eighth Norman to switch to fullback.

But unless there is a change of heart at Parramatta in the coming weeks, Sandow could find himself struggling to find a start next season.

On his best day Sandow is one of the game’s most dangerous players and a genuine match winner.

But his unpredictability is also at times a liability for his teammates and coach.

 

That fact is reflected in the history of every team he has played in.

In his rookie year at Souths, Sandow played 13 games and was the NRL’s rookie of the year.

But the Bunnies finished 14th.

The next year Souths finished 10th, then 9th, then 10th again before Sandow switched to Parramatta in 2012.

There is no doubt he has failed to live up to his expensive price tag, even taking into account he was the Eels’ player of the year in 2014.

In his three completed years Parra have finished 16th, 16th, 10th — and currently only a single point in for-and-against separates Parramatta with last-placed Manly.

You could hardly blame Arthur for his apparent reluctance to hurry up negotiations given his own future rides on the results of his team, and halfback is one of the most crucial positions.

Already Sandow has outlasted former Parramatta coaches Stephen Kearney and Ricky Stuart, who both finished their time at the Eels with wooden spoons

Arthur said it again after Sunday’s 28-10 loss to the Storm that they were beaten by a team “that stuck at what they needed to do for longer. We just sort of deviated a bit away from our plan”.

It wasn’t just Sandow who was responsible for Sunday’s loss, but all year Arthur has been clear on the point he wants consistency from his team.

Even with Foran arriving next year to take on that responsibility of leading the team, Parramatta are obviously still questioning if Sandow’s style is worth the gamble.

Seward added: “It is about what we want to achieve in the next few years.

“And at the end of the day, it is Brad’s team to put together what he wants.”