Parramatta and expectations haven't gone well together in recent decades.
Which begs the question: what will happen this year now the Eels are considered top-four contenders? Especially given their storming finish to last season, plus the addition of representative forwards Ryan Matterson and Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
Eels coach Brad Arthur has worked all summer to make sure his players are fit, but also ready to cope with the higher-than-usual hopes from one of the game's most passionate fan bases, sponsors and the media.
You only have to go back to 2018 when the Eels promised so much but finished with the wooden spoon. Arthur, like his players, was happy with their finish to the 2017 season when they won nine of their last 10 games and went within a couple of points of humbling the Storm in week one of the finals.
But the coach noticed something creeping into the playing group at the start of the following season. There was a blowout trial win over Newcastle in Maitland. Then there were players declaring in the media they could win the competition. Some even started to believe the hype and tried to squeeze the club for more money.
It all went wrong from there, the Eels lost 11 of their first 13 games of the 2018 season and finished last.
High-profile recruit Reagan Campbell-Gillard.Credit:Benjamin Cuevas
Arthur has good reason to believe things will be different this time around.
"There will be no excuses," he said. "It is up to us now. It will come down to our want and desire.
"I remember 2018: there was expectation and we simply didn't aim up. I'll bear the brunt of that.
"As a coach of this team and club, we've shown when we face adversity, like the salary cap dramas [of 2016], we rise and find that extra motivation. But now the challenge for us is on the back of a good season last season we need to be better again."
"Fullback and captain Clint Gutherson had a season to remember in 2019." />Fullback and captain Clint Gutherson had a season to remember in 2019.Credit:Benjamin Cuevas
Arthur said he made the mistake in 2018 of giving his players only one trial match. The Eels ran out of steam against Penrith in round one, lost their first six games of the season and had their confidence shattered.
Clint Gutherson and Mitchell Moses had outstanding seasons last year. Both will push for NSW and Kangaroos honours. Arthur knows if they fire the Eels will fire.
Campbell-Gillard has done nothing but impress since shifting up the M4 Motorway from Penrith, as has Matterson who was involved in a messy off-season split from the Wests Tigers.
"Ryan has come home really," Arthur said. "He played his junior footy here. I'm sure that Tigers game will be built up when it comes around, but he's focused on training right now.
"He has strong beliefs about how he wants to be as a person and how wants the team to be seen, and he's not afraid to express it."
Andrew Johns could prove the Eels' trump card this campaign. The eighth Immortal was in Papua New Guinea this week, but returns next week and will continue to work with the halves and Eels players.
Johns has also proven vital for Arthur – the coach who guided the Eels through their salary-cap scandal and put up with a board that warred for years, not to mention the high-profile defections to rival codes of Jarryd Hayne and Semi Radradra.
In fact, when you tell Arthur he once looked like the kind of guy who would bark at his own shadow, he smiles and says: "In six years I've made a shitload of mistakes, but I'd like to think I haven't made the same mistake too many times over.
"I'm sure I won't make the same couple of judgment errors I made in 2018. I've learned I have to deal with everyone differently. I've learned how to deal with the media.
"I have the trust and comfort in the playing group that they can hold each other accountable rather than me being the one with the big stick all the time.
"I want to be a career coach. I love this club and playing group. We have an opportunity and we need to do something about it. It's as simple as that."
Replies
I particularly like the final paragraph.
Thanks for mentioning that Grunta. Only thing comments like that will do is filter through the whole playing group. Hanging for this season, go parra
Grunts, that paragraph very much sums up what reality for the eels need. The whole team and those associated with it at each level, need, no has to take the oppurnunity that sits before them otherwise they might as well all head to CC.
The supporters are behind them, the PLC and backers are there for them, the new facilities for them are moving forward, and last thing that's needed is for them to get into angel gear and think they can roll down the hill with no effort or desire to prove to themselves and all those around that they are worth following.
We have the 9’s Tournament
Rabbitohs 21st Feb
Panthers 29th Feb
They need to involve Andrew Johns as much as possible
He wants to be a career coach.
The only way that's possible at Parra is if he delivers a premiership - 8 years now and nothing.
O God give them strength
Been more than 8 years without much, not just the BA years. There also has to be player accountabality and the team as a whole, the whole 17 that will be picked have experienced both the highs and lows they just have to work out for themselves position they want to be at.
Well who cares about the previous 25 years before him - BA is measured on his tenure and nothing else.
8 years? Where did 2020 and 2021 go Frank? He starting as head coach in 2014.
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