Just in case you needed to feel some of that good old fashioned Eels disappointment on a by week, have a read of this article:
Brilliantly written as always from the RL Eye Test, but far out does it strike at the heart. Here's a flavour of the article just to whet the appetite:
Agile middles with good lateral mobility are worth a premium, and the Eels don’t really have any of them. They have an excellent forward pack for the late 2010s, but an abysmal one for the mid 2020s.
Ah man it sucks to be an Eels fan.
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Stuck with a coach with no foresight and a backwards retention team.
I watch the Fergo and Freak podcast on Youtube. League Freak has said on numerous occasions that Parramatta made the mistake of investing heavily on players who have achieved nothing or haven't gotten the job done before e.g. Moses, Gutherson, RCG, Lane, Paulo etc when they should have been moved on a long time ago or offered smaller deals and now we are stuck with players long term who have proven they cannot get the job done, his words not mine.
In saying all this though, League Freak supports Penrith so of course he is going to be anti-Parramatta.
Beg to differ, Bennett or even Madge would succeed with this team.
Depressing article. We could get the spoon for the next few seasons.
Captain, I was just reading the same article about an hour or so ago and was tempted to post it as well. Talk about Synchronicity. Scary, scary cold hard stats.
There's another great article from the same mob on age metrics for different positions.
Seems our fear about age factor is backed up by clear cut statistics. It partly explains why we were always going to regress post 2022. It was inevitable.
I'm going to post that one later when I get a chance and pick the eyes out of it. Another one to strike fear.
Yeah I agree HOE, it's so scary to see it in the numbers because it's glaring and it's unavoidable. We can't "hope" our way out of this
Which again doubles down on our R&R and how much it has really hurt us over the long term. And this then drives the chicken and the egg conversation - is the team built to suit BAs gameplan, or is BAs gameplan built to suit the team he has got?
Probably a moot point because both our R&R and our coaching staff are overdue for a refresh.
Captain, in a way this reminds me of the fable of The Scorpio and the Frog.
The footy board are competent bankers and finance employees, by nature, and they've done well in the bean counting side of the equation. Sure and steady. Risk averse. They're not dumbos or useless dopes. They're intelligent, but I feel they're just expressing their nature. I mean I don't have their financial skills. I am not an accountant by nature. Most of us here don't either.
However, we don't have anything close to what the Panthers' board has. Not an ounce of it in our footy board PNRL. The bone-rattling "passion" of the century plus of diehard Panthers' blood that also mix in loyal local businesses and "business owners" (which partly explains why they don't cheat the cap as much as well and will ultimately lead to their undeserved decline). Their "business owner" mentality is different than an "employee like" mentality that we have.
We also don't have the passion and big-stick "business owner" clout of a Politis and all the mix of their heavyweights in business and some Roosters' diehards as well. Or the business backing that the Roosters, Cowboys, Broncos, Dogs, or even Souths have (despite all their current internal garbage and mess). Storm have them, but they need to be careful and they probably do it carefully now. But, that have footy nous too with the likes of Ponisi and Bellamy. Clubs like these can get the big-shot marquee players and miraculously manage their cap. Blind Freddy can see what's really going on (a soft cap would help clubs like us).
In part, it's a consequence of karma. And the 2016 cap dramas. But karma from well before then, after the fall of Fitzgerald, even well before Sharp and co. who had good intentions but wasn't even close to skilled enough to carry out cap creativity - unlike more clever heavyweights you see in other clubs mentioned above.
So, unlike the Panthers or even the Roosters, we're not on the best terms with our greatest past players some of whom were involved in ulgy factional wars. So how can we go there? Again, consequences and karma.
Post-2016 was also about functional and financial stability. And largely that mandate has been achieved. But, what about all the other missing ingredients?
I just wonder. I know Phil Sims is on the League's Board, but he's no dummy and has some footy nous. The league's board regularly mix with the footy board (PLC still owns the entire footy entity) and they have that annual GM meeting (or whatever it is) where they meet at Parra Leagues Bar and Grill, where even life-long-member Fitzy comes along. How the heck didn't they all see the age factor, for one? It's an obvious blind spot. So many of our key players are turning 30-31 in a few months. I really don't know. But they missed it. Or didn't listen to someone who had a few footy things to say. Plain and simple.
And now, what are they going to do about it? That's critical.
At the moment it seems they're just waiting and watching, passively.
Surely, in the not too distant future they're going to be forced to do something.
Lomax is a step in the right direction, but he ain't going to fix what's coming in the next 1-2 years. Regression even more than what we're seeing now.
Knowing our luck when Moses returns we'll have a mini renaissance of sorts and it'll delay the inevitable, and continue the hope of a revival.
Eventually, this year or the next, I reckon it's likely to be just BA's head that will roll, as the public face of our failures and regressive fall.
Maybe MON too, especially if he stuffs up again but he has arguments he can use: BA isn't listening to him (his HOF boss where they don't see eye to eye) and plays a game of favourites to protect himself (cue Mannah as a witness). Plus, he can add he was in part behind the Eels' renaissance post-2018 (when he came on board) between 2019-22 when the R&R recruited enough talent (as BAs boss) to set off a relatively successful cycle (the best since the Smith era).
Being 30 ish also means you have grown up with yesterdays tools and makes it difficult to adapt.I have always been a big fan of how we played in the 80,s.but the game has changed. Would like Moretti and Greig step up. Maybe a new generation coach like Cronk etc or another Gibbo style visit to the USA or big football country by prospective coach to be one step ahead of the pack
You're spot on in terms of the mix of our current board. And I know Frankie Fong has been of the same view for a long while now, as has Muttman.
I always get worried when I see a board packed full of AICD members or 'professional directors'.
I deal with company boards several times a month, and you tend to have two kinds of board members: you have the career directors who look to stack as many directorships into their portfolio as possible and it effectively becomes a fulltime job for them, and you have people who have so much passion for one cause/organisation/whatever that they get involved to the point where they end up on the board.
The former, the "professional director", they're great at governance, at committees, at risk and audit - all the things you need to be good at to ensure good corporate governance. We have those boxes well and truly ticked.
The latter, the "passionate director", these people know the domain, they love the purpose of the organisation, they're there because this means something to them. Often this is the only board they sit on. In that department, across both boards, we have one person who probably fits that profile - Phil.
Now let's look at Phil (sorry to single you out Phil, but there's a reason). He has the passion, so much so that he went and got the experience and education over and above his profession to be equipped enough to successfully run for a board position. He loves the Eels, he loves footy, he cares whether the Eels are succeeding on the field. But he also has useful professional skills, in new and old media, in PR, in digital and business strategy. Add to that some more-than-casual footy nous and you've got a blooming well rounded individual suited for the board of both the Leagues club and the Football club IMHO.
The problem is right now there's only one Phil. He should be one of many. If the professional directors have done their job (and I am sure they have) they will have put the governance, committees, processes and audits in place to ensure the club will remain well run. We now need them to do what all good directors should do and realise when they're not the right people for the club anymore and transition to people who can add maximum value - more people who have passion for the Eels, and who have the skills and runs on the board to add value. A well rounded team of passionate individuals with football experience, sports experience, business experience, influence, money, friends - all the things you need on a successful board.
Until we get that balance right we're going to have a very well run, well governed safe organisation that will not take the action or the risks it needs to to win a compeition. I'm not diminishing what they've done, because it has been exceptional in terms of turning us into a functional organisation, but now we need to take the training wheels off and shift into an organisation that can win and that requires more footy nous and quite probably a higher propensity for risk taking.
We would do well to take a leaf out of Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix) book when he said:
We're a team, not a family. We're like a pro sports team, not a kid's recreational team.
Coaches' job at every level of Netflix [is] to hire, develop and cut smartly, so we have stars in every position.
The time is now for us to gear our organisation towards being a pro sports team - we can't be afraid to swing the axe to make sure we have stars in every position, including the board and the executive.
The Riff off the field is the reason why they are lightyears ahead of us.
Like your post mentions there are so many levels to this but we have to get it right off the field before we start seeing a snowball turn into an avalanche.
Unfortuantely I think your last statement is telling BA will eat it MoN probably too but we are still left with the same issues behind the scenes without any real fixes.
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