At this time of year the only chant we should be hearing around Eels territory is 'Parra Parra'. Instead the community is chanting 'Denis Denis'.
I am the first to admit I was wrong. I pushed as hard as anyone for the 3P ticket to be successful. Eventually it was and the Emperor was removed from his throne. Years of questionable player retention, financial losses, the poor membership packages and the sacking of former coach Brian Smith had led to Denis Fitzgerald being ousted. The 3P ticket promised to bring back the legends of the club, to restore pride in the jersey and to retain our top players. So far they have failed to deliver. Fans are now wondering 'Perhaps Denis Fitzgerald was the best leader of our club'.
The sacking of Daniel Anderson will be remembered as one of the poorest decisions in the modern era. It is irony in its best form. Here is a leadership group promising to bring back pride, passion and tradition, yet they sack a man who is Parramatta through and through. A man who was at the club when Nathan Hindmarsh was still pimple faced and Luke Burt had hair reminiscent of Fabio.
Since coming to the Eels, Parramatta fans have seen Anderson transform their team from an effortless rabble in 2008 to a defensive stronghold in early 2009. His belief in the attacking game then led to the most exhilarating charge to the premiership of all-time. Yet 12 months later the man has been told to pack his bags. Perhaps had Melbourne been found out 6 months earlier, the Eels would have been sacking their premiership winning coach.
Politics is surely to blame here. One must pose the question, are 'politically correct decisions' more important or results. I think the latter. Anderson was not involved with discussions with possible incoming recruits and I doubt he had the last say in some of our losses for next year.
This may explain the Eels ludicrous and disgusting retention and recruitment for 2011. A half dubbed 'the future of the club' by former premiership winning coach Michael Hagan (Kris Keating), and a Cabramatta junior is now off to play for arch rivals Canterbury who have more halves than a maths textbook. Two other local juniors in Feleti Mateo and Krisnan Inu are across the Tasman after not being offered new contracts by the club. Remarkably the Eels then sign the unreliable Carl Webb and Reni Matuia as well as making a $500,000 play at Quade Cooper. The finances do not add up. On one hand they are saying they did not have enough money to keep Inu, Mateo, Keating and Jonathan Wright. Yet on the other they are offering ludicrous amounts of money for has-beens such as Brett Kimmorley, Casey McGuire, Trent Barrett, Craig Gower, Matt Orford, Webb and Matuia.
3P has not been a success. Paul Osborne is too often caught in the media like a deer in the headlights. His trip to Melbourne in August is a prime example. Players and fans have been astonished by the board's admiration of Stephen Kearney. His number one achievement being the 2008 World Cup, in which he himself was mentored by Wayne Bennett. Kearney has been assistant at the Storm over the past few years. However, on hindsight of the deplorable actions that have taken place down south one has to wonder is Kearney that good of a mentor? Or is Craig Bellamy really such a brilliant coach.
I do not doubt that Bellamy is a great man motivator, his players always want to play for him, but the way he has stifled the attacking brilliance of his players is a travesty. Even a coach that was condemned such as Paul Langmack would have been successful with a roster and rorting that resulted in Melbourne. When Bellamy coached a side with no unfair advantage his Blues were beaten three series in a row, whilst playing some of the worst Origin football in 30 years. So how then could Bellamy, and Kearney his assistant, be considered glamorous and prestigious coaches?
Parramatta fans are sick to the pit of their stomach with changes, inconsistent results and losses. We do not want a 600,000 signing, we do not want to play at ANZ Stadium, we do not want to wear a white jersey. We want to retain our juniors, we want to keep the nucleus of our successful team, we want to keep playing the traditional Parramatta attacking brand of football, we want ex-players such as Peter Sterling involved, we want a premiership.
In the current environment and with the likely incoming coach, these things do not seem possible.
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"as posted on rleague.com"
[Edit: Credit to: Thursday 30 Sep 2010 11:20 http://www.rleague.com/db/article.php?id=37808
by Damien Herb (Reader Submitted Article)]
i could not have said it better myself
Replies
IMO, I just cannot and will not give credit to DA for las years attacking form at the back end. It was as simple as 1. Hayne, 2. moimoi. DA has Been question time and time again about what it was that turned the 2009 season around and he is yet to come up with an answer - or a gameplan in 2010. This is not the sign of a quality nrl level coach.
DA is a parra fan. Agreed. But so am I and so are you! Why don't they hire us to coach? I love parra, I have an opinion and a game plan and I would love to spend more time at he club - but of course, that's just ridiculous! I am not the best man for the job and being "parra through and through" doesn't make DA either.
We criticise and criticise and jump and yell because hind sight is great yet unfortunately, the only hindsight we have is similar to the dragons - a premiership cabinet over 2 decades old (but not yet 3!). So hat did they do? They sacked their coach - an ex player and dragon through and through and replaced him with the best. Someone who destroyed the dragons in 2002/3 and someone from Queensland!! Granted, we have not hired the best. What we have done though is looked at the coaching market and said - we can't get the best coz they aren't there. We can however get a coach who has served his apprenticeship under the best.
Yes it is a gamble but better than a gamble it is a calculated risk. IMO, DA will not win a premiership with parra next year. He doesn't show game plans, doesn't protect halves, very reactive and seems to be very tough without demanding respect - that's the difference between DA and Bennett - the latter can be tough because he already has respect.
I'm not saying Kearney will fill up the deadwood that is our trophy cabinet, but he is qualified and he is a better man for the job at parra given the circumstances.
I say jump on the bandwagon from round 1 instead of round 24 this year. We need to do our bit too!
IMO, I just cannot and will not give credit to DA for las years attacking form at the back end. It was as simple as 1. Hayne, 2. moimoi. DA has Been question time and time again about what it was that turned the 2009 season around and he is yet to come up with an answer - or a gameplan in 2010. This is not the sign of a quality nrl level coach.
DA is a parra fan. Agreed. But so am I and so are you! Why don't they hire us to coach? I love parra, I have an opinion and a game plan and I would love to spend more time at he club - but of course, that's just ridiculous! I am not the best man for the job and being "parra through and through" doesn't make DA either.
We criticise and criticise and jump and yell because hind sight is great yet unfortunately, the only hindsight we have is similar to the dragons - a premiership cabinet over 2 decades old (but not yet 3!). So hat did they do? They sacked their coach - an ex player and dragon through and through and replaced him with the best. Someone who destroyed the dragons in 2002/3 and someone from Queensland!! Granted, we have not hired the best. What we have done though is looked at the coaching market and said - we can't get the best coz they aren't there. We can however get a coach who has served his apprenticeship under the best.
Yes it is a gamble but better than a gamble it is a calculated risk. IMO, DA will not win a premiership with parra next year. He doesn't show game plans, doesn't protect halves, very reactive and seems to be very tough without demanding respect - that's the difference between DA and Bennett - the latter can be tough because he already has respect.
I'm not saying Kearney will fill up the deadwood that is our trophy cabinet, but he is qualified and he is a better man for the job at parra given the circumstances.
I say jump on the bandwagon from round 1 instead of round 24 this year. We need to do our bit too!
If the players would not play for Anderson and there was no exhilarating charge this year.- then changes had to be made. We want consistency in efforts and results. We had become the disorganised rabble you spoke of.- but this year it was in attack.
Apart from an incredible 12 week run last year that the coach couldn't explain we have underperformed. The answer isn't to blame the board.
i dont think bringing fitzy back is the answer either. we need someone like a Todd Greenberg ide even give someone like Gerry harvey with all his business knowledge a crack at it. i think Paul osborne is wet behind the ears but has the making of a C.E.O.
I beleive the retention committee needs an overhaul and all football matters handed back to the football committee. as someone who voted for 3P im not happy with what they have done and will look at who is running against them at election time.
Or because he seems to be the opposite of Ando, we persist with him?
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