Like many of us, this past weekend of football has left me in a very reflective mood. And it's got me genuinely thinking....who ARE the Parramatta Eels? What do we stand for? What's our ethos? Our vision? Our north star?
Who, as a player or a person, is quintessentially "Parra"?
The more I thought about it, the more I kept falling to examples at other clubs.
Melbourne Storm - a professional outfit of top performers. Nothing but the best is tolerated. A peak performance organisation that values outcomes over everything else.
Sydney Roosters - a glamour club where money talks. You buy the best players to get the best results. No one is out of your reach in terms of wheeling and dealing to get the job done.
South Sydney Rabbitohs - built on the strong and proud foundations of indigenous players as reflected in the history of Redfern. The club for the working class battler, where ever you're from. Propped up by none other than the "I'm Aussie and don't give a toss what anyone thinks" man himself Russell Crowe.
Penrith Panthers - the heartbeat of Western Sydney, proud "westies" who embrace their area and are proud to be missing the odd tooth or to get in a scrap. Their team is stacked with juniors, which reinforces the pride in their postcodes.
Brisbane Broncos - they bottle the spirit of the Queensland Origin side, proud of their state, they'd get their postcode tatooed on their faces if it didn't stop them from getting into their favourite club to down a few XXXXs. If you're from Queensland, you aspire to be a Bronco.
The list goes on. I could name nearly every club and what they stood for, and how that identity was reflected in the kind of players they were developing, or purchasing, or chasing.
And then I came to the Eels...
Paulo, an Eels junior who chased the money and went to Canberra before coming back. Gutho, an absolute beast of a competitor but someone who was happy travelling from Manly to Parra for training because he didn't want to leave the beaches. Moses, has family ties with and a heap of years as a Tiger. Dylan Brown, who is definitely a Kiwi first and an Eel second as evidenced by his dream to be an All Black.
Who are Parra? What do we stand for as a club? What differentiates someone as a "Parra Eel" from someone who could be at any other club?
Maybe these are retorical questions. Maybe we can't answer them, and maybe this is the problem. We went through years of pain because we had self interested people "running" the club into the ground, we then brought in a bunch of professionals to fix the rot from a structural perspective (which they have done to a very large and impressive degree)...but what we've never re-established is a soul.
Why would a player, or a coach, or a Head of Football come to Parra? What are they buying into?
People work for certain companies because of the mission and vision and culture. Sure, money plays a part, but a heap of studies have shown that money alone is not a good motivator and culture is significantly more important as long as people have enough money to service their basic needs.
As we hit another of our low ebbs, as it causes a bunch of reflection as to not only how we got here, but where we want to go, I think we need to grow from our now solid financial and structural foundations and start to look forward as to what it MEANS to be an Eel. For what it's worth, I actually think BA is an Eel at heart, what I think he lacks is the visionary ability to show what that is to others - to build a culture that you can define, to articulate in a single sentence "This is what it means to be an Eel".
Moving forward we need some folks at the club who can build a vision, who can inspire the Parramatta region and fanbase, who can set the tone for what makes being an Eel different to being any other player at any other club. We don't want to sign anyone, we want to sign Eels. But first we need to figure out what being an Eel actually is.
Now the big question - what does being an Eel mean to you?
Replies
If I had to choose where to throw money right at the moment - it'd be to hire a Chief Culture Officer for a year, reporting directly to the CEO of the Football Club.
I also wouldn't be just straight up firing and hiring for the Head of Football role without a proper review as to what the role is accountable for. I'm all for firing Mark O'Neill ASAP because by all measures he's been a waste of time, but I'm far from convinced that the role itself is structurally sound so I wouldn't want to hire someone new in until I knew that the role itself was set up for success and good outcomes.
This has been something that BA has failed acheiving. Don't want to push the man further down than already has been but this is an element i have mentioned for a while that these players do not actually care about the club itself. If they lose they feel bad for themselves and mates, not fans or club.
Look at Bennett in 2010 GF. Down 8-6 at the break and said one sentence to them at HT. "Boys, when are we going to start playing like St. George?" That shows the identity he expects and created, the then from their went on to score 24 unanswered points, they recognised that identity. Bellamy has new signings work on a job site for a week to test their mentality to hard work. If they fail then they are not Melbourne Storm players.
We go on a camp, do what does it mean to be an Eel on a whiteboard and only hear from a few coaches. Moses is the only one of late i have heard have ambitions on winning a title for the club, he said that is what i want and to do it here would be special. Moses is an Eels junior and Eel at heart. Everyone else are just mercenaries. Nothing wrong with mercenaries but having too many of them?
Souths fans have ownership in the club itself, they are good to their fans. Our players are not since they do not care, they are the club for their mates and to make money. Like if Melbourne lost 44-16 to Dolphins i bet they would feel dreadful for the club and fans. Us? No apologies to the fans or even a sense of letting the club down, it's letting BA down and themselves down.
The way we could look at it is loyalty. We got 2 straight wooden spoons and still had one of the biggest memberships in the NRL. That is loyalty. What it means to be an Eel is resilience. No Sydney club has more media on them than Parramatta, no club has fans more diehard than Parramatta. No Sydney club has been underachieving as much as Parramatta. What it can mean to be an Eel is resilience and toughness. Backs to the wall from Round 1, but overcoming the pressure.
Yep but the fans always have more desire than the team over the past while ......
I agree moses cares a great deal , as I think does gutho ....
we have been missing a coach that says you are playing for the privedlige of having the devotion of these fans that are the best in the league , I think 🤔
When they did a training camp in Gerringong, in the video you see BA say to the squad and i paraphrase you are going to spend time with the locals they came out to see you today etc.
Does he really need to explain that??? Should be common sense if you are doing a camp in a small area where no NRL team is located. Why does BA need to make it like a sell for the squad to give back to the fans, that should be common sense.
Parramatta is a club that has been around for 77 years.
Won 4 premiership
Holds the record for most wooden spoons with 14
Parramatta identity and culture is that of failure Parramatta is scared of being successful it's the underdog battler mentally
Thats Parramatta culture it won't change its who we are I dare say if we became a big successful club we as fans would feel uncomfortable we'd be expecting something to happen.
I look at the legends of the 80s each year celebrating the past it's sad in 40 years we should have new legends the 80s guys should be just old blokes at the footy instead that's it that's all we got a period of footy 40 years ago.
To put it simple Parramatta culture is being there to make up the numbers and on occasions look like a big club but it's all for show that culture will always come back and we will fall back into place
Yep we are vanilla
but we have also had a coach who has been kinda content to cruise in that zone and not rock the boat with players / the board/ the establishment
not much " inspirational leader " you'd send yourself to war for there imo
I wouldn't say scared of success more so see it once or get close and think "OK that is it how we do it" but instead of looking ways to be better we just stick to that and fall behind. We do not know how to be successful. Again, the only people in the entire club who have won a title is Matterson and O'Neill when he was a player. That is it. BA as an assistant at Melbourne but not as the lead guy and they didn't count in the long run anyway due to scandal. I do agree the sense of us fans are waiting for us to fail once we start doing well.
We need a Richardson type to give some hard truths. Bennett even knows what success looks like and can get us there even if it is for a year or two.
The one thing Parramatta were always known for was junior development , the club has lost its way big time in this regard to the point it's embarrassing.
When a club like the roosters have developed more talent from the age of 15 into rep players over the last 15 years then you know you have massive problems.
Very valid point Fong - because I think junior development does several things, it not only gives us a talent pipeline but it embeds the love of "being an Eel" at a young age (you look at the Panthers for how many of them stayed at the club for years on unders purely out of passion for the club).
I do think demographics have played a part though - the demographics of our intake areas have changed a LOT over the last generation with a lot of the demographics that used to be around Parra being pushed out further west. This has helped the Panthers and been to the detriment of Parra. And, like many thing, we haven't adapted but have just watched these nurseries wither.
Penreff players didn't "stay for years on unders"
kikau, chrichton, burton, Luai, Leniu all jumped at their 1st pay day. Penrith upgraded who they wanted to keep and let go of who they couldn't. They were able to keep a few but with JFH going now too, it's going to be tough for them to continue. Last year they should of been flogged in the GF. They were lucky Brisbane took their foot off the gas
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