What our Round 1 side tells us about Brad Arthur

Everything we know about Brad Arthur suggests he’s a no-nonsense type of guy and judging by his team selections for Round 1, that’s the style of football Parramatta will be focused on.

In all of his pre-season interviews, Arthur has made a point to

Season Launch

Went along to the season launch tonight at the Riverside Theatre and it was quite an impressive night. Well done to the team who put it together. Point form run-down for y'all.

1) Sterlo was the MC again, as he was last year, and there is something q

Trial Thread: Eels vs Tigers

Parramatta has scored a comfortable win against a second-string Tigers side, notching up 60 points to 14.

The Eels started the match well with Taniela Lasalo and Tim Mannah dominating the middle and we got over after just four minutes with Ken Sio s

Do we need at least one big winger?

At this stage, it's looking like our backline is pretty much decided upon for round one.

1. Hayne 2. Sio 3. Tonga 4. Hopoate 5. Morgan 6. Norman 7. Kelly

Maybe Hoppa & Morgan swap positions, until Hoppa gets back into the swings of things. Outside ch

Hindy feels the pain too

I don’t know about you,  but I kind of struggle to keep my emotions in check when I’m watching the footy, particularly on the tele. It’s gotten to the point where my wife clears out and takes my youngest boy with her for game time, to avoid the swear

Winger defending for the half

So from all reports Chris Sandow was particularly impressive last night. I can't help but think that for us to do anything more than make-up the numbers this year, we need Sandow's attack. If Sandow is consistently threatening around the ruck, it's g

Paulo + MoiMoi + Hayne = Tries!

I posted a couple of comments earlier today about how I'd play Joseph Paulo at seven, and take advantage of his size and get him to play a very direct half game, using a lot of short-balls to the likes of Fuifui and Haye around the centre of ruck.

Ju

Breakthrough Player of the Year: Joseph Ualesi

Who will be the player that either emerges from the clouds, or takes a surprising step forward this year?

I've had mixed success on this front - I didn't make a blog on this last year, but I did write that I expected our young forwards - and named Ke

Official pre-season team list blog

I know there was a lot of team blogs during the off-season, but for those of us who have just gotten back into the footy and given we've got a bit more info on who is likely to be playing where, I thought it was time to crack open a team list blog.

Possible Nines Side?

A number of 1Eyed Eel members have pointed out that Brad Arthur has stated that none of the players in this week's trial will be playing in the nines. Based on that, one would think our nines dquad is going to look something like this:

1. Justin Hun

I declare the 1Eyed Eel off-season over

I'm back.

Firstly, thanks to everyone, for keeping the site civil during the off-season and to our fantastic mods for ensuring things never spun out of control. I generally try and give myself a break from the site during December/January but inevit

Analysis: Front-row depth will mitigate Mossop delay

I'm sure when the Eels coaching staff sat down with Lee Mossop to discuss his shoulder, they looked at their front-row depth and probably came to the conclusion I have: 'Meh'.

If there is one spot Parramatta is well-served this year, it's the front-

We've lost the most successful coach at our club

Chris Hutchinson, the coach that has delivered Parramatta's only recent premierships when he took our Harold Matthews to back-to-back premierships and this year won the National Title has resigned from Parramatta and taken up the head coach role at M

The Mighty Cumberland Black Comes to Sydney

The dog, regarded by many as the Black Caviar of greyhound racing, will have his first start in Sydney on Saturday.

Many of you will remember that a group of us 1Eyed Eel members got involved with a greyhound syndication and we've been watching our b

A dozen questions that will shape the Eels in 2014

I would be surprised if any NRL side has ever gone into a new season with so many questions and uncertainty surrounding their club and their roster. Even picking a 17 is difficult, never mind having any degree of confidence in how that 17 will perfor

Who do you think will be our fastest players?

We've got a bit of talent in our backliner, but we're still not dripping with any real electric pace.

Got me thinking who might be our fastest five players in the club and in what order (let's say over 25m).

Hunt, Hayne, Sio, Morgan, Hopoate?

Official Membership Blog

I thought it might be good to start a blog on club membership.

Here is the membership portal:

https://nrl.secure.force.com/nrleels/showPackageToAnonymous?clubId=104

If you've got any questions or whatever, whack them here, and I'll see if I can get

Eels looking to appoint NRL's first Chief Medical Officer

I don't think anyone has noted this story, which appeared in The Australian last Friday.

Which of our graduating class will be staying on?

A few of our NYC boys will have now graduated into seniors. Anyone know which ones the club have picked up on second tier contracts?

I'm assuming Junior Paulo, Vai Toutai and Joseph Uaisele all are under contract given their involvement in first grad

How Arthur got the job: Blow by blow.

In the end, Parramatta’s coaching decision came down to whether it was more committed to its desired model of installing a football manager or if it really, really wanted Jason Taylor.

The general manager of football decision appears to have been ma