The 2015/16 preseason is well underway as our boys find themselves four weeks deep into the preparations for our 2016 campaign and indeed, in the midst of the most grueling phase of their conditioning. Obviously there are fifteen other NRL clubs that are all going through similar slogs so what exactly are the Eels doing to gain any sort of edge over the competition?

 

Brad Arthur finally has the facilities and the staff he needs to bring the Eels up to the forefront of the NRL.

 

In a time where the premier clubs relentlessly search high and low for any sort of competitive advantage to gain the slightest percentile improvement in player performances and recoveries, the cold hard truth is that the Eels simply languished behind. From training on an undersized field to shifting our players between multiple venues in order to perform the most basic of conditioning and recovery practices, in prior sessions we truly began on the back foot well before Round 1 came around.

 

The Old Sales Yard represent our attempt at bringing the football operations of our club into the modern era. Much like this site it is very much a work in progress (although in considerably better condition that us) but the opening developments are extremely encouraging and bode well for keeping us near the forefront of the preparation and conditioning arms race in the NRL. The Old Sales Yard are currently home to two stellar playing fields, a sprint track and an array of indoor training facilities for gym work, wrestling and contact drills and a suite of recovery tools. This is however all still in a relatively premature state as the club has a long term vision to grow our new facilities and keep them at the cutting edge.

 

While these new facilities are an integral part in bringing the Eels up to speed, the second portion to the preseason riddle is getting the right people in place to train, condition and support our players. Here too the Eels have lacked for far too long and it is little surprise that Brad Arthur has ushered in a raft of new appointments that include:

 

Chief Medical Officer – Dr. Louis Shidiak MBBS FRACS (Orth) FAOA B. Appl. Sc. (Physio)

Dr Louis Shidiak is an orthopaedic surgeon with subspecialty interests in hip and knee arthroplasty (anterior hips), hip preservation and sports injuries including hip arthroscopy. Dr Shidiak has also been the doctor to the Parramatta and Wentworthville Rugby League clubs.

Strength Coach – Jarrod Wade

Jarrod Wade joins the Eels after working in the AFL for more than eight years as both a rehabilitation coach for Essendon, and performance analyst for Geelong Football Club. Wade’s focus has included the reduction of soft tissue injury rates in elite athletes in the AFL.

Contact Coach – Brett O’Farrell

Brett O’Farrell is a former NRL player for the Melbourne Storm, Wests Tigers and Cronulla Sharks, and champion Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Freestyle Wrestling competitor. O’Farrell’s specialty is coaching defensive and offensive contact for athletes in rugby league, rugby union and AFL.

Head Trainer – Craig Sultana

Craig Sultana joins the Blue and Gold from his role as Head Trainer at the Melbourne Storm. Sultana joined the Storm in 2006, working with the club’s Premiership-winning Holden Cup side in 2009, and has also worked as a trainer for representative sides including the Junior Kangaroos.

NSW Cup Coach – Joey Grima

Joey Grima returns to Parramatta from London, where he was head coach of the London Broncos in the Super League. Grima has a long-standing relationship with the Parramatta Eels, including coaching at District Representative, Under 20s and Premier League level. Grima has also worked as an assistant coach at Cronulla and St George-Illawarra.

Under 20s Coach – Luke Burt

Former Parramatta Eels winger Luke Burt steps into the role of Holden Cup Head Coach for 2016 after two years working as a specialist outside backs coach for the NRL squad. Burt played 264 NRL games for the Blue and Gold, and holds the record of most tries scored for the club, 124 in total.

Video Analyst – Craig Crossman

Craig Crossman joins the Parramatta Eels coaching staff from the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, having also worked in video analysis for the Wests Tigers and sports statistics at NRL Stats.

(Noteworthy staff members that are already at the club include assistant NRL coaches Steve Murphy and Peter Gentle and Physical Performance Manager Paul Devlin.)

Source

 

There are some genuinely interesting appointments here – certainly enough to dedicate several posts to – so I will try to keep it concise. Grima and Burt are appointments made to combat the frustrating stagnation of our Holden Cup and NSW Cup squads. Both have rich histories with the Blue & Gold and their appointments should unify the lower grades under the systems set by BA in first grade. Worthwhile and important additions by any measure but personally I think the more intriguing personnel appointments lie elsewhere.

 

Love it or hate it, Craig Sultana and Brett O’Farrell have been brought in to give us the gritty edge in the ruck that is hallmark of the Melbourne Storm. While the NRL continues to attempt to combat the wrestling-plague with a raft of inconsistently officiated rule changes, wrestling in the ruck has simply become a common factor of the modern game and an area in which we have proven to be positively dismal in. We have certainly made big steps forwards in this area in the two years we have had with Arthur at the helm but at the conclusion of the 2015 season it was apparent we were still lacking around the ruck compared to the top echelon of teams and thus we see Sultana and O’Farrell join us from South of the border.

 

For mine though, Shidiak and Wade are easily the most intriguing additions to our football operations. Both have specialties that relate to two of the most prevalent medical issues that face teams in knee injuries and soft tissue damage. Be it through prevention or management of these injuries, gaining any sort of advantage in these areas would prove to be a massive boon to the Eels given that the grueling 26 regular season rounds of the NRL often come down to a war of attrition in the race to the finals. Wade’s background in the AFL and thus focus on aerobic conditioning may also prove to be handy as the governing body of our game looks to further prune the number of interchanges available to teams.

 

 

The Eels have assembled both their strongest top seventeen and deepest squad in recent memory.

 

Kieran Foran may have stolen all the headlines in 2015 but the Eels have quietly gone about one the most extensive recruitment drives in a long, long time. Beau Scott and Michael Gordon join Foran as front-line additions to the Eels but the extensive fruit of the efforts of our recruitment committee include Mitchell Cornish, Clinton Gutherson, James Hasson, Cameron King, Kieran Moss, Rory O’Brien, Scott Schulte, Kelepi Tanginoa, Honeti Tuha and Matthew Woods – not to mention our strong ties to talented Manly backline utility Peta Hiku.

 

A good chunk of these recruits will not feature in first grade in 2016 but the effort to rebuild Wentworthville to a top-flight force in the NSW Cup is strikingly clear. The Magpies collected the wooden spoon in the second tier competition in 2015 after a truly dismal season punctuated by a raft of injuries and far too many insipid efforts on the field. With time being called on the Holden Cup in the near future, the NSW Cup will essentially stand alone as the premier vehicle for player development for non-QLD NRL clubs. As such it was imperative that the Eels and Wenty moved to ensure that our NSW Cup squad would be a consistent force (a feat considerably more achievable in the NSW Cup than in the NRL) in the NSW Cup and I believe the two parties in the joint-venture have done just that.

 

With fresh blood injected in both the coaching ranks (Joey Grima) and the playing roster the Magpies have little excuse not to be a fixture at the top of the table in 2016. Developmental cameos from the likes of Bevan French, Tyrell Fuimaono and Alex Twal should be worth keeping an eye out on as the season progress as well.

 

A strong NSW Cup team is certainly an important card to have in your hand when building towards a tilt at the title but in the end you to have the talent in first grade to get anywhere near the business end of the season. After falling desperately short in 2014 and then taking a step backwards in the win column in our most recent season (after the sudden departure of a reigning Dally M medalist no less) I believe the Eels are finally primed to crack the post-season with an extremely well balanced squad.

 

2015, although terribly frustrating at times, was an important period of growth for our team as we weaned ourselves off a near subconscious dependence on superstar Jarryd Hayne. A resurgent Tim Mannah enjoyed career best form and lead the way for our bookends as at long last the Eels saw some consistent success around the ruck. His partnership with man-mountain Junior Paulo (when not suspended) blossomed with the two local products cementing themselves as our #1 and #2 props. Peni Terepo continued to tease fans with a mixed bag of power running and dropped balls but more pleasingly Danny Wicks made the most of his second chance in the NRL (although struggling slightly with missed tackles) rewarding Brad Arthur with tough and rugged stints mostly from the bench while rookie Daniel Alvaro finished the season as strong as any other newcomer in the NRL. Other teams may have objectively better front rows but I think we finally have enough grunt up front to take it to any pack on any given day.

 

Anthony Watmough drew deserved criticism after a sloppy start for the Eels but eventually once he did settle in he rifled off consecutive games of 100+ running metres and 30+ tackles before succumbing to injury. Having now found his place in the team hopefully Choc will pick up in 2016 where he left off and continue to play to his strengths. Our backrow on the whole endured a difficult year with injuries, losing the likes of Watmough, Kenny Edwards, Pauli Pauli and David Gower at various stages. The preseason loss of Edwards was perhaps criminally underestimated by fans. Having finished 2014 in red-hot form, Edwards was and still is easily our most dangerous backrower in attack while providing a stack of aggression in defence. He did himself no favours for his part in an in-house drug test involving Kaysa Pritchard but having recovered from an ACL injury Edwards looms as important weapon on the edges for the Eels.

 

Among the other regulars in the backrow, young bull Tepai Moeroa fought through both a troublesome shoulder and the lingering effects of a blood infection to finish the season with a number of strong performances on both sides of the ball. Manu Ma’u, in his own unique way, quietly went about his business as the left edge of the Eels rose to prominence. Both finished the season as 80min contributors and although their minutes in 2016 may be reduced as a result of a healthy complement of playing options, the knowledge that they can go the distance will likely prove useful to BA.

 

They will be joined in the backrow by the uncompromising Beau Scott who joins the Eels after receiving a release from his deal with the Newcastle Knights. The recruitment of Scott has drawn some flack from supporters for his age (especially after the rocky start of Choc) but his role within the team is clear – leadership and toughness. Never one to make a mark on the statistician’s sheet, Scott is an old school enforcer that will draw out the best in our own aggressive prospects like Junior, Edwards and Ma’u. An underrated aspect of his game is his line running which will ideally manifest in the redzone most likely in tandem with fellow recruit Kieran Foran.

 

Speaking of Foran, our highest profile recruit will undoubtedly have to shoulder the burden of expectation from all fans desperate for a drought breaking title but unlike Chris Sandow, Foran is mentally equipped to jump into just about the hottest seat in the NRL. His game is built on exceptional fundamentals and a monstrous competitive drive. He may lack the flashes of brilliance that made (and undid) Sandow but his game should transition well from Manly to Parramatta. He will also enjoy a partnership with Corey Norman, who broke out in 2015 and took sole ownership of the team after Sandow’s destructive meltdown. The biggest issue between these two will be long kicking. Norman took on these duties after Sandow departed this year and did a serviceable job so while we may not dominate that facet of the game I believe we will be good enough here not to suffer badly.

 

The pairing of Semi Radradra and Brad Takairangi practically speaks for itself. Without an iota of a doubt it is the most potent left edge in Rugby League and perhaps a tad underrated on the defensive side of the ball. That isn’t to say they are outstanding defenders together but the most common criticisms leveled their way focused on their defence when Takairangi played most of the season hampered by a medial ligament injury and struggled particularly hard with sudden lateral movements and thus tracking in defence which in turn weakens the entire edge. Barring a poor game against Kevin Naiqama I am of the opinion that Semi made massive strides in this aspect of his game, often laying on punishing one-on-one hits while improving his defensive positioning considerably. Defending on the edges is a thankless task at the best of times and given what these two bring to the team in attack their defence is more than adequate.

 

If our left edge is set in stone with the combination of Radradra and Takairangi, our right edge represents one of the two biggest question marks for our campaign in 2016. Serviceable at the best of times in 2015 and terrifyingly worse for most of the rest of it, our starboard centre and winger positions are now up for grabs with the departures of William Hopoate and Reece Robinson. Candidates for the positions include known options in Ryan Morgan, Vai Toutai, Bureta Faraimo and John Folau while newcomers Clinton Gutherson, Kieran Moss, Scott Schulte and Honeti Tuha are also all in the mix. Brad Arthur has gone on record suggesting that Gutherson will get the first crack at right centre which leaves a stack of players shooting it out for one position. As it stands I would expect Ryan Morgan to win out from the listed candidates but the wildcard in all of this is the potential acquisition of Peta Hiku who could stand to transform our right edge into that of a genuine first grade standard and could actually cause a larger shake up in the backline given his talent in the #1 jersey.

 

The other big question mark in our top roster falls over the fullback position where Michael Gordon will presumably take the reins. I think Gordon can be a solid contributor to our team from the back and certainly a massive improvement on what Reece Robinson produced in 2015 but it is important to temper expectations here. Franchise fullbacks are all the rage at the moment and having recently lost our own to the NFL we have opted to consolidate other key areas in our top roster. The pickup of Gordon is a reflection of that as he compliments the hefty investment in Kieran Foran and will ideally keep us over until Bevan French is ready as a long term option. What Gordon does bring to the table is good defensive positioning, the ability to back up breaks and that oh-so-sweet ~80% conversion rate. Certainly enough to take us to the post-season if we can leverage the talent across the rest of our spine.

 

That was a whole lot of words to say that I think that our strengths lay in our pack, halves and left edge while our fullback will be solid and our right edge can potentially be very good depending on how things play out. Our team isn’t perfect but it is considerably more well rounded compared to when Arthur took over from Stuart and finally in shape to compete strongly for a position in the upper bracket of the ladder.

 

 

 

Some good players are going to miss out on first grade selection and that is a good thing.

 

The Eels are enjoying a great start to their preseason. Players are meeting and exceeding benchmarks set for them and the general consensus seems to be that the squad is ticking along ahead of schedule. Looking at it from the outside-in you can’t help but feel there is that there is an element of extra intensity seeping in as players know that spots in first grade are to be coveted in 2016. That drive, that desperate hunger is something that has been missing from Parramatta for long time and I welcome it back. Injuries will certainly be a factor throughout the season but when Round 1 rolls around Wenty will be fielding some first grade calibre players. It is the best kind of tough call to have to make but gee I wouldn’t want to be in Brad Arthur’s shoes to do it.

 

Forty20