I love supporting our Eels and I do genuinely look forward to each game.
Last week the result was all too familiar. There was the good and of course the bad and ultimately the team did not do enough to win.
I won’t ignore the officiating. After all, over the past few years I have been critical of the NRL for their failure to really address the problem of the acute lack of genuine first grade depth in the officiating ranks.
Only a fool would say that onfield or off field officiating last week was first grade standard. But of course Mr Annesley found ways to defend the calls. Nothing to see here.
Moving a person from the field to the bunker or vice versa is a Band-Aid treatment – they literally have to double up the duties of referees and stretch those that they consider to be NRL standard across each round – and that opinion on “NRL standard” is theirs, not mine!
How on earth will they deal with the problem of an expanded competition? If people are worried about whether there are enough players, I’ve got news for you – it’s not as big a concern as the lack of quality match officials.
Over a number of years, the management of match officials has been poor at best. The same people who have overseen the creation of this problem cannot be trusted to fix it. And it needs to be fixed now. But what are we likely to get? More changes to rules or to interpretations, making the referees’ jobs even harder.
Unfortunately, I have similar feelings about my club.
The problems at the Eels go much deeper than the selection of a coach.
Josh Hannay – if he’s appointed there’s still plenty of work to be done
Unfortunately, without significant changes, the job of the next coach might be even more demanding. And remember, the next coach will be a rookie at the head coach gig.
Supporters will need to understand that. More critically, the club itself must take a walk away from the proverbial trees and wood, and take a long deep look into the mirror.
I’m not going to question whether decision makers are acting in the best interests of the Eels. They would be totally committed in their quest for success.
However, If you are in the middle of trying to make calls that are in the best interests of an organisation, and at the same time you are bombarded with criticism, it’s natural that you would put up the barricades and be fixated with addressing one problem at a time. And for the Eels, right now, the focus is on the coaching decision. Again, that decision is not the fix that’s needed.
On the other hand, supporters and critics are on the outside looking in. Those within the club might believe that those on the outside aren’t in the best position to offer an opinion. For mine, it’s a perspective that I hope the club is also prepared to listen to because it provides a broader look at the Eels. Perhaps such a wholistic perspective will help the club to move forward.
Supporters and critics see mistakes made with the roster, with recruitment and retention processes, with management decisions and with engagement with members and fans. All have combined to put the club at this point. You can’t shield players from this, nor can you get the best performances from them no matter how supporters might feel about individual or collective efforts.
Unfortunately, the consequences can also be the ugly side of fan reactions. The evidence is there on social media and in the stands.
The reality is that the club is sitting where it is on the NRL ladder for a reason, and one change alone won’t remedy things. We need Eels management to accept that mistakes have been made. The mantra must be about setting premiership standards in all aspects. No doubt that has been the goal, but the club wouldn’t be where it is if mistakes weren’t made. Owning that, is the first step forward.
I still support my Eels and will do so this week. But I don’t want that support to be taken for granted. Nor do I want to be told that a coaching change is the answer to the Eels decline.
Let me finish on a positive.
Moses
I loved watching Moses play those two games last week. I loved his passion and willingness to set high standards and call out those who failed to meet those standards.
I loved seeing Matt Arthur make his debut. Surname aside, any player who makes first grade has put in copious hours of hard work and sacrifice. They have a team behind them who have also made sacrifices. Seeing the joy on their faces never wanes.
And this week I will love seeing more players make their NRL debuts.
I don’t know what to expect, but I will be there supporting our team, supporting our debutants and enjoying the footy. I am not charged with managing my club but supporting it. It is easy to walk away and turn off, but I won’t. I will step up.
I only hope that those in charge of our club are prepared to see the total picture.
Shelley
Excellent Shelley.
In regard to officiating, you only have to look to Annesley’s comments this week in relation to the sin bin controversy. He said the ARLC would consider looking at it but it wasn’t on the agenda. I’m paraphrasing his answer but the issue is that the ARLC would even look at it.
Google the ARLC responsibilities and per the organisations own website they are to essentially create the strategy for the game to grow and ensure it remains financially strong and growing. It should have nothing to do with anything happening on the field of play. That’s why only one of 8 members has any background in the on field product and the other 7 are all from business and/or governance backgrounds.
So who is running the game? Cause the guy in charge of elite football doesn’t think it is him..
As for our club. Again you are spot on we could regenerate Jack Gibson via AI to be the head coach and it is all useless if we don’t have the players and a good quality football department.
.
Look every fan thinks their club is full of amazing talented juniors when realistically there are only ever 1 or 2 outstanding talents within the ranks coming through. Parra, by virtue of size, should always have a handful of no doubt talents but do we really have that now? Honestly? Blaze looks like he could be great. But we all sit here demanding Matt A play and while I hope he is great, what is his ceiling in terms of potential? Really. Is it Harry Grant? Or is it Matt Keating? Even if his best is Reed Mahoney, while that will be great, it isn’t changing the direction of the club and we seem so latched on to him as a saviour when really a club like Parra should have 4 or 5 players that are the potential game changers and Matt is the able junior that sticks at it and his a real solid first grader. Our standards seem to have dropped … a lot and it isn’t good enough.
Thanks Shelley,
Missed your thoughts the last little while. As usual, at least from my perspective, bang on the money again.
I think the really important point surrounds appointing a coach. You are so right that change needs to be more than just that. When organisations, including sporting institutions, have failings it is never just one thing. Otherwise the solutions would be simple and fixed quickly. But rarely is anything straight black and white. There are always a number of, often interlinked, issues that affect performance. A lot needs to be done once we have a new coach to ensure sustainable success that a club such as our should not only strive for but regularly achieve.
I love your devotion to the club and team. Something only fellow Eels tragic scan truly understand. Hopefully, after we appoint a coach, other issues are looked at and addressed for our long term success.
Indeed. Indeed.
A major aspect ifvthevrebuild isvto accept that we arevpaying big money to players no longrr capable of performing the tole we are ssking of them. Not their fsult – a man foesn’tvlast forevrr but Rrg and Junior need to br coming off thr bench most weeks. Stsryers? Joe O and maybe Matterson. Delaying acknowledging this issue is putting off finding solutions.
The eels are in shambles, it hurts me to say it but we may need to see this administration truly fail and a while longer before there’s top to bottom significant improvements in who the decision makers are at our club.
All we can do as Shelley says is support our players and team.
We’ve been here before and unfortunately the parramatta eels can’t seem to shake the mediocrity that has inhabited our clubs DNA for too long, like a cancer, it Re-appears again shortly after we believe it’s been removed.
The Telegraph and a few others are reporting moses exploded in the dressing rooms after the Eels lost to the Knights.
I will not repeat what they suggested he said because it’s likely inaccurate.
All I can say is I take my Hat off to mitchel moses.
A true leader stands up even when others have given up or have fallen down.
He’s never given up his desire to fight & win and made all of us proud during the state of origin.
And with his efforts on the weekend sung handedly scoring two tries of his own, after putting himself at centre to run the ball because unfortunately we have no backs with more speed than any opposition side we face up against.
Mitchel moses has become the clear leader of the parramatta eels in my mind.
To come from a fractured foot, to standing up and playing his heart out for us – showing his raw passion.
To even bringing legitimate pride & hope back into the NSW blues supporters hearts – including mine.
I am going to ruffle a few feathers possibly here but I don’t mind because I am speaking from the heart.
I would love Mitchel Moses be our captain moving forward and hopgood as co captain next year.
Clint gutherson is one of my favourite players and has been a warrior for our club.
But I believe his time due to his legs / knees are up and he looked as if he was calling to be pulled from the field on the weekend about 20 minutes in.
He most likely will never be the same again after another surgery and all of his speed & acceleration has significantly deteriorated – I wish our club put him to a centre position earlier to reduce his miles.
And as for Jnr Paulo, there’s rumours around that the eels may be shopping him off or looking to move him on possibly earlier than his contract suggests.
I’m a fan of the big man but this club is a business – and he is on more money (apparently), than the Likes of Angus Crichton, Moses Leota, James fisher Harris, etc.
He isn’t a starting prop anymore and our co captains best position is now starting from the beach – and apparently on $950k per year.
Now obviously Sean Lane & Mattos wages are far above what they are worth.
We are paying overs for players who simply would be lucky to get a spot in most clubs starting 13 if we are being honest.
The Eels two captains are now seemingly on the last legs of their NRL careers.
Paulo is on the beach, and gutho is on the verge of a possible season ending Knee surgery.
All I know is that the eels just like a company when they are in shambles.
Need new leaders and new inspiration to guide them with new ideas and energy.
Moses is coming off an Andrew Johns type of performance in origin, his our clubs best player by a mile.
Give him the captaincy if gutho ends up out with his knee gone.
The new coach should build around moses moving forward.
Let him come in and run the team how moses should see it be.
Guthos strength was his heart, passion, gas tank.
But now I think we need a whole complete strategic rethink about how we play and how we can get out of this.
Madge said on the Matty Johns podcast what he did was bring in smart players like Moses and co, and ask them how they think they could win.
He got the smartest & best players to mastermind and let the halfback moses to control the side and game plan in attack.
Meanwhile over at our eels we’ve had gutho and paulo as captains, and Moses part of the mastermind but not the main voice of our team.
The blues let moses orchestrate the whole team more or less, and you could see his finer prints all over it.
I’m not suggesting mitchel isn’t influential at our club.
But he is not the captain – he isn’t even a co captain and he is the best player we have and possibly the best halfback currently in the NRL.
Most of the other good teams have one of their best halves usually as the teams captain.
Panthers, Bris, Storm. QLD maroons.
Even at storm it’s Harry grant.
Imagine Nathan clearly being at the panthers but Dylan edwards or James fisher Harris was the captain?
Mitchel moses is clearly the mastermind of the on field operation.
Just like Nathan Cleary is over at the panthers.
DCE at manly or for the maroons.
I’m willing to bet a new coach will come into our club with new ideas and thinking like this.
I don’t know how they would do it because we don’t want to upset our beloved gutho.
But our club’s success and future is more important than living in the past.
We have got ourselves probably the best halfback in the competition.
Who would be the captain (or be next in line) at almost any other club if played there.
A guy who’s playing ability and kicking is closest to Nathan Clearys out of anyone else in the league.
Yet we haven’t given this guy the reigns to be our clubs leader yet.
If Moses was a a long timer ar Penrith and Cleary was out?
You can bet he would be a captain or co captain.
I want to see our club go after success and be relentless from now on.
Make the hard decisions, we have got to stop being a soft club and living in the past, we keep players who are years past it.
All I want is our parra eels to be mighty again in our hay days.
We’ve got the best half in our club we’ve had since Peter Sterling.
Give the bloke the captaincy after gutho, get him helping to decide on what backs & forwards we recruit moving forward.
Let’s go after a big 25-28 while our best half back in decades is at the reigns for our club.
Or we will have wasted it and always “wonder what could have been”
Get some fast exciting players around him, let him dictate the whole side.
Let him pick & choose who he wants us to keep or release to build him a competion winning roster.
It might sound radical –
But do you think we would be in this mess if Mitch was having his opinions values in the roster balancing & recruitment?
Most of these problems we have are avoidable – and a half back like Moses knows more about what he can see in players than any suits at the eels who consistently fail us.
Brian Smith with Hayden Knowles as strength and conditioning..OH YEAH !!
Wont happen but damn I’d be tempted.
I’d love to see Brian Smith in the Mark O’Neil role. It does seem to me a massive waste of talent to have him driving for Uber in Brisbaine
Brian Smith knows more about coaching than all the other applicants put together.
Massive talent.