Note: This deal fell through after the NRL salary cap auditor could not give the Eels a ruling on Folau’s true value under the cap. After waiting a while, Folau chose to sign with the Australian Rugby Union. Israel Folau has quit the AFL and will return to Rugby League. Brent Read of The Australian…
After the resignation of Stephen Kearney this week, the Daily Telegraph as well as Fox Sports are reporting that Ricky Stuart will coach the Parramatta Eels from the beginning of next season in a move that all but certainly ends his reign as New South Wales State Of Origin coach. I tend to think this…
When it comes to Rugby League, the rot always starts from the top. How on earth are the Parramatta Eels supposed to succeed on the field when every other level of the club is a complete mess? What makes anyone think that for some reason an entire club can be rotten to the core, and…
When the Parramatta Eels went out in the last off season and signed Carl Webb, Paul Whatuira, Chris Walker, Chris Hicks and Reni Maitua off the scrap heap, I was certain it was all going to work out just fine for them. I was certain that by signing all of these player who were in…
A football club is a little bit like a sailing ship. The boat itself is the team. The captain of the ship is like the coach. The rudder is like the CEO and the keel, well, that is like the football board. Everything has its own job, and as soon as something fails, the whole…
Like most teams that miss the NRL Finals series, consistency was the Achilles heel of the Parramatta Eels. After making last years Grand Final, the Eels had big hopes in 2010. They had lost a few players in the off season but they felt they had more than squared the ledger with the additions of…
Quade Cooper is an Australian Rugby Union player. Yes, Rugby Union still does exist in this country, if only barely. News came out this week that Cooper had held talks with the Parramatta Eels with an eye on switching codes. It came out at a time when he is negotiating with the ARU, and he…
This has been coming for some time. The Daily Telegraph in Sydney is reporting that Jarryd Hayne has his nose out of joint over comments made by his coach Daniel Anderson after the weekends loss to the Brisbane Broncos. What Anderson said was the softest rocket you have ever seen: “I think our fullback is learning. He…
After a terrible start to their season, the Parramatta Eels made a decision that it would cease all contract talks with their off contract players until such time as the team turned things around on the field. The backlash was fairly swift. The players were not happy at all. They were filthy the decision was…
The Parramatta Eels have booked a place in the 2009 NRL Grand Final with a hard fought 22-12 win over the Canterbury Bulldogs. The game started terribly for the Bulldogs with Luke Patten leaving the field with concussion from an accidental knee and it seemed from there Bulldogs were dropping like flies! David Stagg, Ben…
The Gold Coast Titans were taught a very harsh lesson during the 2009 NRL Final series. A very good regular season means nothing and you can whinge all you like, all that matters is the scoreboard at the final siren. The Parramatta Eels completely dominated the Titans for the full 80 minutes. Their forwards were…
Watching Jarryd Hayne’s performance over this State Of Origin series has made me think a lot about the players in our game that are natural leaders. The amazing thing about Hayne is that, 12 months ago, he was a very different person. A good athlete, a great player, but off the field he was starting…
There, I said it! Well we all know Parramatta suck, and have sucked for quite some time. So what is there problem? Well the current situation the club finds itself in wasn’t helped by former coach Michael Hagan. He was a terrible coach, a terrible leader and even now having moved on, he is publicly…
Michael Hagan jumped before he was pushed today, calling a surprise press conference to announce he had quit as Parramatta Eels coach due to family reasons. Hagan narrowly avoided the sack this year after a disasterous season coaching the Eels, and heading into 2009 the Parramatta board had already given him a deadline to avoid…
In his first season with the Newcastle Knights, Michael Hagan won a Premiership. It was a fair achievement and many saw him as the new breed of coach who would go on to take the game to a new level. The problem was that from that point on, Newcastle got worse and worse to the…
Tim Smith has been seen boozing it up once more with team mates late on Saturday night, despite being banned from Alcohol, after being banned from Alcohol, after being banned from Alcohol! Smith, who has had more chances in the last six months than Keiron Cunningham has had hot meals, is currently under a fictional…
You knew this was coming… The Parramatta Eels have lifted their ban (Ban? What was he banned from?) on drunken idiot Tim Smith and have listed a number of conditions he must stick to including rehabilitation, charity work and other very vague things. Thing is, Smith was already supposed to be doing all of these…
Serial dickhead Tim Smith is all but assured of having his Parramatta contract torn up after being caught drinking just days after being banned for drinking by the clubs after a drunken tirade aimed at a family. Smith has had a number of alleged drunken episodes and has promised to stop drinking a number of…
The Parramatta Eels will face the Melbourne Storm next week down in Melbourne after dominating by a scoreline of 25-6 against the Bulldogs in a game that didnt really reach the fever pitch expected before the game. The Bulldogs looked flat right from the kickoff and it took a great pass by Sonny Bill Williams…
In a frantic game played infront of well over 28,000 fans in New Zealand, the Parramatta Eels have held off a late try from the New Zealand Warriors to run out 12-10 winners. In an amazing, but scoreless first half, both teams threw the ball around in the face of vicious defence. It was nothing…
“I like being competitive and I like to have the ball in my hands,” Tahu said at the time.” That would probably be the most stressful thing; the game’s close and you want to do something and you can’t even get the ball because they’re very structured. Being a centre or winger, you touch the…