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The boardroom situation at the Parramatta Eels has still not been resolved.
After the damning interim NRL findings were released at the beginning of May, we’ve had legal action, secret tapes, retained directors still refusing to admit any governance problems at the club, and a general disenchantment from supporters.
It’s already been going on for too long and, judging by the crowd at Pirtek on Monday night, it seems Parramatta fans have given up on 2016.
It’s a vote of no confidence in the administration of the place – and how can anyone have any confidence in the leadership at the Eels after what has been exposed?
The Parramatta board not only directs the NRL side of the business, it also presides over the Parramatta Junior Rugby League, which includes all the junior clubs and footballers from under 6s to A grade.
There are some pretty big brands in that bunch as well – Mounties, Cabramatta, Wentworthville and Hills District are some of the biggest. Add to that the couple of dozen that have long histories – like Guildford, Merrylands, Winston Hills, Lalor Park, Fairfield Patrician Brothers, Canley Vale Kookas, Parra Junior Eels – and there are a lot of stakeholders involved in park footy.
So what if all of those clubs did have genuine dissatisfaction with the Parramatta board? What could they do?
We’ve already seen what has happened with their elections. It’s been a shambles for years, with investigations from the NSW Government regulator NSW Liquor and Gaming into false memberships only one reason not to go near their flawed voting set-up.
The answer may be a bit more radical. Parramatta clubs could en masse leave the district and join one of the neighbouring leagues, either Penrith or Canterbury-Bankstown. We would then have a super-sized junior footy district from the mountains to Woodville Road Guildford, or from Blacktown to Dulwich Hill.
The politics of the New South Wales Rugby League would then come into play, and there may be a lot of hurdles to jump before the concept got off the ground.
The league would step in to back its member club (Parramatta), Super League war-style, and deny any affiliation from the junior district clubs. They would prevent the Parramatta Referees’ Association from controlling matches or risk losing any affiliation with NSWL.
It would get pretty messy, but with every junior club on board it could be done.
What if we took ‘radical’ one step further towards ridiculous? What if a British billionaire bought every junior in the Parramatta district?
Marwan Koukash, the billionaire horse-racing mogul in Great Britain, is the owner of Salford Red Devils in the English Super League. He’s been looking to buy a stake in one of the NRL’s clubs for the past few years, and his name has been linked with every club that has failed to pay an invoice on time, from the Gold Coast Titans to the Wests Tigers.
However, if there are no NRL clubs on the market, could Dr Koukash buy a junior district instead? Could he snatch a whole junior nursery of thousands of players, coaches and administrators away from the decrepit, incapacitated Parramatta Eels board?
One way it could work would be to affiliate the junior Parramatta district with governing body in the UK, the Rugby Football League. Everything would go on at park level like normal, except they would be under the auspices of the RFL rather than the NSWRL or the NRL. Across all grades and ages, Cabra would still play Wenty, Guildford would still play Merrylands, Seven Hills would still play Lalor Park, but once elite players turned 18 they would become Salford players.
Within a couple of years Salford would have the biggest junior nursery in the English Super League – albeit located in the southern hemisphere.
It could also be the first step in having an English team in the NRL. Steve Mascord has been flying that idea for ages, and this would only make the logistics easier.
If a big enough offer happened to be put on the table, the influential clubs in the Parramatta junior league would have to consider it. Most of them fund their teams on their own, with very little help from the Parramatta Eels board anyway.
Of course, the challenges are not insignificant. Firstly, the RFL would have to get on board, meaning the good doctor would have to resolve his differences with them, more of which seem to be revealed every week.
The NRL and the NSWRL would use every legal avenue to block it. That is, unless the money can’t be ignored. Everything has its price, as long as someone is willing to pay it.
It might seem impossible, but remember Kerry Packer was told he couldn’t buy cricket.
Note that the people who administer the grassroots game in the Parramatta offices are very passionate league people and do everything they can for the juniors. I see how hard they work, but they have also been hamstrung by what has gone on above them. The junior league staff deserves every credit for getting on with their jobs.
As for the future, will any of this fantasy become reality? It depends on how disillusioned key people become. Marwan Koukash – are you prepared to spend your millions in a way that will give you a return?
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