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Let’s get one thing straight – Chris Sandow didn’t force Parramatta to sign him up for four years at $550,000 per season.
They made that decision with their eyes wide open – and no amount of criticism of Sandow is going to change that fact.
It doesn’t matter that it was a different chief executive and a different coach at the Eels when they signed him – all that matters is that Sandow has got a contract.
And I wouldn’t think he’d be going anywhere – not unless Parramatta wanted to sweeten the deal by agreeing to continue paying a majority slice of his salary at another club for the remaining two years of his contract.
But first there would have to be a club that was interested.
If you thought Sandow’s career had hit rock bottom when he was originally dropped to play for Wentworthville in the NSW Cup, it got even worse for him last night when he couldn’t get back into the Eels’ side despite the player who replaced him – Luke Kelly – being out injured.
Ben Roberts, reportedly one of the 12 players who were told by Parramatta midway through this season that they were unwanted for next season, and who is normally a five-eighth, has been preferred to Sandow at halfback.
So, where to now for Sandow, who has also been the subject of fresh newspaper stories regarding a gambling problem?
Well, if I was him I’d be keeping my head down, working hard and doing whatever the club is allowed to ask of him under the terms of his contract.
His priority right now should be to protect that $550,000-a-year contract. Like I said at the start, he didn’t make the Eels pay him that amount.
South Sydney made a bit of noise about Sandow having had his “Alan Bond” moment when he accepted the huge offer from Parramatta, but deep down the club wasn’t too concerned.
They knew they had a ready-made replacement at halfback in Adam Reynolds, as long as he made a good recovery from the knee reconstruction that wiped out the 2011 season for him.
Now, Reynolds is firing at the Rabbitohs, while Sandow goes through the horrors at the Eels.
And chances are Reynolds would have quickly gone past Sandow at Souths, had Sandow remained there. Sandow, because he struggles to adapt to a highly-structured game, looks as unlikely a player under Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire as he does under Parramatta coach Ricky Stuart.
But Sandow is far from being alone when it comes to players performing poorly at the Eels, and Stuart has got to share the responsibility with his players for the results, having come to the club on huge money himself.
Stuart made a name for himself as a coach who got his teams to defend strongly, but Parramatta are the worst defensive team in the competition, having conceded 516 points in 18 games at an average of 28.66 per game.
It’s a statistic that isn’t likely to improve against Manly on Saturday.
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