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For an Eels fan, re-building is an all too familiar word to hear. We heard it from Daniel Anderson, we heard it from Stephen Kearney and now we’re hearing it from Ricky Stuart.
However, it is a fact of professional sport and in fact in any business. At some point or another, after turbid times, re-building will be required.
Parramatta’s current position is due to the ineptitude of previous administrations. It started as far back as 2006 when Brian Smith left and Jason Taylor was not re-signed.
The constant de-stabilisation at board level and coaching level has meant a coach has not had more than two seasons at the helm since Smith left.
Results are expected before they should realistically happened. Now the Eels find themselves in an utter state of despair, looking a second consecutive wooden spoon directly in the face.
Ricky Stuart never promised a miracle and Parramatta Jesus has ruled out a resurrection. The Eels are in a re-building phase, there’s no getting around that.
Last season they bid farewell to more than 600 games of NRL experience when Burt and Hindmarsh retired, with no one near replacing them in this season’s squad.
At many points in this year’s season, the Eels’ inexperienced roster has shown clear signs they truly missed an experienced campaigner.
Stephen Kearney, in his first season, purchased half a retirement home, looking for a quick solution rather than a long term one that was under his nose in the form of Parramatta’s juniors.
I know you can’t win a competition with a team full of local juniors. It’s just not practical. But, some proper investment in the future by Kearney may have seen Stuart working with a slightly less inexperienced team than he is working with this season.
So what is a re-building phase exactly? Well, in rugby league terms, it’s when previous coaches, administrators have either rested on their laurels or have had no foresight for their club.
This usually results in a lack of long-term success as well as a lack of NRL quality depth.
Stuart identified that he had both issues. He has since set about in recruiting players with top-line NRL experience with enough youth to be of long-term use for the club and with also a decent level of ability.
Englishmen Gareth Hock and Lee Mossop both add some size and mongrel to the Parramatta pack, Nathan Peats adds spark to dummy-half and Corey Norman some class to the five-eighth position.
People harp on about Parramatta’s cursed number seven but few have realised that Parramatta has lacked a top-line five eighth since Brett Kenny.
Will Hopoate, the one good thing to come out of Kearney’s tenure, will add a further touch of shine to a now competitive looking backline.
But re-building is something that takes time and is an art form, often missed by the arm chair critics. Brian Smith is perhaps one of the greatest re-building coaches rugby league has ever seen.
He re-built the Steelers, he re-built St George, he re-built Parramatta and he re-built the Roosters.
For the Eels faithful it has been yet another painful campaign. However there has been a focus on identifying talent in their own backyard with seven debutantes this season.
While some people see coaches who say they are re-building as copping out, they are merely stating a fact.
You can’t seriously tell me Parramatta isn’t re-building. And while coach Stuart is working with the cattle he’s got he will be expected to begin to turn things around next season.
For the long suffering supporters we hope it isn’t like the past two seasons.
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