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Another NRL season is drawing to a close, and while many are fine-tuning their match preparation, the rest are left to their ‘Mad Mondays’ and season reviews.
The Canberra Raiders and North Queensland Cowboys have already sacked their coaches, with other coaches likely to feel concerned about their positions heading into the off-season.
This is of course not the case for former Eels coach Ricky Stuart, who has escaped the sinking ship that Parramatta has become. He’s picked up the Raiders coaching vacancy and returns to the club where he became a superstar during his playing days.
Stuart’s exit though, has plunged the club into further complications. One of the highest profile coaches in the sport has left, and the Eels board will have to work extremely hard to convince another coach of Stuart’s quality and experience to take the reins.
It will be a difficult task: entering a club which has been in a rebuilding phase for far too long, in addition to working with an apparently divided and hostile board.
Will this scare off any of the main contenders for the position? Or is the prize of an NRL head-coaching job too good to refuse? No matter who ends up coaching the Eels, it is obvious they will need a strong support network within the club and the community. This is not a one-man job.
This brings me to my personal favourite NRL commentator, Mr Peter Sterling. The former Eels legend has made a great post-football career in the media, taking his amazing football brain from the field into our lounge rooms and radios.
In amongst the testosterone-filled group of former players that make up the commentary teams, he has made his name as a serious and intelligent football analyst.
Historically he has refused to be drawn too far into the problems that have faced Parramatta since he retired as a player, although his opinions in regards to Chris Sandow’s time at the club have no doubt played on the minds of all Eels fans.
Despite Sterling’s relative objectivity to date, it’s time for the Eels to start looking to him for guidance.
As a former Parramatta player, Sterling will know the culture of the club better than most. It’s a culture he, along with the many other greats from the Eels’ history, helped shape.
Whether this culture needs to be rebuilt or requires a complete overhaul, ex-players like Sterling will know what works.
His knowledge of the game is second-to-none, and he still reads the game as a halfback does, knowing what is required in each particular instance of a match, in order for the team to be successful.
It’s what made him one of the great halfbacks, and one of the most insightful commentators.
Any team would benefit from his advice, especially an Eels side that is low on depth in the halves and too reliant on fullback Jarryd Hayne.
Sterling’s media presence would also immediately be a boost to Parramatta, were he to link with the club in a formal or contractual way.
When watching the footy coverage, we all know Sterling is associated with the Eels through his former playing days, the same way we know Andrew Johns is linked with the Knights and Paul Vautin with Manly.
However if Sterling was in the Eels camp on a weekly basis, he could easily become another focus-point for the Eels in the media world by providing an official link with the club.
It might not be to the vocal extent of Phil Gould with the Panthers and formerly the Roosters, or of Eddie McGuire with Collingwood, but it would give inside knowledge into the Eels and a way for them to promote their club in a positive manner.
It’s highly doubtful that Peter Sterling will be the next coach of Parramatta; neither will he be the next CEO. In fact I don’t know exactly what official position he could fill within the Eels hierarchy.
But whoever is currently pulling the strings at the Eels would be well advised to enhance Sterling’s involvement with the club.
He seems an intelligent, considerate man as well as a passionate Parramatta supporter and ex-player, who would always have the best interests of the club at heart.
Whether he chooses to help the ailing Eels, or decides to stay out of the mess that Parramatta has become, is yet to be seen.
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