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On Saturday night in front of their home crowd at Pirtek Stadium, the Parramatta Eels were victorious by 20 points to 16 over the reigning premiers, the North Queensland Cowboys.
This should have been cause for celebration.
The last time these two teams met, the Cowboys came back from 30-6 down to defeat the Eels 36-30 at Pirtek. We all know how the story goes from there – the Cowboys made it 10 in a row and continued their fairytale run to the grand final while the Parramatta Eels languished at the bottom of the table.
The victory on Saturday night was a major upset.
For me, it was a performance characterised by courage and tenacity which is something that Parramatta have lacked in recent years. The Eels of yesteryear would have found a way to lose that match but instead, an 80-minute performance. There was committed defence from players like Nathan Peats and Manu Ma’u, big hit-ups from Junior Paulo and Kenny Edwards and the newfound halves leadership of Corey Norman and Kieran Foran saw them walk away with two points.
However the victory was soured by the continuing circus which is the corporate governance of the club.
Over the off season, instead of celebrating recruitment and seeing new faces like Clinton Gutherson, Kieran Foran, Beau Scott, Michael Gordon and Michael Jennings joining the club for 2016, Eels fans waited with bated breath to see if their team would begin the season down four points due to breaches of the salary cap which surfaced in 2015.
When the NRL investigation was concluded and Parramatta began the season on the same number of points as all the other clubs, Parramatta Eels fans collectively sighed in relief.
However, this week, new allegations have emerged, and quite frankly something stinks.
The new allegations mean that there will be a full scale NRL investigation into the club which will involve Parramatta opening up their books to the NRL after allegations that a culture of systemic breaches of the salary cap rules have surfaced.
This alleged ‘culture’ includes:
● Documents showing discussions among the board about corporate boxes being used as rewards for corporates providing third-party sponsorships to the players;
● Payments made to Jarryd Hayne after he had left the Club, totalling in excess of $100,000;
● Corporate hospitality being provided to our current CEO, John Boulos; and
● Third party contracts involving Jarryd Hayne and Will Hopoate.
Should the club be found to be in breach of the salary cup it could mean the loss of competition points and hefty fines.
Parramatta Eels fans are not strangers to off-field shenanigans derailing the progress of the Club on the field. In 2009, Parramatta fans declared ‘ding-dong the witch is dead’ when Denis Fitzgerald was removed from office, following a 30-year reign on the Parramatta Leagues Club Board.
Since then, however, Parramatta have changed coaches more often than any other club (Michael Hagan, Stephen Kearney, Ricky Stuart, Brad Arthur). There has been continuing instability off the field with board. Allegations of corruption. Ray Price declaring that the Parramatta Eels were ‘his club’. Hotly-contested board room elections. Bungled contract negotiations, most recently almost costing the Eels the prized signature of Kieran Foran. The ousting of several CEOs, and even claims of Denis Fitzgerald playing puppet master behind the scenes.
But these allegations are on another level. Should these allegations be proven correct it will reveal a very sinister and fraudulent attempt by those in charge at Parramatta to breach the salary cap and undermine the integrity of the game.
It will be another instance of Parramatta’s off-field having a detrimental impact on the performance and brand on-field.
Some NRL fans have a perception that ‘outsiders’ should not be allowed to take part in the administration of our game. Dave Smith was heavily criticised during his time as Chief Executive Officer of the NRL because he was not ‘rugby league’ enough.
The sooner it is realised that our clubs are multi-million dollar businesses that need to be run like multi-million dollar businesses the better.
Being a board member is a serious endeavour. It is not enough to love a club. It is not enough to ‘bleed blue and gold’. It is not enough to have been a former player or ‘from’ rugby league.
In order to be a director of a club, you need to have the correct qualifications. A board needs to be balanced with a range of people with a range of different backgrounds and the responsibilities which come with sitting on a board need to be understood and taken seriously.
Should these allegations be proven, it reeks of incompetence at a board room level. It reinforces the perception that Parramatta has a board which is unable to correctly manage its affairs. It reinforces that Parramatta has a board which meddles in affairs which are not their responsibility to meddle with. The clear delineation between what should and should not be handled by a board has come under scrutiny before (i.e. the Parramatta board’s involvement in the signature of Kieran Foran) and is under scrutiny once again.
The Parramatta Eels should be a powerhouse of the NRL. As a club, the Eels have a long and rich history. Last season, they had over 20,000 members despite their poor performances on the field in recent years and despite not having played finals football since 2009. The Eels’ junior nursery is the envy of most other NRL clubs.
Instead, the Parramatta Eels have not featured in post-season football in an unacceptably long time, and have not won a grand final since 1986. As a club, they have been disappointing on and off the field for several years much to the distress and sadness of their loyal fans.
If these allegations are true, Eels fans could face another year of disappointment which can only be fixed by curing the incompetence which has plagued Parramatta at a board level for several years.
Only time will tell what the impact of having board members who ‘bleed blue and gold’ will be. I am fearful it’s going to cost Parramatta more than a couple of competition points.
This is @mary__kaye from @ladieswholeague