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Opinion
You have to admire the Parramatta Eels fans. I certainly do.
They just keep turning up to support their team, year after year, without ever expecting to win another premiership. I guess they are just enjoying the journey?
For those who can remember, the last time they won a premiership was 1986. Bob Hawke was our Prime Minister, Allan Border captained our cricket team with an iron fist, and a blonde long-haired Peter Sterling was working his magic in the No.7 blue and gold jersey.
Parramatta got the job done that year on the back of a great roster including Sterling, Brett Kenny, Ray Price, Mick Cronin and Eric Grothe, defeating an emerging Bulldogs team 4-2 in a real slug-fest. Now, fast forward 36 years, and the blue and gold army are waiting patiently for another premiership.
Hawke passed away three years ago, Sterling doesn’t have a hair on his head, and Border’s now peddling blood circulation aids for the elderly.
The closest the Eels have got to winning another premiership since the days of the VL Holden Commodore was in 2001 when they were run down in the grand final by Andrew Johns’ Newcastle side, and then eight years later in 2009, when they were robbed by the creative accountants at the duplicitous Melbourne Storm.
Parramatta have had nine coaches since John Monie led them to a premiership in 1986, and seen nearly 400 players come and go.
Current coach Brad Arthur is now coming to the end of his ninth year at the helm and he has two more years after this year, but just how well have Parramatta performed under him? What have the Parramatta fans got to show for it?
The short answer to that question is three fifths of bugger all. The lowlight under his tenure, of course, was the 2018 wooden spoon, but even the highlights would leave most fans empty and wanting more.
Finals appearances in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 looked good on paper, however the Eels failed to capitalise, and were eliminated in the semi-finals on each occasion. Last season they made it as far as the semi-finals, before being pipped 8-6 by eventual premiers Penrith.
It’s almost as if making the top eight is the ultimate goal, rather than winning the premiership.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Now, in 2022, a familiar theme is playing out for the blue and gold army. After finishing in a creditable fourth place on the ladder, and potentially just two games away from a grand final appearance, they’ve been blown off the park by the reigning premiers in a second half blitz, leaving their entire season on the line when they come up against Canberra next week.
Brad Arthur has the next couple of weeks to either deliver a premiership for the club or risk going the way of the Parramatta coaches before him, with 2013 coach Ricky Stuart now being the only former Eels coach still in charge of a first grade club.
2022 has to be the year for Arthur and the Eels as it won’t get any easier next season, with key players of the calibre of Reed Mahoney, Marata Niukore, Isaiah Papali’i, Tom Opacic, Oregon Kaufusi and Ray Stone all heading elsewhere in 2023.
It’s now been 36 long years since Parramatta’s battered captain Ray Price proudly held the premiership trophy aloft, a sight most of today’s blue and gold army have only seen on replay.
Brad Arthur, how many more years does an Eels fan have to wait to see it happen again?
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