Parramatta chairman Sean McElduff says the club’s first preliminary final appearance since 2009 has vindicated the decision to extend the tenure of coach Brad Arthur.
The Eels are one win away from a grand final appearance, a feat they can achieve if they defeat North Queensland in Townsville on Saturday night. The progression to the penultimate game of the season was secured after the blue and golds notched an emphatic 40-4 win over Canberra at CommBank Stadium on Friday night.
Much had been made of Arthur’s poor finals record, before the win over the Raiders, which stood at just two victories from nine appearances. Critics were suggesting that Arthur, despite being contracted for two more seasons, should be moved on if the Eels failed to qualify for the third week of the playoffs.
However, McElduff said Arthur was the man to lead the club long term as it attempts to qualify for its first grand final since 2009.
“Brad has done a good job for us,” McElduff said. “He deserved to get an extension, and he’s justified it. I’m not sure we needed last night’s result to vindicate it.
“There’s a number of factors that go into whether you’re successful, not just one game. We’ve been in the finals for the last four years, and now we’re going to a prelim final. It’s a pretty good effort.”
Brad Arthur during the win over Canberra.Credit:NRL Photos
The Eels will farewell a raft of players after this campaign, including Reed Mahoney, Isaiah Papali’i, Marata Niukore, Oregon Kaufusi, Tom Opacic and Ray Stone. The future of star halves Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown also remains uncertain beyond next year.
However, Parramatta officials feel they have the nucleus of a side that can challenge this year and beyond.
“We’ve got a good team that we’ve been building for a while,” McElduff said. “At the start of the season, your goal has to be the top four and then the next goal has to be a prelim final, because if you do those two things, you’re a chance to get to the grand final and win the comp.
“The coach and the players have done that.
“Brad’s attitude last night was the right attitude; we get to play, we’re going to Townsville, and we’ll give it a crack.
“He’s got two years left on his contract – we extended it at the back end of last year because he deserved it. We felt he was capable of delivering for us, and he’s done a good job this year.”
Arthur will mark a decade as head coach of the Eels next year and is poised to eclipse Brian Smith’s record of 244 matches in charge of Parramatta. The former Storm and Manly assistant has come out of the other side after being at the helm during the tough times, including the salary cap debacle.
The chairman and the board have remained out of the spotlight during the resurgence after years of factionalism threatened to tear the club apart.
“The club has been very stable for the last six years, and you’ve seen the results on the field,” McElduff said. “For the previous seven years, there was so much instability, and it showed on the field.”
On the eve of the Raiders clash on Friday, a leaked document indicated there were perceptions of nepotism in the Eels’ pathways system. Instead of derailing their campaign, the story had the opposite effect.
“I reckon we showed how it affected the group,” Arthur said in his post-match press conference. “Someone’s got an agenda, and they’re not going to break the spirit.
“There’s some personal interest and whoever’s got the agenda, you’re not going to break this group. We’ve worked too hard.”
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