Eels Appoint Brad Arthur as Head Coach (Part Deux)

[Poupou Escobar]

So Arthur's coaching achievements would have been exaggerated seeing we played with an illegal squad.

Do you think we were spending more than every other club?

 

[Avenger]

Do you think we were spending more than every other club?

Yes, but illegally.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

You don't really know that. But - I am not going to slash my wrists after one performance. However, when all is said and done, our club is most certainly the least successful in NRL history - and probably only slightly better than the Demons and Saints in AFL.

70 years of competition and we won all our premierships in a 5 year 'golden period'. Apart from that 5 year period we have had 65 years of failing to win a premiership. Who can top that? The Bears before they were booted are the only team that come close. Imagine for a second if Sterling and Kenny had never joined our club !!! Scary thought.

Anyway, it just annoys me when everyone want to throw up excuses or reasons as Pou calls them. But clubs like the Bulldogs, Roosters, Panthers are never down for too long. One bad season max for those guys. We should be the same.

So you think there are no valid reasons for our lack of success? What do you suppose are the invalid reasons? Or do you think there are no reasons at all?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Yes, but illegally.

I reckon we still weren't the biggest spenders.

 

[Bazal]

You don't really know that. But - I am not going to slash my wrists after one performance. However, when all is said and done, our club is most certainly the least successful in NRL history - and probably only slightly better than the Demons and Saints in AFL.

70 years of competition and we won all our premierships in a 5 year 'golden period'. Apart from that 5 year period we have had 65 years of failing to win a premiership. Who can top that? The Bears before they were booted are the only team that come close. Imagine for a second if Sterling and Kenny had never joined our club !!! Scary thought.

Anyway, it just annoys me when everyone want to throw up excuses or reasons as Pou calls them. But clubs like the Bulldogs, Roosters, Panthers are never down for too long. One bad season max for those guys. We should be the same.

I would certainly not be including the Panthers in that group....

Those clubs are politically stable, and those clubs don't sack coaches on a whim. We struggled through the early 90s and I was too young to really understand why, so I won't talk about that. But late 90s we signed Brian Smith and, thanks to a hugely lucky break, the Canterbury 4. That turned us around, and we competed well for quite a while.

The rules changed in 2002/2003 and meant our small, mobile side struggled, on top of our boom signings Adam Dykes and Andrew MacFadden turning to chumps when they pulled on the jersey. Smithy went out, bought a heap of players, and 2005 we were back.

Then the administration of the club went to shit and we started sacking coaches as different factions fought to hang on to their positions of power. Since 2005 our first grade coaches have been Brian Smith, Jason Taylor (interim), Michael Hagan, Daniel Anderson, Stephen Kearney, Brad Arthur (interim), Ricky Stuart, Brad Arthur again. That's 8 coaching changes and 6 head coaches in 8-9 years, given Arthur has been in the job since 2014.

In the same period, the Bulldogs for example have had Steve Folks, Kevin Moore, and Des Hasler.
Brisbane have had Wayne Bennett, Ivan Henjak, Anthony Griffin, and Wayne Bennett again
The Storm have had Craig Bellamy
The Roosters have had Sticky, Chris Anderson, Brad Fittler, Brian Smith, and Trent Robinson, and they have been inconsistent too.

These are not excuses. These are reasons. They are facts. We have struggled because of the bullshit that has happened with our front office. That lead to instability on the field, which has lead to players steering clear of the club, which lead us to two back to back wooden spoons.

Then, when we were actually finally rebuilding, more political nonsense lead the board to cheat, and we lost two incredibly high quality spine players as a result. That put us back at least another season.

People need to accept that there are plenty of valid reasons that we are where we are. None of them have anything to do with Brad Arthur. He is the coach who was finally turning us around and he was sabotaged by a cheating administration last season. That's not to say he's flawless by any means, but the simple fact is we have been a basket case off the field for many years now and that will ultimately affect a club on the field.

The Tigers are finding that out now.

 

[Avenger]

I reckon we still weren't the biggest spenders.

You could be right Pou. I suspect Brisbane and Roosters spent more but were smarter with their spending.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Also for all the poor form we have shown this year, we are still only outside the top 8 because of for / against and only 2 points from 5th spot.

So it's not all doom and gloom!!

And all with only one "true" half!!

 

[forward pass]

So you think there are no valid reasons for our lack of success? What do you suppose are the invalid reasons? Or do you think there are no reasons at all?

Well 65 out of our 70 years - we have failed to win the premiership. So yes there are valid reasons - I just can't think of 65 of them.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

You could be right Pou. I suspect Brisbane and Roosters spent more but were smarter with their spending.

I'd say they were smarter with their paperwork. As far as being smarter with their spending, nobody wants to pay overs. But you have to pay what players are asking. There is a tax unstable clubs have to pay on top of any in-demand player's value. It all adds up.

 

[strider]

In the same period, the Bulldogs for example have had Steve Folks, Kevin Moore, and Des Hasler.

dogs had, chris anderson and dymock aswell as those you mentioned ... 5 all up

edit: oh i noticed you said since 2005 - i thought you meant since we had smithy ... so, not chris anderson

 

[Bazal]

dogs had, chris anderson and dymock aswell as those you mentioned ... 5 all up

Oops....I missed Anderson (1 season wasn't it?) and not following them I wasn't sure when Dymock was interim coach....

Edit-Scratch that, Anderson was at the Dogs 1990-97 and not since. I didn't miss nuffin' *fist shaky guy*

 

[forward pass]

dogs had, chris anderson and dymock aswell as those you mentioned ... 5 all up

edit: oh i noticed you said since 2005 - i thought you meant since we had smithy ... so, not chris anderson

Remember the geniuses at our club brought Chris Anderson in to assist SK when we were struggling. I'll put that in the Top 5 of all time stupid things this club has done.

 

[Djay]

I am just sick of the "when we get so and so next year it will be our year" rubbish.

When is it ever gonna be our year?

Arthur hasn't had the smoothest of runs, the team we have this year is severely lacking, but is that really his fault after last year?

Last years rubbish has set us back more then we can imagine, we lost one of the best halves in the game, we lost a hulking prop which we desperately crave, we miss a quality hooker who is a leader in defence, we haven't replaced these guys adequately.

I just feel like we are a fair off, and I can't see who we are gonna buy next year to solve it, it's really concerning because we have way way to many plodders in our side right now.

 

[Bazal]

I am just sick of the "when we get so and so next year it will be our year" rubbish.

When is it ever gonna be our year?

Arthur hasn't had the smoothest of runs, the team we have this year is severely lacking, but is that really his fault after last year?

Last years rubbish has set us back more then we can imagine, we lost one of the best halves in the game, we lost a hulking prop which we desperately crave, we miss a quality hooker who is a leader in defence, we haven't replaced these guys adequately.

I just feel like we are a fair off, and I can't see who we are gonna buy next year to solve it, it's really concerning because we have way way to many plodders in our side right now.

Yet when we won three in a row before the bye we had no plodders. But the three weeks before that we had plenty. But rounds one and two we had no plodders again....

We're two spine players and maybe a quality big body off being a very, very competitive side. Moses and Evans make 2/3. Obviously there's no telling how successful they will be, but he is making the right recruitment decisions.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Spot on. We are a mid table side, and with Moses and Evans (and whomever else we sign for 2018) we will be better, perhaps markedly so.

 

[Djay]

Yet when we won three in a row before the bye we had no plodders. But the three weeks before that we had plenty. But rounds one and two we had no plodders again....

We're two spine players and maybe a quality big body off being a very, very competitive side. Moses and Evans make 2/3. Obviously there's no telling how successful they will be, but he is making the right recruitment decisions.

I have never said we didn't have plodders this year.

That may be others but not me, I've said it for awhile our defense is lacklustre to say the least and we are more then Moses and Evans off being very very competitive.

Both potentially good, neither are consistently good, do we at Parra really need more unfulfilled talent? I have hope for Moses at Parra under BA, but a big body isn't all we need we need 2 big bodies or one of Graham's stature, a hooker and a hulking forward.

If you think having people like Moeroa, Matagi, Mannah and Pritchard in our starting side is gonna make us compete with the top teams you are actually dreaming. That's not to mention Alvaro also.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

If you think having people like Moeroa, Matagi, Mannah and Pritchard in our starting side is gonna make us compete with the top teams you are actually dreaming. That's not to mention Alvaro also.

The top teams all have players of this calibre.

 

[Djay]

The top teams all have players of this calibre.

Not there entire front rows, we have one of the worst.

Melbourne have Bromwich and Smith.
Sharks have Fifita and had Ennis.
Roosters have Friend and JWH.
Raiders have Hodgson, Paulo and Boyd.
Cowboys have Granville and Scott.

You can't compare, they all atleast have a rep level player in there front row, we simply do not. We did with Peats and Paulo, people forget how massive they were for us.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Peats and Paulo rep players?

 

[Djay]

Peats and Paulo rep players?

A tier above what we have now.

And Peats is very close to origin.

Lets be honest you can't compare what we have this year to what we had last year.