. Parramatta salary cap scandal: Eels reneged on Brad Arthur three times - but he's still there
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Brad Arthur stands as the only man who can drag Parramatta out of this mess. It will comfort Eels fans to know he is also the best man.
Why? He puts the club before himself.
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Blue and gold heart: Brad Arthur.
Blue and gold heart: Brad Arthur.Photo: Brendan Esposito
Arthur does not like chairman Steve Sharp and when you learn Eels management has reneged on contract extensions with Arthur three times in the past two years you can understand why.
No, that's not a typo. Three times. Wiser – or stubborner – men would have walked away the first time.
On two occasions, he's had significant and more lucrative opportunities to coach elsewhere.
The first was at the Dragons late in 2014 when the joint venture was uncertain about whether to give the job to caretaker coach Paul McGregor.
The second was at Manly at the start of last year when Geoff Toovey was already on the nose and the Sea Eagles were desperate to keep off-contract stars Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran, both of whom had been coached by Arthur when he was an assistant at Brookvale.
Arthur was seen as the silver bullet to all of Manly's problems. The Sea Eagles will deny it but there was $1 million waiting for him on the northern beaches. He just had to say yes.
In the end, Manly didn't even get to meet him – just as the Dragons hadn't.
And, in the end, despite Sharp looking Arthur in the eye and shaking on a contract extension, and despite a new deal being nutted out on a whiteboard in the office of former chief executive Scott Seward, Arthur signed a contract extension that was only slightly better than the $370,000-a-season he has been on and much less than the $500,000-a-season he had been promised.
Arthur doesn't want to coach any other club. Not Manly nor the Dragons nor the Denver Broncos.
He only wants to coach Parramatta, and he'll do it for less than he could get elsewhere or even what he's been promised in the first place.
This is why he's the best man Parramatta have right now.
On Wednesday, the 41-year-old missed the NRL coaches meeting at League Central to focus on cutting $570,000 out of the Eels' 2016 salary cap. Gripes about The Bunker and obstruction interpretation suddenly seem insignificant.
Arthur didn't bitch and moan like other coaches might after learning his side had lost all of its 12 competition points for this season and wouldn't play for anymore until Parramatta's cap is in order.
Instead, he was already talking up a Leicester City-like miracle.
"There's still a bit of hope they are hanging on to," he said. "We have 15 games, we have to win 12 of them."
Those who know Arthur are not the least surprised.
His work ethic is legendary. According to those at the club, he hasn't had a day off since November. He doesn't watch his players do wrestling sessions – he does them with them.
He learnt that from the best. When he was an under-20s and assistant coach at Melbourne under Craig Bellamy, the players nicknamed him "Tummyache" – a younger version of Bellamy, who is better known as "Bellyache".
But ahead of all that comes the simple fact he bleeds blue and gold. A Seven Hills junior and then lower grader at the Eels, he watched Parra legends of the past from behind the picket fence at Cumberland Oval with his grandmother.
On Tuesday afternoon, with his side's season in tatters, he was at Rouse Hill coaching junior footy.
He bleeds blue and gold even if his club keeps punching him in the head.
Sharp has barely made a right move since he became chairman but thankfully he fell arse backwards into getting the right coach.
In late 2013, he and his board were so certain that Jason Taylor was going to be their man they asked him to record a video message for the fans.
Then Taylor learned that former Eels coach Daniel Anderson was about to be appointed as director of football over the top of him and the deal was off. Arthur was sipping Bintangs in a pool in Bali when Sharp phoned and told him the job was now his.
Since then, Arthur has been forced to endure more than most coaches should have to deal with – not least with the dark shadow of Anderson hanging over him in the background, waiting for an opportunity to become head coach once more.
Arthur is one of the most intriguing coaches in the game.
In the first two seasons, some players reported that he was too hard on them. Whenever this was suggested in print, Arthur would be on the phone and asking where it had come from.
But, in the main, the players love him.
Foran had every right to walk away from his deal with Parramatta last year when a $1 million get-out clause was withdrawn from his contract, but he kept his bargain out of respect to Arthur.
"We went close to getting Kieran to stay," says one Sea Eagles insider. "But there was one thing we couldn't offer him – Brad Arthur."
I texted Arthur on Wednesday about talking for this story and late in the day he texted back.
"Very sorry, mate," he said. "I appreciate your opinion but it's not about me and never will be."
And, like we didn't already know, Arthur showed why he's the best man for the job.
I live about 200 yards away from it.
