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Eels in the media

Gronk

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Parramatta Eels’ Brad Arthur delivering on pledge to turn club around
PHIL ROTHFIELD, The Daily Telegraph
June 28, 2020 8:00pm

This is a column about a five-year plan in Western Sydney that is actually working and how team spirit and camaraderie is built around 3am text messages.

In June five years ago on the back page of this newspaper,Brad Arthur declared “I will fix this mess” but always warned against a quick fix or overnight solution.

He had become the sixth Parramatta head coach in just 10 years at a club always embroiled in off-field controversy and with an abysmal record of two wooden spoons and placings of 14th, 12th and 10th in the seasons leading up to his appointment.

The Eels still have a way to go to break a 34-year premiership drought but Arthur is delivering on his pledge to restructure and repair a club that had become nothing but an embarrassing rabble.

Brad Arthur is delivering on his pledge to restructure and repair Parramatta.
We spoke Sunday morning about his team’s latest victory, a stirring golden point victory on Saturday night over Canberra in which his skipper Clint Gutherson magnificently delivered with the clutch plays in the big moments.

Arthur woke at 4.30am Sunday to find 23 text messages on his phone from the players.

The lighthearted content of these messages tells us a lot about the recent success of this footy side.

Arthur used to be the most edgy, tense and the most highly-strung coach in the game.

Everything had to be dead serious 24/7. These days he’s so different thanks to the characters in the team like Gutherson and Mitchell Moses who have changed him.

“You can talk about how good and how professional these blokes are but there’s another side to Gutho and Mitchy that people don’t see,” Arthur said.

“Between 2am and 4.30am I’ve got twenty-bloody-three texts from them.

“They’re just gibbering about the game. They take the piss out of each other. This is happening after every game. Gutho will grab a screen grab off the TV of Mitchy missing a tackle and he’ll text it with a remark like ‘good defence mate.’

“It’s not all just footy, footy, footy.”

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Brad Arthur the most highly-strung coach in the game. Picture: Toby Zerna

With Moses off the field with a torn calf muscle on Saturday night it was Gutherson who displayed extraordinary leadership qualities.

He showed incredible nous and footy intelligence to earn a seven-tackle set in the dying moments by placing his foot on the tryline and retrieving a Raiders bomb.

Arthur says this sort of play under intense pressure with the game on the line is no fluke.

“Everything he does at training allows him to own those big moments,” he said.

“He’s focused and clear with his thinking because of how hard he trains.

“With fatigue people can make rash decisions. Not Gutho because he’s prepared for it.”

It’s interesting that the Eels fullback and skipper is never mentioned in the same breath as James Tedesco, Tom Trbojevic, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck or Kalyn Ponga.

But you get the feeling Arthur is more than happy with his man.

“They’re freaks and he gets that,” Arthur said.

“Gutho’s humble and knows what he brings for us — energy, effort and inspiration. That’s what we love. You build clubs around blokes like him.”

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Clint Gutherson displayed extraordinary leadership qualities for the Eels. Picture: Brendon Thorne/AAP
Gutherson is probably more responsible than anyone else for Arthur’s calmer and more relaxed outlook on footy.

“You see him in the sheds before a game and it’s amazing,” Arthur said.

“He’s having a joke and geeing up like the class clown. If you had a camera on him you’d think ‘is this bloke ready to play?’

“He’s annoying me and all that stuff and then suddenly flicks a switch and it’s game on.

“It’s been really good for me to ease the intensity. We’re all in a good place at the moment.”

Maybe even to deliver on the five-year plan that others couldn’t.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/s...d/news-story/6b7c858fe2ac4f55e2700359819a49e7
 

Twizzle

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^^^ As much as BA has delivered “physicality” to our game and self-belief, I think that the other significant contributing factors are Max Donnelly and Bankwest Stadium.

nah, according to the Sloth its the 3 AM txt messages.
 

Twizzle

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Maika Sivo is so strong the Eels coaching staff have to STOP him from doing weights
FOX SPORTS
June 30, 2020 5:50am

Parramatta winger Maika Sivo is a strong, strong human.

If you have any doubts about that, just ask Roosters fullback James Tedesco. They’re still digging him out of the Bankwest Stadium turf after being steamrolled by Sivo last week.

The hulking Fijian flyer made headlines in pre-season when reports claimed he had maxed out at squatting 285 kilograms in the Eels gym... only because they couldn’t fit anymore plates on the bar.

And now his coach Brad Arthur has corroborated those stories, revealing just how frightening Sivo is in the club gym.

Arthur told NRL 360 the club’s conditioning and coaching staff have actually limited Sivo’s weights sessions in case he gets too big.

“We’ve had to really pull back on his weights because he’s so big and strong, and he doesn’t carry any body fat,” Arthur said.

“He’s still running around at 110 (kilograms) or 111 each week at training as a winger, so that’s very imposing, very strong in the gym.

Maika Sivo told to do less weights

NRL: Eels coach Brad Arthur reveals the club has had to "pull back" on Maika Sivo's weight sessions to stop him from getting too big.

“When the boys were doing full weights sessions in the pre-season he was doing two or three, and a lot of extra conditioning.

“It’s a credit to him and Steve Murphy who’s done a lot of work with Maika, and I think his best football is still further down the track for him.”

Arthur has two of the most athletic wingers in the game on his roster, with Blake Ferguson occupying the other flank.

He was asked on NRL 360 whether Sivo or Ferguson was easier to coach.

“That’s an easy one... it’s Maika,” he laughed.

“Fergo needs a lot of energy. But he brings a lot.”

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/s...s/news-story/ee89c0cd468725df4484547ccfbb6f32
 

Eelementary

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Lol

And which of our players would we push away to get Batemen, Nico?

Shaun Lane? Ryan Matterson? Marata Niukore?

No, thanks.

Though I can see Isaac Moses saying something of that nature, tbh - although Bateman is not a $1 million player, imo.
 

Soto

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Lol

And which of our players would we push away to get Batemen, Nico?

Shaun Lane? Ryan Matterson? Marata Niukore?

No, thanks.

Though I can see Isaac Moses saying something of that nature, tbh - although Bateman is not a $1 million player, imo.
Tell them all they are dreaming...Isaac, Bateman and Christian...
Slow news day
 

Gronk

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Lol

And which of our players would we push away to get Batemen, Nico?

Shaun Lane? Ryan Matterson? Marata Niukore?

No, thanks.

Though I can see Isaac Moses saying something of that nature, tbh - although Bateman is not a $1 million player, imo.

I think Paul Kent (?) said that Moses said all this to Bateman when he was trying to poach him as a client.
 

Poupou Escobar

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Lol

And which of our players would we push away to get Batemen, Nico?

Shaun Lane? Ryan Matterson? Marata Niukore?

No, thanks.

Though I can see Isaac Moses saying something of that nature, tbh - although Bateman is not a $1 million player, imo.
The player managers have used our fragile club politics to drive up player prices for over a decade. They'd be hating this new professional board setup.
 
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