I would go even further and say that the demise of the Parramatta Club actually commenced with the loss at the 2001 Grand Final against Newcastle. This one-off debacle set in trail a number of in some cases un-related events that culminated in where the Club got to at the end of last season.
From the unexpected loss in 2001, coupled with failures to reach the Grand Final in previous years to 2001, I think the coach (Brian Smith) began to possibly question and second guess himself that he could actually win the NRL premiership at Parramatta. This lead to a gradual and slow deterioration of his relationships between some players, coaching staff and club management, which included along the way the departure of Crusher Cleal as head of recruitment at the Club. It was this somewhat innocuous decision of Crusher returning to Manly around 2003 or 2004 that lead to the Club taking it's eye of the ball in regard to the identification, recruitment, development and retention of youth players from outside the Parramatta district league for probably the next 5 or so years.
With no grand final appearances and premierships in subsequent years to 2001, the board and Fitzy felt pressured to re-act and sacked Brian Smith. After this, what oldmancraigy has outlined above was the snowballing effect that resulted and essentially almost a wasted decade!
Hopefully the Club has learnt and we can now have stability once again. Peter Nolan certainly seemed to be a good find for the Club. Hopefully Peter Sharp and the others involved in recruitment can be even better.
