like players on a football field, coaches don't get upset if they try things and make mistakes, it's plodders like fitzy that do f**k all that are the problem
:lol: Plodder. Shame you never got to see him in action, You would never call him a plodder thats for sure.
Do you really think Denis achieved nothing in his 30 years as an administrator and nothing as a player?
It is easy to denigrate the work done for a Club WHEN you know NOTHING about the work of the people you choose to denigrate.
Denis is a Hall of Famer at the Eels, A life Member of the Eels, A grand Final player, A life Member of the ARL, NSWRL, Parramatta District Rugby League, and the NRL..the longest serving CEO of the NRL..You don't get to achieve that status if, to use your words, you are a plodder...
Denis Fitzgerald is one of those, who along with Jack Argent, Stan Simpson, Spencer O'Neill, Billy Rayner, Jack Boyle, and others who helped dig the well the current football Club and players are drinking at...Every night before you go to bed, you should say a prayer of thanks to the Lord that those people were around to guide the Club, otherwise you might not have a football Club to follow.
Denis William Fitzgerald, OAM, (born 1949) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and former Chief Executive Officer of the Parramatta Eels.
As a player, Fitzgerald played mainly as a prop but was atypically tall and lean for his position.
Though a strong scrummager and a tireless defender Fitzgerald preferred to run wide where he could be a dangerous attacking force. Remarkably he was Parramatta's leading pointscorer in 1974 from nine tries alone - proof of their weakness in goalkicking.
Fitzgerald first played first grade in 1970 and the following year his finely-contrasted partnership with Bob O'Reilly saw them rise from last to the final four.
Fitzgerald was rewarded with selection for New South Wales. In the following years, however, the Eels returned to the bottom of the table and Fitzgerald's form was erratic, but during the Eels' surge to the finals late in 1975 his form was too good for the international selectors to ignore. After returning to the New South Wales side earlier, Fitzgerald played in the World Cup that year and again in 1977. He had been a major force in the Eels' rise to the grand final in 1976 and the minor premiership in 1977, but was out of form by finals time and played only on the bench in the two 1977 grand finals. After that year, though only 27, he retired as a player.
Even while a prominent player, Fitzgerald had shown great interest in working in club administration. In 1973 he had led a reform group at the then-troubled club, and after retiring as a player he became CEO immediately.
Fitzgerald's work as an administrator is credited with building up the "golden years" of the early to middle 1980s, and he was an original member of the NSWRL Board from 1983 until a crisis in 1992.
After a lean period beginning in 1987 he came under threat, notably from Ray Price. However, Fitzgerald's skill as a businessman was so well-honed that he could push aside this challenge, and when success returned in 1997 his position once again became solid.
In 2003 he became one of the few rugby league players to receive the Order of Australia medal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Fitzgerald
