Anthony Watmough brings winning mentality to Eels side, writes Paul Kent
Paul Kent
The Daily Telegraph
March 05, 2015 12:00AM
MONDAY morning, Anthony Watmough waited in the Parramatta football office to talk to a young player.
This might surprise some who know Watmough, and will surprise almost everybody who knew the old Watmough.
The surprises were about to continue, though.
Coach Brad Arthur saw Watmough loitering and told him he wanted to speak before heading back inside his office. Watmough’s eyebrows popped up, surprised, and while Arthur finished off his business inside Watmough waited and worried and wondered.
What did the coach want?
Watmough has been big news in recent weeks after the NRL did him the favour of scheduling the 278-game Manly veteran’s first game for Parramatta against, who else, but Manly on Friday night.
It then started when he Tweeted that “there are people on this team that hate Manly more than I do”.
Immediately, some former Manly players demanded Watmough turn in his life membership. Fans put him at the top of their list of things to hate, which is admittedly long.
Sea Eagles godfather Ken Arthurson, a man of more measured tones, dropped his head in sorrow.
Soon Arthur’s head popped out of the office door and Watmough went inside slightly nervous.
“I want you to express your appreciation for the Manly club,” Arthur told him.
“They made you the calibre of player you are. Without them you wouldn’t be here now.”
Watmough got it immediately.
That night Watmough stood on that little-found ground where a player remains honest but inoffensive, saying on the evening news that, “I’ve got mates there and I’ll be coming for them. They’ll be coming for me. And that’s footy.”
Parramatta is a young roster with many players still learning what the game is about.
When Arthur first considered recruiting Watmough his Parramatta assistant Peter Gentle was more than somewhat concerned.
Gentle used to be Tim Sheens’ assistant and saw the old Watmough in Australian camp and knew two strong reins were needed on him all the time.
“No,” Arthur said. “He’ll be good for me.”
Arthur remembered his time as assistant at Manly when the Sea Eagles would play terribly for 40 minutes and he walked in with coach Geoff Toovey with a deep pain behind the eyes about how they were going to get them up for the second half.
“You were thinking they couldn’t play much worse,” Arthur said.
“Then Choc and Glenn and Brett Stewart, Jamie Lyon and Steve Matai, they’d just say ‘We’ll be right, we know what we’ve got to do’.
“Then they’d go out and do it. They knew what they had to do to win games of footy.”
The Eels are young and sometimes flustered.
Last season they needed to win just one of their final four games to make the finals and they lost all four.
There were games where they lost their way, when a little winning experience might have changed it all.
“We lost a couple of games by two or four points,” Arthur said, “and he could have been the difference.
“He’s a winner.”
