Kieran Foran is just the start of a new blue and gold dynasty as Parramatta Eels continue to rebuild
Date
March 20, 2015 - 10:00PM
Michael Chammas
Rugby league reporter
The saviour, they say, is coming to Parramatta.
Judging by Brad Arthur's reaction to chief executive Scott Seward declaring the club's intention to win two premierships by 2020 at last year's presentation night, that sort of expectation from the ambitious Eels boss is hardly welcomed from the young tactician.
But the reality is, with Kieran Foran on his way to the club on a four-year deal worth just over $1 million a season, the days of settling for mediocrity are over. Foran's signing, they say, is the most significant event at the club in decades.
So much so the Eels will build their club around the 24-year-old premiership winner for the next 10 years. "We fully intend for him to be here a lot longer than four years and be remembered as a Parramatta player, not a Manly player," Seward said.
But what exactly does Foran's signing mean for Parramatta? Who will stay? Who will go? Who will come in?
A lot has been said about the structure of the Eels' salary cap in recent years, but the shock departure of Jarryd Hayne to the NFL has provided the club with some breathing space to reassess its priorities.
One of the major priorities is finding or unearthing a world-class centre, however stock is limited with Dane Gagai, Shaun Kenny-Dowall and James Roberts the pick of the off-contract centres in the game.
Whether that means Will Hopoate moves back to the centres and the Eels continue their pursuit of South Sydney rookie sensation Alex Johnston to wear the No.1 jersey is still up in the air.
Fairfax Media understands Parramatta still have seven spots available on their NRL roster for next season, with $1.6 million to spend. They intend for the off-contract Chris Sandow and Hopoate to be part of that seven, however both would have to take substantial pay cuts to remain at the Eels.
Sandow is in the final season of a heavily back-ended four-year deal, understood to be on $800,000 for this season, while Hopoate is earning in excess of $700,000 this year.
"We can keep everyone that we want to keep but we won't be overpaying for anyone," Seward said. "If it's out of our market or out of our price range, then so be it. If it's to be where we believe market value is, we'd love to keep them. We're not going to get into bidding wars for players. If they are a player we want and we think they're required, we'll pay what we think we need to pay. If that means we lose some, then that's something we have to accept. We're not going to stuff our salary cap position up because of that.
"Chris has come through Parramatta's darkest days of playing behind a beaten pack and playing for multiple coaches. He's now in a stage where he has the opportunity to play behind an outstanding forward pack with a coach who is going to be here long term and you're seeing the results he's producing. He's well and truly required from our perspective."
The search for success and a desperation to return the club to its glory days was behind Parramatta's decision to essentially pay overs for both Sandow and Hopoate to lure them to the club. The Eels had to open the cheque book if they stood any chance of beating Russell Crowe in a bidding war for Sandow.
But it's those decisions, tied in with a number of dubious recruitment plans, that has left Parramatta struggling to get off the bottom of the ladder in recent years with little room to work with in the salary cap.
"My personal view was that there wasn't a view to the future," Seward said of the previous management. "If you go back a few years when we bought some players towards the end of their careers and paid a lot for them. I would have preferred we had taken a punt on three or four local juniors. I don't think anyone went out of their way to destroy the salary cap, so to speak, but the outcome has been that it was an absolute mess. We're going to pay for it in a period of time and we have paid for it in losing some players.
"There was clearly no philosophy on how the cap was going to work outside of a year-to-year scenario and clearly there were a lot of short-term decisions made that weren't successful. You add to your team by bringing in veterans like Choc Watmough. You don't build a team by bringing veterans in to fill a hole."
The fact Peni Terepo and Ryan Morgan are among some of the highest-paid players at the club speaks volumes of the predicament the Eels found, and still do find themselves in trying to manage their salary cap.
Which is why some question how the Eels can fit Foran, as well as his former teammate Anthony Watmough, in the cap and still have enough money to be active in the market.
"Don't believe everything that's out there about the dollars we've paid for Kieran," Seward said. "He made a call that he wanted to come to Parramatta, we put in what we felt was a reasonable and fair offer and he accepted it. We didn't get into a bidding war over it."
Regardless of what the Eels have forked out for Foran, his value will be determined in premierships, not dollars.
WHAT THE EELS COULD LOOK LIKE IN 2016
1. Corey Norman
2. Semi Radradra
3. Brad Takairangi
4. Will Hopoate
5. John Folau
6. Kieran Foran
7. Chris Sandow
8. Danny Wicks
9. Nathan Peats
10. Tim Mannah
11. Manu Ma'u
12. Tepai Moeroa
13. Anthony Watmough
14. Joseph Paulo
15. Junior Paulo
16. Kenny Edwards
17. Darcy Lussick
