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“I reached out to Trent virtually a week after he was sacked to see what his plans might be moving forward,” Eels coach Arthur said on Thursday.
“We had a brief discussion [and I told him] when he was considering what his next option might be in the coaching ranks that he should give me a call.
“I spoke to him not long ago and he’s going to come on board for us next year and work closely with our halves and he’ll take full reins with our attack.
“I knew he probably wanted to take a bit of gardening leave there for a while. I just wanted to make sure that I expressed my interest and I wanted to see what his options might be moving forward.
“That’s why I rang him again a few weeks ago to see where he was at with it, and he seemed keen. We met for a couple of hours and it was sorted within a couple of days so he was obviously pretty keen to work with our playing group.”
Arthur said that Barrett’s involvement in Nathan Cleary’s rise was just another reason to bring him over, with the former Bulldogs coach to mentor Moses and Brown.
“I think our attack is fine. It’s just a bit of fine tuning and working closely with our halves,” Arthur said.
“He’ll be able to talk with them about his experiences in the game and some leadership stuff and how to get them around the field.
“Obviously, you’ve seen the stuff he’s done with Nathan at the Panthers, so he can only help with our investment in our two halves and our whole spine.”
‘Take full reins’: Arthur reveals Baz’s key role at Eels, phone call that sparked return
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