FORMER EELS SKIPPER CALLS OUT CLUB'S “PUZZLING” ROSTER DECISIONS
Former Parramatta Eels captain Tim Mannah has called out his former club for their roster management in recent years, saying management has been “walked over” by player agents.
Mannah, who played 233 games for the Eels including the 2009 Grand Final, spoke as new coach Jason Ryles steps in to try and rescue the former powerhouse club.
Mannah pointed out star hooker Reed Mahoney leaving for the Bulldogs as one of the more puzzling decisions the Eels have made in recent times.
“I think that’s been the achilles heel of our club for the past decade, our roster, our signings,” he said on
SEN’s The Captain’s Run with Denan Kemp.
“Even if you go back as far as 2014/15 when Brad Arthur first started, we panicked a bit to get out of a hole and we signed some marquee players on big money, a couple towards the end of their careers, we were just always looking for easy, quick fixes.
“Then the issue with the salary cap happened, we got a bit smarter with how we would recruit but then somewhere along the line the last five or six years, we’ve made some really puzzling calls.
“You mentioned Reed Mahoney, and I’m a huge advocate of Reed, I think he’s a great player, I couldn’t believe they let him go and how easy they let him go like it wouldn’t have been hard to keep him but they didn’t even try.”
Mannah believes player agents have taken advantage of the decision-makers at Parramatta, especially with the amount of player options key players, such as five-eighth Dylan Brown, have in their current contracts.
“Unfortunately they’ve been outsmarted by agents a lot in the last five or six years like agents have pretty much walked over the way we do our negotiations and it puts you on the back foot,” he said.
“They do need to get better at the way they handle their roster.”
The Eels host the Melbourne Storm on Friday night.
Tim Mannah says the club has been outsmarted by player agents in recent years.
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