PAUL CRAWLEY puts those questions, and more, to coach Brad Arthur as he looks to get the Eels back into the top eight in 2024.
Paul Crawley: You turn 50 this year and you’re now coming into your 11th season at Parramatta. You must be proud and honoured to have done what you have done?
Brad Arthur: All the privilege is mine. I am so grateful to the club and especially the current administration and the players who have performed at a level to keep me in the job.
PC: It must have been disappointing to go from a grand final to missing the top eight. What needs to change?
BA: Look, I have to have this conversation obviously because it can’t be avoided, and we know what we need to do. We don’t want to be looking back too much. But at the end of the day there were some changes to our squad. Whether it was that we had nine or 10 players change in our squad, we had five or six that weren’t there from the grand final team. So there were some changes that were made and we sort of needed to start over again. And on the top of that, we couldn’t afford with new players in our squad to have blokes missing through, not injuries, but suspensions.
PC: Some of them were avoidable too weren’t they?
BA: Well, there are some that aren’t avoidable because it is football. But there is at least 10 weeks there that could have and should have been avoided. We made some silly decisions, as a club. And obviously I don’t want to highlight those (individuals), we all know, but that really hurt the club and the team.
PC: When you brought Mitchell Moses to the club he was a polarising, young bloke. But you have developed him into an elite player and he is reaching the years now where the playmakers come into their best. Where does he grow?
BA: He is working extremely hard on his leadership, and he has got better at it. When he first came to the club – and this is not a knock on him – but we didn’t recruit him for his defence. We recruited him for his flair, attack and his excitement. And over time he has managed to develop where he is a very good defensive half now. He understands the systems well and what his job is, and he plays a lot more controlled. So he is on top of his football.
It’s his development with his leadership and what he can do for other squad members and the young blokes in our squad, and the legacy that he can leave for his teammates and his club. And what he is working really hard on is how he gets his message across to people and his teammates, because he is very passionate, very aggressive, and sometimes his excitement and he has a real desire to win, so he is working on how he expresses his feelings in a way that suits everyone and impacts everyone in a positive way.
And the hardest thing is, and the first thing they have got to identify is their awareness about it, and put their egos aside and saying, ‘Yep, I have got to be better in that part of it’.
PC: What about a young bloke like Dylan Brown. What should his goals be? And how did you rate him this past season?
BA: Dylan Brown for me is one of my favourites. I say that about a lot of them but … what happened to him (last) year is not a reflection of who he is. He is such a good person. His mum has done a really good job with him.
And it is the same with Mitchell. Mitchell would give you the shirt off his back.
Dylan has made some poor decisions. But now for Dylan, he is 23 and he needs to show that he is maturing and his best football is still ahead of him.
He has the ability in my eyes – and this is not putting pressure on him – to be one of the best players in our competition. And before he got suspended last season he was one of the best players. He was having a massive influence on games. And he is still going to grow into it, but it is time for him now to assert himself as one of the best sixes in our competition.
PC:You’re right there, because you saw him in the recent Pacific Championships. In the second last game for New Zealand where the Kiwis got flogged.
BA: He did nothing.
PC: What about this constant talk chasing X-factor. With Clint Gutherson, is your thoughts that potentially he may move to the centres?
BA: I don’t know because we would need a fullback that is better than him, and there is not many. To move him from the position that he is really good at and owns, and you only need to look at him in our last game against Penrith.
We have x-factor in our team in Mitchell and Dylan and blokes like that.
It is just, as a coach you want to be greedy, and it would be nice if we could have like, a couple of clubs have got someone that they can bring off the bench with a bit of x-factor.
But Gutho is an effort and an energy-based player. He is our on-field leader. He follows the game plan and drives the game messaging. It is like an on-field coach.
So him moving from fullback would be a decision that he would have to be comfortable with but it is also something he has openly said.
PC: He is 29. Long-term you might get more longevity out of him if you could find a way to take some of that pressure off him.
BA: These are all conversations that me and Gutho have had openly and he is the one driving most of it. But I am not going to move our best player last season. He got all our awards, from fullback if there is not someone (better). We have got a couple of young kids in our squad that he is doing some work with and we will see how they go. They are still a while away but we hold a bit of hope. And Gutho is a team player and he is working with me to help these young blokes. Maybe in 12 or 18 months, maybe it is one of them who takes over from him and he moves to the centres.
PC: Well, you do have some good young kids coming through. From the outside looking in, you look at names like Jock Brazel, Charlie Guymer, Blaize Talagi, Ethan Sanders, Sam Tuivaiti. How far off NRL are they?
BA: We have got nine under the age of 19 training with our full-time squad at the moment and they are all handling it really well. Whether that gets them an opportunity, I’m not sure. What we are doing is certainly trying to get them ready for 2025 and beyond.
PC: There is a big rap on Ethan around the game and there are these links to Canberra. How do you keep him when you know you have got Mitchell and Dylan with long-term contracts?
BA: He is contracted to us for 2024 and he has accepted that he is staying, and he will be given every opportunity. He is part of the group we are doing working with our emerging leaders, so we are doing as much as we can to help him.
I am sure no one expects us to move either Mitchell, who is the current NSW halfback, Dylan Brown the current five-eighth, from our team to accommodate him.
Yeah, we would like to keep him but it is just what the salary cap does, it is what opportunity does. If Ethan is going well this year and one of those guys gets injured – touch wood hopefully they don’t. But if there is a game or two and he is ready for it, I will have no hesitation playing him. But Dylan is only 23, Mitchell is 27.
PC: How do you see the battle for the dummy half spot between Brendan Hands and Joey Lussick?
BA: Handsie has done a good job with some of his opportunities that he got in ’23. And Joey Lussick finished the season there. At the end of the day I have never been real keen at just picking a specialist hooker on the bench. I like our hookers to be able to play 80 minutes and both of those guys are training really well and they are helping each other. They are confident in their own ability and both comfortable that they are competing with each other. We can only have one of them so the trials will work it out and pre-season.
PC: How has Haze Dunster returned from surgery after missing the entire 2022 season?
BA: He had a few things that we had to sort out for him at the back-end of last year in around some iron and some blood things. But he is training really well and he knows that he has got an opportunity.
PC: I guess that wing spot that you talk about is open?
BA: There are a few spots in our squad (up for grabs). Sean Russell did a good job at the back end of the year. He has bulked up a bit in the pre-season. He is a tough player. He knows his job well. He is someone the boys like having in the team. He finished the year there with Will Penisini and they started to create a pretty good understanding and combination.
PC: Will is good mates with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and has been linked to a potential code switch. Are you confident he will stay long-term?
BA: He is a Parramatta junior, he lives local, he loves the club. I have a strong relationship with him. It would be a big move for him to leave and he hasn’t indicated it. At some stage he might. That is up to him. He is comfortable with where he is at the moment. He has his brother (Richard) training with us and coming through the system. I would think that he would like to stick around and maybe try and play alongside his brother at some stage. I can’t see that happening in the near future, but I am not Will.
PC: J’maine Hopgood came from nowhere last year. After a full season, how does he take his game to the next level?
BA: Well, he did get an opportunity, he was 18th man (in the Queensland squad). The next thing is he wants to be in it. But obviously he came from a very good system, he just needed more opportunity and exposure to NRL. His first few games for us he was really good. But as the games wore on he would lose a little bit of detail and we would come up with key words just to sort of trigger him. By the end of the year he was able to play out a full 80 minutes and stay on top of his detail and (keep his) concentration levels. That is not easy for a middle forward to do that. Obviously people started to work him out at the back end of the year. People know a bit more about him. So he is just going to have to find ways to combat that.
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