NRL 2015: Parramatta spent more than $1 million over past two years on players no longer at the club
by: Nick Walshaw
May 28, 2015 9:00PM
PARRAMATTA have spent more than $1 million in the past two years on players who are no longer at the club including eight who have signed with rival NRL outfits.
Apart from running last in 2015, The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Eels are also paying around $300,000 for seven unwanted players including dud English import Lee Mossop and Canterbury centre Jacob Loko.
Having outlayed $750,000 last year on players no longer at the club, the Eels are spending roughly half that figure again on Mossop, Loko, Hull prop Mitch Allgood and Wests Tigers forward Brenden Santi.
Justin Hunt, the son of 1980s premiership winger Neil, is also on the list with a pair of unnamed NYC players.
Thankfully, however, it seems the rot is about to stop.
Speaking yesterday, Eels CEO Scott Seward insisted the payments all to players signed under previous administrations would be completely gone from the clubs books by 2016.
Indeed, next season will be the first time in six years that Parramatta havent paid cash to players no longer at the club.
Unfortunately, one of the fundamental problems (of previous administrations) was the idea of a quick fix, Seward said.
Recruiting huge batches of players in the hope they could turn the club around in a year.
But of the 29 players who debuted between 2010 and 2012, only four remain.
You cant build a successful NRL squad with that type of hit and miss approach. And ultimately, its led to the issues we have been dealing with in the last 18 months.
Currently, the Eels are embroiled in a salary cap saga that has seen them fined $525,000 and threatened with the loss of competition points from next season.
Last year, the Eels paid out $750,000 to eight players no longer at the club Reni Maitua (Canterbury), Jacob Loko (Canterbury) Daniel Harrison (Manly), Jordan Latham (Manly), Cheyse Blair (Manly), Jake Mullaney (Salford), Matt Ryan (Wakefield Trinity) and Brayden Wiliame (Newcastle).
This year, they are paying out roughly half that for players like Loko who, ironically, has also been sidelined for much of the year by his new club, Canterbury.
Seward, however, insists it is all about to end.
Since arriving at Eels HQ late in 2013 with Eels coach Brad Arthur, the pair have been working to refine a recruitment program combining the promotion of junior talent with marquee purchases like New Zealand No. 6 Kieran Foran.
We have a core squad now that is young and, we believe, can take us to the next level because were investing in their development, Seward says.
As a club were already spending more money on junior development and talent identification than ever before and we believe that investment will pay off substantially in the future.
From a recruitment view, it means we only target players who can take the squad forward.
It also allows players to develop without being chewed up and spat out by a club desperate for success at any cost.
Certainly the club can no longer afford to pay for players like Mossop, who must surely rank among the worst buys in Parramatta history.
Signed midway though 2013, the English international arrived shortly before Christmas to reveal that, well, he had a bung shoulder which would keep him out for up to three months.
Then when, finally, Mossop did return, he lasted three games ... then stuffed a shoulder again.
And still the club is paying him now while he plays in the English Super League with Wigan.
