Parramatta Eels

The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League.

The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their home ground was Parramatta Stadium (formerly Cumberland Oval). As of 2019, Parramatta's home ground stadium has been rebuilt and they now play as the co-tenants at Western Sydney Stadium, which sits on the same site that was once Parramatta Stadium.

It took thirty years for the club to make the grand final, which they did in 1976 and 1977, losing on both occasions. However, this period foreshadowed their most successful period in the early 1980s, when they won four premierships and qualified for five grand finals in six seasons. This was a golden era for the club and yielded their only premiership titles. In 2016, a salary cap breach saw them stripped of their 2016 Auckland Nines premiership. The club plays in the National Rugby League, the premier rugby league football competition in Australia. Parramatta sides are also fielded in lower grades and junior competitions run by the New South Wales Rugby League.

History

The playing of rugby union and rugby league in Parramatta lie in the 19th century with the formation of the Parramatta Rugby Club in 1879. With the advent of a Sydney District competition in 1900, the Parramatta club merged with Western Suburbs and played some of its matches at Cumberland Oval. On a local level, rugby league began to be played in 1910 when a district competition was formed. Other clubs in the Parramatta district also emerged; over the ensuing decades, clubs established in suburbs throughout the area.

Pressure in the area for a local club to participate in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership began in the mid-1930s with a formal proposal put to the NSWRL in 1936 by local rugby league identities such as Jack Argent and Jack Scullin. The proposal was rejected by all clubs except Western Suburbs who, despite having the most to lose from the entrance of a Parramatta side (with much of their territory being lost to Parramatta), voted for the entrance of the new club. The advent of World War II put the establishment of the club on hold and a Parramatta district club was not proposed again until 1946 when the club was successfully admitted into the Premiership.

Foundation and early years

Parramatta saw very little success in their early years, despite narrowly missing out on finals qualification in 1949 under the guidance of former Western Suburbs and Leeds five-eighth Vic Hey. Between 1952 and 1961, they finished last eight times and won only 35 of 180 matches. The reasons behind the club doing so poorly in the early years was due to a lack of resources and a weak playing roster. Where other teams fielded test and representative players, Parramatta fielded mainly amateur players or park footballers. The only players of note during this dark period were Billy Rayner and Brian Hambly.

In 1962, Parramatta made the finals for the first time; this achievement was repeated for the three following seasons under coach Ken Kearney. Around this time the club managed to finally attract better players such as Ken Thornett, Dick Thornett and Bob O'Reilly. However, the club slid back down the ladder in the following years, collecting the wooden spoon in 1970 and 1972. The club's first major success came in 1975 when they defeated Manly-Warringah in the pre-season cup final.

1970s

In 1976, the club finally reached the Grand Final, in their thirtieth season. However, they lost narrowly to a Manly-Warringah side that they had defeated just two weeks earlier. Both clubs had been admitted into the NSWRFL in 1947, and Parramatta were in their first Grand Final while Manly were in their eighth premiership decider (having qualified for their first in 1951) and were bidding for their third premiership after wins in 1972 and 1973. Unfortunately for Parramatta, this game is regarded as "the one that got away" with Manly winning 13-10 despite the Eels crossing for two tries to Manly's one. A dropped pass by winger Neville Glover with the line wide open in the dying moments of the game ultimately costing the Eels a chance to win the game. Had Glover scored the score would have been tied at 13-all giving goal kicking John Peard a sideline conversion attempt to win the game.

The following year, Parramatta captured their first minor premiership before qualifying for the Grand Final for the second year running. Against St. George, the match was drawn 9-9, forcing a Grand Final replay the following weekend. In this match, Parramatta lost 22–0. The Eels made the finals in both 1978 and 1979, but missed the finals in 1980 for the first time since 1974.

1980s

The early 1980s was the most successful period for Parramatta, who earned five Grand Final appearances and four premierships from 1981 to 1986. Under the influence of coach Jack Gibson and with a team including names such as Ray Price, Peter Sterling, Eric Grothe, Sr., Steve Ella, Mick Cronin, and Brett Kenny the club captured three consecutive premierships from 1981 to 1983, beating the Newtown Jets in 1981 and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in 1982 and 1983, the most recent "threepeat" in the competition's history. In 1984 the team once again reached the Grand Final, but lost in a low-scoring Grand Final to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 6–4. In 1986, the club took out their third minor premiership while also reaching the Grand Final, beating Canterbury 4–2 in the lowest-scoring Grand Final in history. This win proved to be most notably the one of the proudest victories in the clubs history, ending Canterbury's two year Grand Final winning streak. The fourth premiership victory capped off a strong period for the club, between 1975 and 1986, the club had only missed the finals once and played in seven grand finals, winning four.

1990s

From 1987 to 1996, the Parramatta club failed to make the finals. With the advent of the Super League war in the mid-1990s, Parramatta capitalised on staying with the Australian Rugby League by picking up high-profile players such as Dean Pay, Jason Smith, Jim Dymock and Jarrod McCracken from the 1995 premiership-winning side, the Sydney Bulldogs.

In 1997, the Eels remained in the ARL's competition and made the finals for the first time in 11 seasons by finishing third in the Australian Rugby League competition. Parramatta continued into the NRL era which began in 1998, surviving the reduction in teams at the end of the twentieth century. In the 1998 NRL season Parramatta finished 4th and defeated North Sydney in the first week of the finals 25–12. The following week Parramatta traveled to Brisbane in the major semi final and won the match 15-10 earning the week off.

In the 1998 preliminary final Parramatta were leading arch rivals Canterbury 18–2 with less than 10 minutes to play and then what can only be described as the greatest choke in Rugby League preliminary finals history occurred. Canterbury managed to fight their way back into the match and with a minute left on the scoreboard, winger Daryl Halligan kicked a conversion from out on the far touchline to send the game into extra time. Canterbury won in extra time 32–20. The loss was hard to take for Parramatta as they had beaten eventual premiers Brisbane twice during the season.

In 1999, Parramatta led Melbourne 16–0 at halftime in the preliminary final only to lose 18–16 at full time. Melbourne went on to win the premiership the following week. In the 2000 NRL season, Parramatta finished 7th and won both their sudden death finals matches to take on Brisbane in the preliminary final. In a game that they were not expected to win, Parramatta came close but lost the match against a much stronger Brisbane side. This was their 3rd preliminary final loss in a row.

2000s

The Eels reached the 2001 NRL Grand final after a dominant regular season, where they scored a total of 839 points and lost only 4 matches, but were defeated by the Newcastle Knights 30–24. The week leading up to the grand final itself is also remembered for The infamous 2001 grand final breakfast where coach Brian Smith and the Parramatta players attended wearing as Newcastle player Mark Hughes described "Miami Vice black suits". Another Newcastle player Ben Kennedy reflected on the game saying "They came into the game under a sh*tload of pressure but for us, it was just a good time and a heap of fun. Parra were sh*tting themselves and we were just having a good time". Andrew Johns also reportedly could tell how nervous the Parramatta players were and knew they had a chance at making an upset.

In 2005, Parramatta finished as minor premiers in the regular season and came up against North Queensland in the preliminary final. In a game that Parramatta were expected to win, North Queensland defied the odds and won the match 29–0. In 2006, Parramatta finished 8th in the regular season and faced Melbourne in the first week of the finals losing 12-6 and thus being eliminated from the competition. In 2007, Parramatta again made the preliminary final and once more the opponent was Melbourne. Parramatta went on to lose the match 26–10. This was their 5th preliminary final loss in nine years.

In 2009, under new coach Daniel Anderson, the Eels had an indifferent start to the season which saw the release of star halfback Brett Finch. After 18 rounds and incredibly inconsistent form, the Parramatta Eels had won only 5 games and were sitting third-last and were in direct contention for the dreaded 2009 NRL Wooden Spoon. TAB SportsBet had the Eels as $151 outsiders to win the NRL Premiership.

Though beginning in Round 19, upset victories against the Melbourne Storm and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs set the platform for an unexpected 10 wins from the next 11 games, which propelled the Eels into the Top 8 and consequently, premiership contention. This unanticipated winning streak was directly attributed by many sporting experts including Rugby League legend Andrew Johns to the spectacular run of form of star fullback Jarryd Hayne. Winning the award for man-of-the-match in every game from Round 19–24, and again in the first week of the finals, Hayne was described as "the best player in any code of football in Australia" by premiership-winning coach Phil Gould. Following his astonishing string of 7-man-of-the-match performances, Hayne won the award for Dally M Fullback of the Year and was crowned the best and fairest player in the game, winning the Dally M Medal for 2009.

After a 7-game winning streak, the Eels succumbed to a heavy defeat by the minor premiers St George-Illawarra Dragons, however they returned to Kogarah in Week 1 of the 2009 NRL Finals Series and defeated the Dragons 25-12 featuring an impressive late game try by Dally M medal winner Jarryd Hayne. Following successive wins against the Gold Coast Titans (a team that Parramatta had never beaten before), 27–2 at SFS and Canterbury-Bankstown, 22–12 in front of a record-breaking non-Grand Final crowd of 74,549 at ANZ stadium, the Eels qualified for their first Grand Final since 2001, becoming the first 8th-placed team to ever qualify for a Grand Final. On 4 October 2009, Parramatta Eels played the deciding game of NRL, against the Melbourne Storm at ANZ Stadium in front of a crowd of 82,538. The Melbourne Storm defeated the Eels 23–16, ending what critics called "the Parramatta Fairytale" and winning the NRL Premiership. Such was the euphoria at the time with Parramatta making an incredible run to the 2009 grand final that the then NSW Premier Nathan Rees pledged that if Parramatta were to win the premiership he would rename two of the new trains due to be rolled out across The Sydney network the following year. The names of the new trains were to be "The Hayne Train" and "The Fuifui Moimoi Express". They were to be painted blue and gold, and run along the western line of the railway network.

2010s

On 22 April 2010, the Melbourne Storm were stripped of the premiership as a result of long-term gross salary cap breaches disclosed by the NRL. However, the premiership for 2009 was not handed over to the Parramatta Eels, instead remaining vacant.

In 2010, the Parramatta club were picked at the beginning of the year by many leading betting agencies to take out the premiership for 2010 following their surge of form which took them to the Grand Final in 2009. But, after a relatively poor start to the season, and then a 4-game winning streak, the Parramatta side once again returned to the inconsistent form of past seasons. This inconsistent form, recognised by all Rugby League fans, saw them miss out on the Top 8 in 2010.

After a season of unrelenting disappointment which saw five-eighth Daniel Mortimer dropped to reserve grade, centre Timana Tahu being suspended for an on-field confrontation against the Newcastle Knights and reports of player rifts, Daniel Anderson was sacked unceremoniously as Parramatta coach and replaced by New Zealand World Cup-winning coach Stephen Kearney.

The Parramatta club made several new player signings for the 2011 season. In the forwards, the Eels added former Queensland centre Carl Webb and former Bulldogs

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