‘Awful’: Eels fans hammer failed Darwin experiment after yet another loss
Parramatta fans have once again laid into the club for a move that has proved incredibly costly after yet another loss, this time to the Raiders.
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The Eels suffered an embarrassing 50-12 defeat to the Raiders on Saturday night, as their Darwin experiment ended in the worst possible fashion.
Parramatta fans have long questioned why for 12 years they took a home game each year up north given how little success they had.
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The Eels have routinely given up a match at CommBank Stadium each season to bring rugby league to TIO Stadium, in a bid to boost tourism and bolster rugby league supporters up north.
A highlight in the club’s Territory tenure was their 2021 game against the Broncos in Darwin, which drew a sellout crowd of more than 12,000.
The game was responsible for generating a total stimulus of $4.2m, of which $3m was new money to the Territory.
However, that was the last time Parramatta won in Darwin, and on Saturday they were once again blown off the park in extreme humidity.
Last year the Eels were dominated by a second-string Dolphins outfit 44-16 as they melted in the second half.
The blue and gold led that game 8-4 at half time but a woeful second 40 minutes saw them demolished.
However, their performance against the Raiders was arguably worse, as Canberra ran rampant as the Eels ran out of puff.
And Parramatta fans flooded social media to once again question why they stuck with the Darwin experiment for so long after another sad display.
“Recall last time Eels played in Darwin, we were awful, somehow we came back for more and are even worse, why are we there again,” one angry fan wrote on X.
“Looking back fondly at the Darwin experience for the eels and thinking about how it was such an abject failure in all ways to, do, with the football club,” another said.
While a third added: “Only fitting that our last Darwin game ends like this”.
Originally published as ‘Awful’: Eels fans hammer failed Darwin experiment after yet another loss
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