NRL 2021: Denis Fitzgerald reveals why he wanted to rename the Parramatta Eels
He ran Parra for 30 years, but Denis Fitzgerald, never liked the team’s logo and even planned club mergers just to ditch the famous eel.
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Former long-term chief executive Denis Fitzgerald has broken a 30-year silence to reveal his controversial plan to scrap the Eels’ nickname and rename the club the Parramatta Rams.
Just days before Parramatta’s knockout final against Penrith, Fitzgerald admitted he had discussed the possible name change during the early 1990s with directors and senior club management.
In charge of Parramatta for a record 30 years, Fitzgerald never liked the Eels logo and had begun searching for a more positive brand name and emblem.
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A big fan of US sport, Fitzgerald had long admired the Rams – an NFL franchise run out of St Louis and Los Angeles during the 1990s. Describing the response from directors as “lukewarm”, Fitzgerald elected against taking the proposal to the board for final approval.
“The Rams’ nickname was monosyllabic and more aggressive. I was looking for a mascot that was easy to recognise for people,” Fitzgerald said.
“I was keen on the Rams even though I was generally looking for names that started with a ‘P’ because that was the first letter in Parramatta. I spoke to club directors and managers at the time about a possible name change.
“There was always a difficulty in doing anything in terms of marketing with the Eels. People associate Eels as being slippery, slimy marine fish.
“The Aboriginal word for Parramatta is ‘where the Eels lie down’. That in itself is passive. No one wants a team that lies down.
“Even the Parramatta Council logo has an Aborigine supposedly spearing an Eel. So once again, the poor old Eel lost out. I wanted to get away from that with something aggressive. I harboured those thoughts for a long time.
“The Rams were also a huge brand in US sport. There was certainly some support internally yet others disapproved of any name change. It was lukewarm. These talks came after the late 1970s and 1980s when Parramatta enjoyed our golden era.
“It was difficult securing change back then. I wouldn’t have had the numbers to carry it. I try not to use Eels when I’m talking about the club. I say Parramatta or Parra.”
The Rams were a more appropriate nickname to Fitzgerald because of Parramatta’s history.
“There was a link with Parramatta and Rams – the Australian sheep industry was founded at Parramatta by John Macarthur, he was a wool pioneer (in the late 1790s). It was actually at Rosehill,” Fitzgerald said.
The admission comes after Fitzgerald had held merger talks with Penrith – Parramatta’s opponents on Saturday night in Mackay — and Balmain in hope of swallowing either the Panthers or Tigers moniker.
The proposed amalgamation with Penrith after Super League was blocked while Balmain elected to merge with Western Suburbs, forming Wests Tigers.
There had even been suggestions Parramatta once eyed off a joint venture with North Sydney with the club to be known as the Parramatta Bears.
Asked if he still believed the Eels logo should be scrapped, Fitzgerald said: “It’s too late. The Eels are so well known around Australia. If you mention Parramatta in Adelaide, for example, they say: ‘That’s where the Eels come from’.”
The club’s most famous Eel was a long mascot, manned by fans, which appeared at the SCG before the 1976 grand final against Manly.
Parramatta was named the Eels during the 1970s. The Eels nickname was first mooted by the late, great Sydney rugby league journalist, Peter ‘Chippy’ Frilingos.
“In the early days, Parramatta was unofficially known as the Bush Boys. It’s hardly a place full of Bush Boys now. The CBD is full of 40-storey buildings,” Fitzgerald said.
Tigers discard making most of Eels finals run
— Paul Crawley
He’s another Wests Tigers reject now making the NRL cut at Parramatta.
But Ray Stone doesn’t look back on his former club in anger.
Five years after he was told to pack his bags at the Tigers, this former Australian Schoolboy, who came through junior reps alongside the likes of Cam Murray and Ryan Papenhuyzen, is now carving out his own reputation as the NRL’s latest axe man.
And while the Tigers have missed out on playing finals footy for the 10th straight season, this off-cut is preparing to help the Eels tackle the wounded Penrith in Saturday’s blockbuster.
With Parra’s top two hookers Reed Mahoney and Joey Lussick out injured, Stone, who usually plays lock, went out last weekend and ripped into Newcastle’s giant pack.
While Stone only weighs 92kg, which is a lightweight for a middle forward in today’s game, his rib-rattling tackling style is a direct throwback to renowned 1980s hit men Trevor Gillmeister and Steve Folkes.
And it became one of the big talking points to come out of week one of the NRL finals, with fans and experts across the game in awe of Stone’s ability to chop down much bigger rivals.
Asked where he gets his power, Stone played it down, saying it’s more about intent than technique.
“Maybe it has just come natural to me,” the 24-year-old said. “But when I watch footy I like to see big hits and stuff.
“So when I go out there, if I get an opportunity to go in hard I will definitely take it.”
Tigers fans might want to know why that opportunity did not exist at the club that hasn’t played finals footy for the past decade.
A Moss Vale junior, Stone recalled how he came through the club’s entire junior rep system.
“I did all my Harold Matts/SG Ball through Wests Magpies and then I had two years at 20s with the Tigers,” he said.
“And then it sort of just finished up.”
Asked why, there was no animosity: “I just wasn’t what they wanted, if that makes sense.
“They had a style and vision that they wanted and I just wasn’t a part of it which is fine. It happens.
“A lot of clubs and a lot of players (go through that). It is probably a good thing that they told me then instead of trying to drag it on and keep me there for no reason.
“I was lucky enough that Parra gave me an opportunity and it has worked out really well.”
And while it’s been a slow burn trying to establish himself in Brad Arthur’s NRL team over four seasons now, Stone’s perseverance is finally paying off. A father of two on a very modest NRL salary, Stone recently signed a new 12-month contract extension to take him through until the end of next season.
He reckons it’s like living the dream on the Gold Coast as part of the NRL relocation, in an apartment with his partner Dena and their two young kids, Boris, 3, and little Cassie, just three months.
He said they’re all counting down the sleeps to Saturday night.
Stone said he hadn’t even trained to play hooker this year but kept practising his dummy-half passes just in case.
“I am not naturally a hooker so I just figure out who needs to get the ball and I try and get it to them as quick as I can,” he said.
About taking on the Panthers, he added: “It’s a massive game.
“For me this week is pretty much just about recovering and if Joey is not ready (to return from injury) I will just try and improve in some small areas that I need to improve.
“I just have to stay ready and whatever the coach decides, I am just going to make sure I am ready for it. It is definitely exciting.”
Eels young gun on same path to stardom as Suaalii
— David Riccio
Meet the NRL’s new Golden Boy.
Or should we say, Blue and Golden Boy.
Will Penisini is the 19-year-old Parramatta Eels centre who is on a path that he and close friend, Roosters rising star Joseph Suaalii, first began scribbling into notepads together during their school lunch break as 12 year olds.
“One of the things we have spoken about is inspiring the younger generation,” Penisini says.
“Me and Joey have been mates since I was 12 and he was 11. We want to give back to those kids that we were.
“A goal of mine is to be a good, clean player who stays out of trouble off the field. Dad has always impressed that upon me.
“Joey and I are very ambitious. We both kind of knew from a young age that we were going to go far in the game and so we’ve always talked about what we want to do in this game – by playing State of Origin and for our countries together and possibly club football together.
“But also the roles we can play in inspiring the next generation.”
A graduate of the prestigious King’s School in Sydney, Penisini was signed by the Eels on a development contract at 14 – only four years after his first junior league game.
Well-mannered and softly spoken, the young star – who has drawn athletic comparisons with former Test and NSW Origin centre Michael Jennings – still lives at home with his mother Lucy, father Richard and brothers Albert and Richard Jr.
It’s the same family home where Penisini and his brothers were taught by their father to mow the front lawn when they were 10.
It’s the same dishwasher he has been helping unpack each week after footy training since he was a boy.
And it’s inside his same modest bedroom that the handwritten goals of a determined teen remain pinned to the walls.
“His aunty from Ballina came over once and stayed in his bedroom,” Richard said.
“She was in tears when he made his NRL debut because she could still see all his goals written down.
“All we wanted him to do is follow his dreams and we would back him.”
Backing him also, is Parramatta coach Brad Arthur – forever confident the prodigy would not only survive, but thrive after his NRL debut in round 19 in July.
Penisini became the youngest Eel to play in a semi-final in 21 years – since Jamie Lyon in 2000 – when he lined up opposite NSW Origin under-18s roommate and Newcastle centre Bradman Best on Sunday.
Better yet, he starred for the Eels with a performance that included throwing a sensational flick pass to set up winger Blake Ferguson for a four-pointer, being awarded a crucial penalty try and 17 runs for 141 metres, one linebreak and seven tackle busts.
The majority of footy fans – even the image-conscious heavy hitters at the NRL – were learning the hopeful story of Viliami Penisini for the first time.
Others, like the mums and dads standing on the sidelines every Saturday morning watching little Penisini skip, step and dart away for the Rouse Hill Rhinos less than a decade ago, knew this day was coming.
So too, did the NSW Waratahs, having attempted to sign the rugby union schoolboy to a lucrative contract while he was still at high school.
“We are a rugby union family,” Richard said.
“We followed the Wallabies to two World Cups in New Zealand (2011) and England (2015) and were Waratahs members for six years.
“But the pathway and development compared to what the Eels were offering just wasn’t the same.
“We actually started Will in soccer as a boy, like we did all our boys. But when Will was 10, my mate said ‘look at those (thick) legs, get him out of soccer and into league’.
“I went to that first footy training session and asked the coach if he could put Will in B grade so he could learn how to play.
“The coach took a look at him and said ‘he’s not playing second grade, he’s playing in the first team’.
“He made his name very quickly. He was the kid they ended up throwing the ball to.”
Raw skill, abundant talent and awareness on a football field will often carry young footballers through selection in junior representative teams, as Penisini did with the Eels’ Harold Matthews and SG Ball teams, as well as NSW under-16 and 18s and with the King’s School First XV at inside centre.
But few footballers progress to the NRL at the tender age of 19 without mental maturity.
And Richard says the family’s emotional decision to take Penisini out of Fairfield Patrician Brothers high school at the end of Year 7 and enrol him into King’s was defining for his son’s personal growth.
“He didn’t want to go,’’ Richard said.
“He wanted to stay with his friends. But after a couple of months, I was driving home from school and he turned to me and said, ‘Dad, you made the right decision’.
“I just thought there were a few things changing in Will and so we bit the bullet. I just wanted to give him the best.
“I had to leave school when I was a boy to help my mum and dad. So I knew education was important, but also to help develop who they are as a person. A good education gives them an opportunity to find themselves in life.”
Penisini and Suaalii had played rugby union for Sydney West during primary school and it was the Penisini family who helped the Suaaliis enrol Joseph into King’s.
“Once we got into King’s and because we knew that the two boys were so close, we told King’s we’ve got another boy if you want to have a chat with him,’’ Richard said.
“King’s took up the conversation with Joseph from there and our families have remained very close ever since.’’
So much so, Penisini was among the Suaalii family when the young Roosters star made his NRL debut at the SCG earlier this year.
“When we were younger, we always did extra training together,” Penisini said of his close mate and the currently injured Roosters talent.
“Even though he’s one year younger than me, I look up to him as well. We learn off each other. We catch up for lunch, we still text, call and FaceTime each other.
“I’m definitely inspired by his work. Playing against each other was one of our goals. We were hoping we could do it this year. Unfortunately it didn’t end up happening.
“If that day comes, we’ll definitely go after each other, that’s for sure.’’
The relocation of the NRL competition to Queensland has left the 19-year-old from western Sydney unable to walk down the hallway of his home for a chat with his mum or dad, or brothers.
But part of Penisini’s home is with him, everywhere he goes.
“My dad got me and my brothers into writing goals,” Penisini said. “We still do it.
“At the end of the year, we write down our goals, looking into next year and we adjust it and add stuff during the year as well.
“We’d write down everything we wanted to achieve.
“It was a big part of what we did. We’d hang it up in our bedroom, right above our bed and it would have the boxes next to the goals to tick.
“Because I’m away at the moment, I have them written down here on a laptop.
“My goal was to make my NRL debut before the age of 19. I did that.
“I recently had to add the goal of playing in my first finals series.
“I’m adding more goals to that list now.
“Winning the competition with the Eels is 100 per cent one of them.”
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