Parramatta Eels’ Brad Arthur delivering on pledge to turn club around
Parramatta still have a way to go to break a 34-year premiership drought but Brad Arthur is delivering on a pledge to restructure and repair a club that had become an embarrassing rabble.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Saint, sinner, shoosh: Be wary of Wayne Bennett’s denial
Hannah Hollis hits back: Why I took on Wayne Bennett
This is a column about a five-year plan in Western Sydney that is actually working and how team spirit and camaraderie is built around 3am text messages.
In June five years ago on the back page of this newspaper,Brad Arthur declared “I will fix this mess” but always warned against a quick fix or overnight solution.
He had become the sixth Parramatta head coach in just 10 years at a club always embroiled in off-field controversy and with an abysmal record of two wooden spoons and placings of 14th, 12th and 10th in the seasons leading up to his appointment.
The Eels still have a way to go to break a 34-year premiership drought but Arthur is delivering on his pledge to restructure and repair a club that had become nothing but an embarrassing rabble.
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 NRL Telstra Premiership. Every game of every round Live & On-Demand with no-ad breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
We spoke Sunday morning about his team’s latest victory, a stirring golden point victory on Saturday night over Canberra in which his skipper Clint Gutherson magnificently delivered with the clutch plays in the big moments.
Arthur woke at 4.30am Sunday to find 23 text messages on his phone from the players.
The lighthearted content of these messages tells us a lot about the recent success of this footy side.
Arthur used to be the most edgy, tense and the most highly-strung coach in the game.
Everything had to be dead serious 24/7. These days he’s so different thanks to the characters in the team like Gutherson and Mitchell Moses who have changed him.
“You can talk about how good and how professional these blokes are but there’s another side to Gutho and Mitchy that people don’t see,” Arthur said.
“Between 2am and 4.30am I’ve got twenty-bloody-three texts from them.
“They’re just gibbering about the game. They take the piss out of each other. This is happening after every game. Gutho will grab a screen grab off the TV of Mitchy missing a tackle and he’ll text it with a remark like ‘good defence mate.’
“It’s not all just footy, footy, footy.”
With Moses off the field with a torn calf muscle on Saturday night it was Gutherson who displayed extraordinary leadership qualities.
He showed incredible nous and footy intelligence to earn a seven-tackle set in the dying moments by placing his foot on the tryline and retrieving a Raiders bomb.
Arthur says this sort of play under intense pressure with the game on the line is no fluke.
“Everything he does at training allows him to own those big moments,” he said.
“He’s focused and clear with his thinking because of how hard he trains.
“With fatigue people can make rash decisions. Not Gutho because he’s prepared for it.”
It’s interesting that the Eels fullback and skipper is never mentioned in the same breath as James Tedesco, Tom Trbojevic, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck or Kalyn Ponga.
But you get the feeling Arthur is more than happy with his man.
“They’re freaks and he gets that,” Arthur said.
“Gutho’s humble and knows what he brings for us — energy, effort and inspiration. That’s what we love. You build clubs around blokes like him.”
Gutherson is probably more responsible than anyone else for Arthur’s calmer and more relaxed outlook on footy.
“You see him in the sheds before a game and it’s amazing,” Arthur said.
“He’s having a joke and geeing up like the class clown. If you had a camera on him you’d think ‘is this bloke ready to play?’
“He’s annoying me and all that stuff and then suddenly flicks a switch and it’s game on.
“It’s been really good for me to ease the intensity. We’re all in a good place at the moment.”
Maybe even to deliver on the five-year plan that others couldn’t.