Powerful Parramatta Eels lobby group demands title and coaching shake-up
The same Parramatta powerbrokers that contributed to the unseating of Roy Spagnolo and Steve Sharp have some serious demands for the club.
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A powerful Parramatta lobby group will meet with senior Eels management next week in an attempt to have Paul Green, Shane Flanagan and Tim Sheens named on Brad Arthur’s coaching staff.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the 20-member group will virtually demand a premiership win in 2021 or start agitating to overthrow the board.
While Parramatta reached week two of the finals for a second successive season, the advocate group — comprising local businessmen, corporate partners, politicians and sponsors — remain unsettled and unfulfilled.
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The group is not seeking to have Arthur sacked — he re-signed this year for a further two seasons — but will push the board to employ additional and high profile assistants.
This is the same lobby group with influential connections which helped crunch the numbers to unseat former clubs powerbrokers Roy Spagnolo and Steve Sharp.
It is understood around five members of the group will meet Eels chief executive Jim Sarantinos, club chairman Sean McElduff, and possibly general manager of football Mark O’Neill, on Thursday.
Members of the group believe Arthur needs to surround himself with additional football nous.
The group will propose Green and Flanagan be assistants with Sheens named as coaching director. A two-time former Canberra premiership-winning coach, Sheens resigned as Widnes coach earlier this month.
Green (North Queensland) and Flanagan (Cronulla) have also won NRL premiership as coaches. Flanagan played with Parramatta between 1992 and 1994.
The group wants to work with directors and will make it clear they expect results.
There are also concerns that several Parramatta board members are not Eels supporters.
Members of the group say Parramatta is a “tier one” NRL club which must end the club’s 34-year premiership drought. They are giving Arthur tenuous support.
Group members believe Parramatta should be winning at least one grand final every decade.
Arthur — universally respected — has won 30 of 48 games over the past two seasons for a success rate of 62.5 per cent. His assistant coach this year was David Kidwell.
The group’s members did not want to talk publicly until after next week’s meeting.
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Group members also want to know the board’s strategies and how much money can be spent to develop the club’s coaching staff.
There was much discussion about the season at the Ken Thornett Medal – won by skipper Clint Gutherson - at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse on Tuesday night.
Representatives from the club’s major sponsors are understood to have joined the debate.