By Michael Chammas
Frustration is beginning to spill over at the Parramatta Eels. It always does when football clubs with decent rosters capitulate – just ask South Sydney about their past 12 months.
When teams start losing the strength of the “four walls” where issues are worked out privately, things begin to fracture. Those walls begin to talk, people start pointing fingers at each other, trust erodes and everyone begins searching for the answers to a problem that only winning fixes. Again, ask South Sydney.
Parramatta, like all well-run football clubs should, will tell you that the events that unfolded inside the dressing room at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday night don’t speak to a significant issue at the Eels and that tension isn’t at boiling point between administration and players.
However, the words of halfback Mitchell Moses tell a different story.
The Eels’ superstar No.7, still seething after losing a game they arguably should have won, walked into the Newcastle away sheds and vented his frustration with the Eels in an impassioned address to the club’s senior staff and players.
“No one outside this room is going to help us get out of this, so we’ll have to do it ourselves,” Moses, with the addition of a few expletives, said in the sheds according to informed sources unauthorised to speak publicly due to confidentiality.
Clint Gutherson, Trent Barrett, Mitchell Moses.Credit: Getty
The Eels halfback, who was one of Parramatta’s best in the loss to the Knights just three days on from his State of Origin heroics, was believed to be launching criticism of the club’s administration.
Sources inside the change room say Moses’ comments about the people “outside this room” was a reference to club powerbrokers who, for some time, have themselves felt an “us versus them” mentality that had begun under former coach Brad Arthur.
Club officials, however, believe Moses was referring to the players needing to find the resilience to dig themselves out of the hole without the assistance of the club. In the World Cup of fiery post-match blow-ups, this one doesn’t even make it past the group stage in a field that consists of weak-gutted dogs and episodes of Tales From Tiger Town.
But for the leader of a football team to call out the club in a private environment – which subsequently has gone public – is of significance, regardless of the public relations spin put on it.
‘We just lost another match and I had a private conversation in the dressing room right after the game, that’s all it was.’
Mitchell Moses
Moses declined to speak to this masthead on Tuesday. The halfback did, however, send a message addressing the incident that occurred on Saturday night.
“As you can imagine it’s been a frustrating season,” Moses wrote in a text. “We just lost another match and I had a private conversation in the dressing room right after the game, that’s all it was. We are all trying our guts out and we all just want to win footy games.”
Moses’ fiery post-match tirade was heard by many, including the club’s general manager of football, Mark O’Neill, who walked in during the outburst. The club didn’t have an issue with Moses venting his frustration and were pleased he felt comfortable expressing himself.
“Mitch’s comments were understandable in the dressing room environment immediately after a closely fought match,” Eels chief executive Jim Sarantinos said.
Mitchell Moses with his Eels teammates earlier in the year.Credit: Getty
“Simply said, he was expressing his emotions after a loss, where he and the team had busted their guts and didn’t get the result that they and the club were after.”
Among Moses’ gripes was the state of the club’s roster and a perceived imbalance between the depth in the club’s forwards compared to their depleted ranks in the backs. He believes that’s stopping the team from winning more games.
Injuries to the likes of Bailey Simonsson, Maika Sivo, Haze Dunster and Clint Gutherson throughout the year, as well as ACL ruptures to young players Arthur Miller-Stephen and Richard Penisini, have decimated the Eels’ outside backs. That has been explained to Moses since he aired his grievances on Saturday night.
However, if there was indeed an imbalance in the roster, it could be argued that Moses’ own consternation over his recent contract negotiations, and the hefty $1.3-$1.4 million a season he is being paid for the next few years created its own list of issues that contributed to the situation the Eels now find themselves trying to add depth to a top-heavy roster.
Clint Gutherson will become a free agent on November 1.Credit: NRL Photos
At the end of 2021, skipper Gutherson and prop Junior Paulo signed extensions until the end of 2025 and 2026 respectively. Those deals were both worth around $850,000 at the time. The deals also included ratchet clauses that have since increased their salaries to close to the $1 million mark per season due to increases in the salary cap.
Multiple clubs have told this masthead that they have heard the Eels could make Paulo available in the coming months. The Eels have vehemently denied shopping their club captain or even having discussed the possibility of an early departure.
The Eels also paid significant money to extend Ryan Matterson and Reagan Campbell-Gillard, while Moses’ halves partner Dylan Brown is also on close to seven figures each year of his long-term deal. Those players suited the power game Arthur wanted to play. It led them to a grand final two years ago, but that style is no longer working.
It’s hardly surprising the Eels haven’t had a lot of money to spend on outside backs of note. Poor management? Perhaps. But had some of the players mentioned not received the money they now earn, wouldn’t the same question be asked if they had ended up at rival clubs because of management’s inability to pay them market value?
Junior Paulo in action against the Broncos earlier in the year.Credit: Getty
The club, at the request of the respective player agents, agreed to the clauses but in doing so have created the uncertainty around planning they are experiencing now following rookie sensation Blaize Talagi opting against triggering his contract option in favour of testing the market.
The club are keeping money aside for a player who may not stay as alternative options dwindle by the day.
Moses himself has options in his contract for 2027 and 2028, so too Dylan Brown (from 2026 to 2031), Penisini (2026) and Matterson (2026).
The appointment of a new coach, which was likely determined at a board meeting in Kellyville on Tuesday night with the goal of keeping it hush-hush until after Thursday night’s game against the Rabbitohs, can’t come quick enough.
Eels young guns Blaize Talagi and Dylan Brown.Credit: Getty
Players feel removed from a head office, rightly or wrongly, which doesn’t feel a need to run their business operations through its players. Moses, though, denied he had any issue with management.
“There is no disconnect between the players and head office,” Moses said.
Adding to tension is a recent article published in The Daily Telegraph, which quoted Moses and Gutherson imploring the club to hand interim coach Trent Barrett the full-time job.
The interviews were done outside the club media opportunities which Moses and Gutherson are notorious for trying to avoid. The manoeuvre went down poorly with club bosses.
Speaking to people within the club on the condition of anonymity, multiple club sources put Moses’ outburst on Saturday down to “Mitch is just a winner”.
He’s frustrated this season has become a write-off and doesn’t want to waste 2025 as well.
No one is doubting his desire to win. He proved it in Origin II, producing a masterclass that left Immortal Andrew Johns marvelling.
Perhaps the more significant conversation will be about what it will now require for those wins to flow at club level once again. That’s an issue for a new coach – Dean Young, Jason Ryles or Josh Hannay – to work out.
Whoever gets the job may want to ask sacked South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou about what happens to coaches when club solidarity crumbles following his free-falling 2023 season and continual losses in 2024.
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