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Parramatta Eels

Parramatta Eels

Names
Full name

Entry Details
Founded
Current Details
Ground(s)

CEO(s)
Coach
Competition
2006

The

Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1946; their First Grade side played their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership's 40th season in 1947.

The club plays in the National Rugby League, the premier rugby league football competition in Australasia; sides are also fielded in lower grade and junior competitions run by the New South Wales Rugby League.

History

For more details on this topic, see History of Parramatta Eels.

The roots of the playing of rugby union and rugby league in Parramatta lie in the 19th century with the formation of the Parramatta Rugby Club in 1879. With the advent of a Sydney District competition in 1900, the Parramatta club merged with Western Suburbs and played some of its matches at Cumberland Oval. On a local level, rugby league began to be played in 1909 when a

district competition was formed. Other clubs in the Parramatta district also emerged; over the ensuing decades, clubs established in suburbs throughout the area.

Pressure in the area for a local club to participate in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership began in the mid-1930s with a formal proposal put to the NSWRL in 1936 by local rugby league identities such as Jack Argent and Jack Scullin. The proposal was rejected by all clubs except Western Suburbs who, despite having the most to lose from the entrance of a Parramatta side (with much of their territory being lost to Parramatta), voted for the entrance of the new club. The advent of World War II put the establishment of the club on hold and a Parramatta district club was not proposed again until 1946 when the club was successfully admitted into the Premiership.

Parramatta saw very little success in the early years, rarely avoiding the wooden spoon, finishing last in the competition 6 years in a row from 1956 to 1961. Aside from narrowly missing out on finals qualifications in 1948 and 1949 under the guidance of former Western Suburbs and Leeds five-eighth Vic Hey, the early years were largely devoid of success. When Hey retired as a player at the end of 1949 Parramatta slumped back to the tail-end of the competition to 1961. In 1962, Parramatta made the finals for the first time; this success continued until 1965 with the club able to make the playoffs each year. However, the club continued to slide down the ladder in the following years, collecting the wooden spoon in 1970. The club's first major success came in 1975 when they were able to win the Pre-Season cup by defeating Manly-Warringah in the competition's final.

In 1976, the club was finally able to make the Grand Final in their 30th year of existence in the New South Wales Rugby League. However, they were closely defeated by a Manly-Warringah side that they had just previously defeated two weeks before. The following year, Parramatta captured their first minor premiership before qualifying for the Grand Final for the second year running. Against St. George, the match was drawn 9–9, forcing a Grand Final replay the following weekend. In this match, Parramatta lost without scoring 22–0. The team was able to make the finals in both 1978 and 1979, but missed the finals in 1980 for the first time since 1974.

The early 1980s was unquestionably the most successful period for the Eels, reaching five Grand Finals and winning a total of four premierships from 1981 to 1986. Under the influence of coach Jack Gibson and with a team including names such as Ray Price, Eric Grothe, Steve Ella, Mick Cronin and Brett Kenny, the club was able to capture a consecutive treble of premierships from 1981 to 1983; the most recent in the competition's history. In 1984 the team once again reached the Grand Final only to lose in a low-scoring Grand Final to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 6–4. In 1986 the club took out their third minor premiership while also reaching the Grand Final, beating Canterbury 4–2 in the lowest-scoring Grand Final in history.

From 1987 to 1996, the club failed to make the finals. With the advent of the Super League war in the mid-1990s, Parramatta capitalised on staying with the Australian Rugby League by picking up high-profile players such as Dean Pay, Jason Smith, Jim Dymock and Jarrod McCracken from the 1995 premiership-winning side, the Sydney Bulldogs.In 1997, the club made the finals for the first time in 11 seasons by finishing 3rd in the Australian Rugby League competition. In the combined National Rugby League competitions in 1998 and 1999 the club finished 4th out of 20 teams and 2nd out of 17 respectively, narrowly missing out on the Grand Final by one match in 1998.
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