Amid a four-game losing streak Parramatta has more to worry about off the field.
One of the firms caught up caught up in the Eels’ salary cap scandal is taking legal action against the club.
Blackcitrus, who is going into liquidation, has started Supreme Court proceedings against the Eels over digital services provided to the club. Liquidators appointed by the court are looking to recoup money owed, with the sum said to be in the six figures.
A subsidiary of Blackcitrus, Score Cube, was responsible for third-party player payments that were not properly disclosed to the NRL. In 2016 it was revealed that payments from Score Cube to former forward Anthony Watmough had raised suspicions at Rugby League Central.
It was further revealed the Eels were sorting the cap which led to the deregistration of five officials, the stripping of a dozen competition points, a $750,000 fine and a police probe. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Watmough or personnel from Blackcitrus or Score Cube.
The Supreme Court action could see further fallout from the club while it goes through a rough patch on the field.
Eels halfback Mitchell Moses said the team was eager to put Saturday’s 56-10 loss to Manly behind them heading into this weekend’s match against the Cowboys.
“You’ve got to put those things past you,” he said. “We played a majority of the game with 11 men and didn’t get much of the ball.
“The outside noise isn’t really affecting us; we know what we are doing wrong in our games. We’ve just got to get ourselves out of this little form slump that we are in at the moment and hopefully we can do that this week.”
Moses said the team was more feeling the weight of speculation about the tenure of coach Brad Arthur at the club.
“He’s not the one going out there and making the tackles. That’s completely on us,” Moses said.
“He’s given us good game plans to go out there and perform, but we aren’t doing that at the moment for him. We’ve got to take ownership of that.”
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!