It’s a strange time to be a Parramatta fan – if you want to be sanguine about the future, it’s totally understandable, but if you wanted to hit the reset button, you could make a case for that too.
The Eels are stuck in NRL purgatory right now, rattling off several solid campaigns in a row without seriously challenging for a title. In 2021 Eels fans saw Mitchell Moses play career best footy, several others elevate their game to a new level, a couple of signature wins against heavyweights Melbourne (twice!) and the Roosters, as well as pushing Penrith to the brink on two occasions.
There were clear signs of improvement in key areas, and yet the campaign ended just as it did in 2017, 2019, and 2020: bundled out in the second week of the finals.
Now the club is facing its biggest off-season since Brad Arthur arrived eight years ago. Club captain Clint Gutherson, Origin hooker Reed Mahoney and their best forward, Junior Paulo, have all been tabled new deals before they go off-contract in the 2022-23 offseason.
But the big three aren’t the only ones.
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Days after Reagan Campbell-Gillard’s manager was openly courting the Dolphins, the club issued a statement assuring fans that good news was coming – and then promptly re-signed the big forward until 2025.
But after losing other key members of the pack Marata Niukore and Isaiah Papali’i to the Warriors and Tigers respectively, some fans are trusting the process while others are starting to panic. Images of Mahoney being wined and dined by the Bulldogs did nothing to allay those concerns, either.
The divide of how many are in each camp isn’t clear; but despite losing two solid players, it shouldn’t be time to panic.
In the case of Papali’i, the signing might be one of those rarely seen win/wins. Parramatta came to a conclusion that some players were going to have to be squeezed out, and as great as Papali’i was in 2021, if keeping him means losing a key spine player, or the club’s best forward since Nathan Hindmarsh, it’s a no-brainer.
Much like the Rabbitohs and their fans had to swallow the bitter pill of Adam Reynolds leaving, the tonic came a couple of months later with the re-signing of Cody Walker (as well as several others).
The Tigers, for their part, have pulled off a sensational bit of business. Papali’i is coming off a career-best season, is young, and is being paid a relatively competitive wage – it’s certainly not ‘overs’ for a 23-year-old who just won a Dally M positional award.
And the deal looks even sweeter when you consider that Papali’i’s deal is worth about the same, if not less, than Niukore’s impending contract with the Warriors.
Niukore is a fine player, but one who sat behind Papali’i in the pecking order in terms of Eels forwards this year.
But this is exactly why Parramatta can’t be faulted for recent business decisions.
Niukore and Papali’i combined will be making more per season than any of Gutherson, Paulo, or Mahoney would command – and although both of those departing forwards were key contributors, neither is as vital to the club’s success as that aforementioned trio.
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At full-strength, few playmaking quartets in the competition are as potent as Gutherson, Dylan Brown, Moses, and Mahoney. And if Brown makes the next step in his young career, you could make a case for that being the best spine in the league.
Keeping Papali’i for this season rather than an early release is massive, they get Mahoney back from injury, young guns like Haze Dunster and Will Penisini showed flashes of brilliance this year, and on their day they have a pack that can match it with anyone. The premiership window might be closing at Parramatta, but the canary certainly hasn’t stopped chirping yet.
Of course, all this good will and optimism goes out the window if that succulent Chinese meal Mahoney enjoyed at Canterbury Leagues Club was too good to turn down, or if any of their stars have had their heads turned at the idea of being one of the faces of the Dolphins.
If they lose any, or god forbid, more than one of their big three, then the sacrifice of letting others leave before them was all for nought.