Parramatta Eels

Inaugural season: 1947

Home field: Bankwest Stadium, Sydney, Australia

Owner: Parramatta Leagues Club

Team colors: Dark blue and gold

Overview

The Parramatta Eels is a professional rugby team that plays in Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL). Located in Parramatta, a suburb in western Sydney, the Eels have a long history of struggling in Australian rugby, save for a period of dominance in the 1980s. Almost from its inception, Parramatta was a rugby doormat, earning eleven wooden spoons as the league’s last-place team from 1947–1972. The Eels finally turned things around in the late 1970s, advancing to back-to-back grand finals, coming up short each time. Parramatta was the team of the decade in the 1980s, making five grand finals in six seasons, and winning four premierships. However, in the decades since, the Eels have struggled more often than succeeded, earning more wooden spoons than championship game appearances.

History

Rugby is a sport derived from English football, or soccer as it is called in North America. Rugby is more physical than football/soccer, with players able to carry the ball and opposing players allowed to tackle the ball carrier. The sport gets its name from its birthplace at the Rugby School in Warwickshire, England. The British introduced rugby to Australia in the nineteenth century, leading to the formation of numerous amateur teams across the country. In 1908, players formed the first professional rugby organization in Australia, the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL). The NSWRL, which consisted almost exclusively of Sydney-based teams, soon became the top-ranked rugby league in the county.

The Sydney suburb of Parramatta had fielded a rugby team as far back as 1879, but in the early twentieth century, the team had merged with another team from the city’s western suburbs. A move to bring a NSWRL team to Parramatta began in the late 1930s, with the franchise finally gaining admittance for the 1947 season. At first, the team did not have a nickname and was informally referred to as the “Fruitpickers,” a nod to the fruit-tree orchards in the area. Its franchise colors of dark blue and gold were selected to honor a local high school. Parramatta’s first logo was not unveiled until the 1960s and featured the official crest of the city.

During the mid-1960s, a sports writer suggested the nickname Eels for the franchise. The name was based on local history as the name Parramatta was derived from the aboriginal term for the area’s river, meaning “the place where eels live.” The name became official in the 1970s, and in 1979, the club unveiled a new logo with a fierce-looking eel incorporated into a blue and gold circular design. The logo was changed several times until the team readopted its 1979 logo in 2011 with darker colors in the newer version.

Parramatta won only three games in its inaugural season and took home the wooden spoon, an award presented to the team that finishes last in the league. The Eels won the wooden spoon again in 1952 and 1954 and then captured it six straight times from 1956–1961. Parramatta finally made the NSWRL’s finals series in 1962 with a 9–7–2 record. The finals series is a playoff-like tournament featuring the league’s top teams from the regular season. The Eels made the finals series several times in the 1960s before falling back into their losing ways and finishing last again in 1970 and 1972.

However, by mid-decade, the team’s fortunes began to turn around, as Parramatta began developing into a championship-caliber team. In 1976, the Eels made it to the NSWRL’s grand final—the league’s title game—only to fall to Manly Warringah. A year later, the Eels posted the best regular-season record in the NSWRL and advanced to another grand final. This time, they fought the St. George Dragons to a 9–9 draw, only to lose in a replay match 22–0.

In 1981, Parramatta returned to the grand final, and this time took home its first premiership with a 20–11 win over the Newtown Jets. The Eels won a second-straight title in 1982 with a 21– 8 victory over Manly, and captured their third straight the next year, again defeating Manly, 18–6. Parramatta missed out on winning four titles in a row when it fell to Canterbury-Bankstown in the 1984 grand final; however the Eels got revenge by defeating the Bulldogs in the 1986 grand final to win their fourth premiership in six seasons. As quickly as the Eels’ golden era began, however it was over by 1987. Parramatta finished out of contention each season from 1987–1996.

During the mid-1990s, Australian rugby underwent drastic changes as the corporate-backed Super League was formed to challenge the NSWRL for dominance. In 1995, the NSWRL rebranded itself as the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the two leagues competed against each other for attention in the 1997 season. Unlike other former NSWRL teams that jumped over to play in the Super League, Parramatta stayed in the ARL and finished with a 14–7–1 record and a berth in the finals series. In 1998, the rival leagues decided to merge and formed the National Rugby League (NRL).

In 2001, the Eels finished with the best regular-season record in the NRL and advanced to the grand final. They fell behind Newcastle 24–0 in the first half, before staging a furious comeback that saw them come up short, 30–24. In 2009, Parramatta made another grad final, only to drop a 23–16 decision to the Melbourne Storm. In 2010, it was revealed that Melbourne had committed a severe breach of the NRL’s salary cap rules, and the Storm were stripped of their title.

The 2010s proved to be another frustrating decade for the Eels, as they finished in last place in 2012, 2013, and 2018, and were embroiled in their own salary cap scandal in 2016. Parramatta did rebound to make the finals series in 2019 and 2020, but finished short of the grand final each time. The Eels play their home games at Bankwest Stadium, a 30,000-seat capacity venue in the suburb of Parramatta. The stadium also hosts some home games for the NRL’s Wests Tigers and was being used as one of the temporary homes of the as Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and South Sydney Rabbitohs while those teams’ home stadiums were being renovated from 2019 to 2022.

Notable players

Ray Price was a key member of the Eels’ championship teams of the 1980s. He was known for his toughness and his determined style of play, earning the nickname, “Mr. Perpetual Motion.” Price played for Parramatta from 1976–1986 and finished his career with 78 tries. In rugby, a try is scored when a player touches the ball down to the ground in an opponent’s goal area. In 1982, Price was named Dally M Player of the Year, an award presented to the most outstanding player in the regular season. He was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2008.

Peter Sterling played for the Eels from 1978–1992, winning back-to-back Dally M awards in 1986 and 1987. In the 1986 grand final, Sterling won the Clive Churchill Medal as the game’s most outstanding player. He was named to the hall of fame in 2008. Arguably the best player on the Eels during their golden era of the 1980s was Mick Cronin, who holds the franchise record for points scored with 1,971. From 1977–1986, Cronin scored 75 tries and 865 goals. A goal is scored when a player kicks the ball through the goalposts and over the crossbar. Cronin also holds the franchise single-season points record with 282 scored in 1978. Upon his retirement in 1986, Cronin was the league’s all-time leading points scorer. He has since been passed by several players and sits eighth on the list as of 2020. Cronin joined Price and Sterling as a member of the hall of fame in 2008.

Luke Burt played for the Eels from 1999–2012 and holds the franchise record for most tries scored, with 124. He holds the team record for most points in a game with 28, a feat he accomplished twice, once in 2002 and again in 2005. Jarryd Hayne was with Parramatta from 2006–2014 and again in 2018, scoring 113 tries in those two stints with the team. Hayne won the Dally M Award in 2009 and split the honor in 2014. Michael Jennings entered the NRL in 2007 and spent the bulk of his career with the Penrith Panthers and Sydney Roosters. He joined Parramatta in 2016 and played with the team through 2020. As of that time, Jennings has scored 154 tries, tied for tenth most in NRL history.

Bibliography

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