Long-serving Eels coach Brad Arthur has been urged to “shake things up” at Parramatta on the back of the club’s horror loss to the Dolphins last Friday.
The NRL’s newest team scored 40 second half points in just 25 minutes against the Eels en route to a 44-16 victory.
The complete capitulation from the Eels forced under fire coach Brad Arthur to blast his players in the post-match press conference, accusing them of “giving up”.
The performance has sparked plenty of debate about the future of Arthur, who has been at the helm of the club for a decade and only last year signed a contract extension.
Veteran journalist Phil Rothfield said on Monday that Arthur is a coach under plenty of pressure, although his Daily Telegraph colleague Paul Kent was adamant Arthur shouldn’t be moved on.
“I don’t agree with sacking Brad Arthur. It’s so easy to sack coaches and we see this, but so many teams will sack a coach and they’ll hire a coach because they’ve felt the pressure of sacking (the old coach), they’ll hire one that isn’t as good and then they’ll have two or three years in the wilderness because they haven’t got it right,” Kent said on NRL 360.
Rothfield then put a hypothetical to Kent regarding the rumours that Eels powerbrokers are interested in hiring Wayne Bennett from next season.
“If they found out that Wayne Bennett was available …” Rothfield asked before Kent interjected: “Of course they will (approach Bennett).
Everyone goes to Wayne Bennett now as he is the hired gun running around. I know he’s off contract next year so he’s looking around. Clearly it’s got to be a question. I understand that.”
