{"id":325462,"date":"2023-08-23T02:42:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T02:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=325462"},"modified":"2023-08-23T06:59:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T06:59:06","slug":"the-1-5m-call-that-cruelled-eels-before-disaster-struck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=325462","title":{"rendered":"The $1.5m call that cruelled Eels before disaster struck"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\ufefft's been a horror season for Parramatta<\/a> as last year's grand finalists go into the final two rounds destined to miss finals.<\/p>\n

There have been a few excuses for Brad Arthur's side, which has won only 11 games and now sits too far back to crack the top eight before the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Five-eighth Dylan Brown\ufeff<\/a> was stood down for more than two months as he was the subject of a court case, star winger Maika Sivo<\/a> and prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard<\/a> each spent time on the sidelines suspended – as did Ryan Matterson<\/a> for the opening month of the campaign – while contract speculation surrounded their two best players – Mitchell Moses<\/a> and Clint Gutherson<\/a> – for weeks before being sorted.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Troubling image of Spain coach emerges<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Burgess departs as Bunnies legend axed from job<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Desperate plea after Rabbitohs star's death at 31<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Halfback Moses has now\ufeff been struck down by a broken eye socket to signal a premature end to his season.<\/p>\n

None of that is ideal when attempting to make it to a second consecutive grand final, let alone win one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But league legend Billy Slater believes the disastrous slide started more than 12 months ago, when the Eels lost the signature of Reed Mahoney to the Bulldogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe crafty hooker snubbed a three-year $1.5 million extension offer from Parramatta and went to Canterbury on a four-year contract said to be worth $650,000 a season.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

To plug the hole left by Mahoney, the Eels signed veteran rake Josh Hodgson, who failed to make it through the season and had to retire due to injury issues.<\/p>\n

"They worked so hard last year to give themselves an opportunity to play on grand final day, and they would have put in the same amount of effort to get there again, and it just hasn't worked for them," Slater told Nine's The Billy Slater Podcast<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/the-billy-slater-podcast\/billy-on-kalyn-hes-not-a-big-difference-he-is-the\/embed<\/a><\/p>\n

"I think the first error that they made was not going above and beyond to keep their No.9 in Reed Mahoney.<\/p>\n

"He is a serious player, and we know the importance of that position now.<\/p>\n

"I know they had Josh Hodgson come to the club – that in itself was a huge risk, given Josh's age, his history with injuries.<\/p>\n

"To go to extraordinary lengths to keep Mitchell Moses – which is fair enough, he's a quality player – but not to go those lengths to keep your star No.9, who could be a 10-15 year player at that club… that's where it started.<\/p>\n

"There was a lot of things happened at the Eels this year that didn't help, but for me it all started when they moved their No.9 on.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Mahoney made his NRL debut for Parramatta in 2018 and was the first-choice hooker for the following four seasons.<\/p>\n

He amassed 101 games in the blue and gold before heading to Belmore.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\ufefft's been a horror season for Parramatta as last year's grand finalists go into the final two rounds destined to miss finals. There have been […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":325464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325465,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325462\/revisions\/325465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}