Dear Members, Fans, and Supporters,
As the 2024 NRL men’s season ends, I want to express my sincere gratitude for your support of the Parramatta Eels. Your loyalty and passion has been a constant source of strength for the Club, through what has been a challenging year.
2024 Football Season
Before I talk more broadly about the 2024 NRL season, I want to firstly thank our players and our interim Head Coach Trent Barrett and his coaching and support staff for their tremendous hard work and professionalism this year.
Throughout the season our football staff and players had several challenges to face, including having nearly half our Salary Cap on the sideline. The team consistently stood up and competed and you saw their commitment to the Club on show right until the very last game.
I also want to congratulate all the winners from last night’s Ken Thornett Medal including the 2024 medallist Reagan Campbell-Gillard. It was well deserved and good recognition for his consistent performance throughout the season.
Despite the hard work and dedication of our players and coaches, our on-field results have not been up to the standard we expect at the Parramatta Eels.
Our principal goal is to win premierships. We made the Grand Final in 2022, however by a third of the way through this season it had become clear that change was needed. By acting in May, we have given Jason Ryles and his new coaching staff the required time to prepare well for the 2025 season.
Jason, in collaboration with our Head of Recruitment, Ben Rogers, and our GM of Football, Mark O’Neill, has spent the last 10 weeks planning for 2025 and beyond. Together, they have been building the roster to align with Jason's preferred game model ensuring we have a strong foundation for future success. You will hear more from Jason next week as he shares his football vision for the Eels.
We know it has been a disappointing year for our NRL team. There are however many reasons to be optimistic about the future. The healthy return of our full squad, some key additions to the roster (Zac Lomax and Isaiah Iongi), re-signing of some key players, the emergence of players from our elite pathways programs, new faces in the coaching and athletic performance teams, and the opening of our state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence (COE) in March 2025 all put us in position to return stronger in 2025.
Since his appointment in November 2023 as NRLW Head Coach, Steve Georgallis has led significant improvement in the performance of our NRLW team with already more regular season wins than any other year. We are currently in finals contention, and we wish the team all the best for their remaining 2 games.
Connection with the Eels Community
Whilst we have done some really good things off the field, one of the areas we are committed to driving improvement in, is our engagement with the Eels Community and providing greater value for our members. Our fanbase has shown incredible support, whether at CommBank Stadium, on the road, or through their engagement online. Your passion is the heartbeat of this Club, and your involvement makes a real difference.
We have some exciting initiatives planned for 2025, which include deeper engagement with the Eels Community. This means strengthening relationships with our Junior League Clubs, enhancing our Member experience and launching new initiatives to connect with members and fans in more meaningful ways.
One of these initiatives will be the introduction of a Members Forum before the start of the 2025 season. This event will offer Members a Q&A session with our key decision-makers, including our CEO, Head Coach, GM Football, and myself.
In addition to the new engagement initiatives, we will also be ensuring that we deliver value to our Members by maintaining membership pricing at 2024 levels. We will provide more details on this shortly with further updates on the Members Forum before Christmas 2024.
Stability for the future
After the darkest period in our history, the Club emerged from Administration in 2016. Since then, much progress has been made in strengthening the Club’s culture and ensuring the long-term commercial viability and stability of our Club.
Our Centre of Excellence and Community Centre in Kellyville, set to open in March 2025, is a major milestone for the Club. It will not only provide best in class facilities for our NRL and NRLW programs, for the first time in the Club’s history it will unite our men’s and women’s programs in one location while also being a home for our male and female elite pathways.
This five-year project would not have been possible without strong governance and long-term planning. The support of the Hills Shire Council (HSC), Parramatta Leagues Club (PLC), and the State and Federal Governments has been critical in bringing this transformational project to life.
It is against this backdrop, that I want to reference the recent media reports regarding efforts to destabilise the board of our parent company, Parramatta Leagues, by calling for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).
Many of the individuals involved in this destabilisation effort were part of the leadership factions that led the Club into its darkest period between 2010 and 2016. During that time, the NSW government, through the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), appointed an Administrator to oversee the Club.
As part of his appointment, the Administrator put in place a new Constitution for the Football Club. This revised Constitution was designed to enable the club to protect the Football Club from the factionalism that historically disrupted our Club so badly. You can read more about the Constitution here.
We have worked hard to move the Club forward, and it's crucial that we, as Members, ensure that our Club does not return to that prior era.
As we close out the 2024 NRL season I encourage you to focus on the opportunities that lie ahead. The work done behind the scenes, the changes and strong investment in our football program, and the deeper connection we plan with our community all point towards a new era for the Parramatta Eels.
Once again, I want to thank you for your continued support. Together, we will build a stronger future for the Parramatta Eels.
Yours sincerely,
Sean McElduff
Chairman, Parramatta Eels
Member #1478883
