Eels half Mitchell Moses and sacked coach Brad Arthur have defended the Parramatta playing group amid growing talk of a bad culture at the club. And it comes as a TV reporter accused Moses of swearing at him at training.
The culture of the playing group has been blamed in part for Arthur’s removal and there is a fresh issue to deal with after a television reporter claimed he had a verbal altercation with the Eels’ biggest star, Moses.
Arthur was sacked on Monday, but has shielded the playing group from criticism after his departure and, for that matter, throughout his tenure as head coach. There is a school of thought that he was too good to his players and that cost him in the end. When asked about the players, he would not hear criticism of their approach.
When I put it to him – before news of the Moses incident – that there is a perception the players are difficult to deal with, he said: “They are not ... the natural thing to happen when you are not winning games of football, people say things. They are a great playing group. Even when you have 48 points put on you, like on the weekend [against the Storm] they were still trying hard. They tried hard until the end.
“When you are spending so much time with them, you learn so much about them. I could look at blokes and know what they were thinking and how they feel. When you are so close to them, it’s going to be hard not being around them.”
Arthur was particularly close to Moses, the team’s heartbeat.
Mitchell Moses and Brad Arthur.Credit: Getty
Channel 10 chief league reporter Trent Simpson told the Eels about Moses’ conduct at training.
“Last Tuesday, while waiting behind the Eels club offices for a routine press conference, two balls were kicked over the roof and landed near the car,” Simpson told me. “I thought I’d do the right thing to help the kit man and return the balls to the other side of the building.
“I walked around the back of the building, where training had finished, and a few players were left having kicks at goal or doing extra work. I took a step or two onto the field and kicked the balls back. As I kicked the second ball, Mitchell Moses yelled out, ‘Get off the f---ing field’, to which point I just walked away thinking I had done the right thing.”
Moses was bemused and angry when I asked him what had happened.
The closed field at Parramatta training.
“I think it’s fair to set the scene,” he said. “I was doing my best to avoid the media as I was starting to run [as he makes a comeback from a serious foot injury]. The media had been told to leave the area and there is a clear sign saying where they can’t go. I was deliberately waiting for the cameras to go before I ran.
“I saw a journalist hanging around and I get people want to get the story on an injury comeback, but I told our media person to ask him to leave. When he came on the field, I did tell him to get off. I felt he was in an area he should not have been. I didn’t swear at the person. I’m not stupid. I’ve been around the game for a while and I’ve never had an issue like this nor would I swear at a journalist. I know the impact it can have.
“I know the stories go around about our playing group, and people can have any opinion of me or the group they like. But it should be based on what actually happened or happens, not on something that didn’t happen.”
Simpson stands by his version of events.
Arthur showed incredible class during his exit, making no criticism of the club. The maturity and calmness he displayed have been noted. He even interrupted his 50th birthday dinner to do an interview on Fox Sports’ NRL 360. And Arthur saw the Fox cameraman outside the restaurant and took a pizza out to him.
Rivals circle Turbo
On Channel Nine’s 100% Footy on Monday, we brought you the story that Sea Eagles No.1 Tom Trbojevic is being looked at as a centre by the club.
The thinking is that playing in the centres will take the pressure off his body and, particularly, his troublesome hamstrings.
Now, rival clubs are watching how this is accepted by Trbojevic. If they notice any rejection of the idea or a feeling he is unhappy about being moved from fullback, they will make subtle inquiries.
And while it’s a long shot, it won’t stop teams asking questions about his future.
Chin Chin music
A lot has been made of the confrontation between Braith Anasta and Latrell Mitchell last week at Surry Hills restaurant Chin Chin, but details have been hard to come by.
It is widely accepted the main insult Mitchell delivered to Anasta was calling him a “snake”. If that’s the worst thing Mitchell said, Anasta has no real reason to be overly upset, as Anasta has called me a “dog” in text messages.
Anasta has told me he has no respect for me and I’m comfortable with that. Anasta and I came face-to-face in a shopping centre after the initial story about he and Mitchell appeared, and apart from shaking his head and getting visibly angry, he kept his cool. That showed class.
Braith Anasta and Latrell Mitchell.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
Behind my back, however, Anasta has been highly critical, saying the story is not true. The same story – about Mitchell and Anasta – appeared in the News Corp media, the company Anasta works for.
Where he has got it wrong is the suggestion the Rabbitohs were behind the story getting out. The club knew nothing about it when I contacted them.
The main concern for Anasta should be the way he dealt with the issue, and given that he is an agent who advises players on all aspects of their life, you would think he’d have a better media strategy.
What was also interesting during the week was Anasta’s clear desire that Wayne Bennett’s deal to return to South Sydney would somehow fall over. Anasta was pushing the Bennett backflip story when the deal had already been struck. He refused to take the word of senior reporters that it was done and was attacked on social media for his approach. He did a U-turn on Tuesday after Bennett signed, going out of his way to praise the Rabbitohs.
Family club again
The Bulldogs are not just improving in the top grade; their juniors are on the rise, too. It relates to a funding package put together by Canterbury Leagues.
Former chairman and current board member John Khoury was behind the initiative, which received unanimous support from the football and leagues club boards.
Here are Canterbury’s latest numbers from the NSW Rugby League (numbers in brackets are for 2023):
- Under 4s to under 7s: 535 (502)
- Under 8s to under 9s: 448 (386)
- Under 10s to under 12s: 886 (877)
- Under 13s to under 15s: 897 (750)
- Under 16s to under 18s: 443 (495)
- 19s and above: 356 (306)
- Total: 3565 (up 7.5 per cent)
- Males: 3098 (up 5.9 per cent)
- Females: 467 (up 19 per cent)
No doubt the $100 Canterbury Leagues Club subsidy has helped immensely.
History lesson for Flanagan
Sharks insiders are biting their tongues after Shane Flanagan’s press conference reference to the 2016 competition “he won”.
A few weeks back, he planted one on the chin of his old club, Cronulla, saying they have not won a premiership since he left. Flanagan’s new club, the Dragons, got rolled 20-10 by Cronulla the following weekend.
On Thursday night, Flanagan reflected on a 44-12 loss to the Bulldogs by saying: “The last time I was in this room, I won a comp.”
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan.Credit: Getty
It’s true, but a strange choice of words after his team conceded 38 second-half points against the Dragons. Flanagan kept a low profile in the lead-up to the grudge match against the Bulldogs after it backfired when he made the clash against the Sharks all about him.
The ill feeling between the Bulldogs and Flanagan is far greater than any underlying animosity between him and the Sharks. The hostility between Flanagan and Canterbury is real, and on many levels. Flanagan wanted the Bulldogs coaching job that ended up going to Cameron Ciraldo at a time when Ciraldo had the choice of at least three jobs.
Flanagan hardly got a look-in for the Canterbury job. Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould was far more interested in securing a coach he knew would be successful in the longer term. And Ciraldo came without a peptides scandal or a ban from the game on his résumé.
At the time, Gould and Flanagan shared an agent, Wayne Beavis, but not even that connection could sway Gould, and his choice of Ciraldo appears a good one.
Adding to the ill feeling was the fact that Flanagan felt the Bulldogs didn’t give his son, Kyle, a fair go. That is despite the club picking him up when Kyle was unwanted by the Roosters. He was signed by former coach Trent Barrett, but the Bulldogs, with Ciraldo in charge, felt Flanagan jnr was a hooker. This is not the view of the Flanagan family.
Flanagan jnr, Raymond Faitala-Mariner and Fa’amanu Brown were not popular with the hierarchy at Canterbury or the playing group. They are a more united and solid team without them.
It’s why the Bulldogs were particularly happy about demolishing the Dragons.
Bennett’s Rusty link
When Wayne Bennett started calling Souths players leading up to his announcement as the new Rabbitohs coach, the club knew it did not have any concerns about his commitment.
That said, they were not aware of Parramatta’s intense interest in Bennett, but the foundation for his second coming at Souths was more solid than anything the Eels could conjure up.
Souths had been talking with Bennett for months, but they were not contract-related discussions. Bennett and Souths co-owner Russell Crowe have a long history. They bond over their love of the land.
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