2020 NO janitors allowed

Eels feel back into those dark days a decade ago, signing over the hill players. Remember in 2011 - Carl Webb, Paul Whatuira, Reni Maitua, Chis Hicks and Chris Walker. And that was two year after a grand final appearance. Following year won the wooden spoon, which was a terrible way to send off Hindmarsh and Burt.

If the Eels fail in 2020, only a fool would back this toilet flusher. Actually, the players right now should be doubting their beloved coach after failing miserably against the Storm after such a great performance against the Broncos.

Flanagan definitely should be coach and the Janitor assistant coach. The toilet flusher was never going to agree to Flanagan being assistant because he would have been shown up for what he really is. The players would have drifted over to Flanagan.

Phil Gould has won premierships as a coach and therefore knows what it takes. The great coach is saying that the toilet flusher has a long way to go, unlike Sterlo who is in love with the Janitor, and for all the wrong reasons.

Throwing a lifeline to washed up hobbo's should be banned from the club. If the Eels recruitment scouts try to pull that stunt, they should be instantly dismissed.

LOL Noel Cleal and Jamie Lyon affair. Good players in their day, but Lyon will go down as the player who stabbed us in the back and then went on to win premierships with the enemy. He would have been an awesome captain for the Eels until he retired.

Sterlo was a legendary player and is a decent commentator, but would fail at coaching and / or administration duties. Can't be good at everything, I guess.

Definitely the Eels most hated player. I can't think of any other player who could be more hated? I remember when Parra signed Mark Bugden in 1989, I didn't like him, because he scored a try against Parra in the 1984 grand final, but that's not the same as a betrayal.

Sterlo will never have any serious involvement with the club again. That all came to an end in 1992. He never liked the bald jokes, I saw Andrew Johns make a joke a few years back and Sterlo was annoyed.

Found an article from 2007 about Lyon -

It's a grudge match three years in the making, but someone seems to have forgotten to tell Parramatta they owe Jamie Lyon for walking out on the NRL club.

Lyon will play against his former teammates for the first time when Manly host the Eels at Brookvale on Friday night, the Test centre sure to cop plenty from the Parramatta faithful that make the trip out to Sydney's northern peninsula.

But his former Parramatta teammates deny they have revenge on their minds, despite Lyon quitting the club without so much as a goodbye one game into the 2004 season.

"I couldn't care less actually," Eels forward Nathan Hindmarsh said of going up against Lyon.

"We just want to win.

"That thing with 'Killer' happened years and years ago and I was over that after about two days.

"I couldn't care less that he up and left, I've got my own backyard to worry about."

Asked if he was hurt by Lyon leaving to join the Sea Eagles via stints with NSW country side Wee Waa and English club St Helens, Hindmarsh said: "Hurt? Was that a serious question? No, I wasn't hurt."

Lyon admitted he regretted the circumstances in which he parted company with the Eels, when he claimed he was sick of Sydney life and wanted to return to his hometown of Wee Waa.

There were claims of a breakdown in his relationship with then Parramatta coach Brian Smith - something both parties have since denied - but Lyon admits he did feel for his teammates.

"I let them down a bit and they might have been a bit short staffed at the time," Lyon said.

"There's not much I can really do about it now, just move on.

"I would say there would have been (a few damaged friendships), I would say a few boys would have been dirty."

But Eels captain Nathan Cayless, one of five players still at the club from Lyon's time there, said he held no animosity to his former teammate.

"You can't really hold grudges - you grow up bitter and old and it's not a very good way to live," Cayless said.

"At the time it was a bit strange but now it's water under the bridge ... there's a lot of history between the two clubs and this probably adds a little bit more as well.

"I was pretty confused as to why he left, I wasn't angry.

"Being the captain of the team you want to make sure that your players are happy and that all of your players want to play together."

As to whether he would go in search of a big hit on the NSW Origin hopeful, Cayless offered: "He's got too much good footwork, he's fast - I won't be able to catch him.

"He's going to be out there doing his job and we're going to be out there doing ours.

"You get carried away thinking about that sort of stuff. We'll go a long way towards losing the game before we start playing it."

Lyon has been named in the centres by Manly coach Des Hasler despite playing most of Sunday's match against Canberra at five-eighth, with Michael Monaghan retained in the No.6 jumper.

Appears Lyon had some regret, if you believe what he said.

Fitzgerald taken from Wikipedia -

As a vigorous opponent of Super League, Fitzgerald has become known for a number of prominent opinions about other football clubs including:
* criticising the joint merger between the Western Suburbs Magpies and the Balmain Tigers into the Wests Tigers in 2000
* trying to get a Super 12 rugby union club established in western Sydney
* declaring that rugby league had no place in Melbourne after the Storm's record-breaking 2007 season
* refusing to honour Ray Price for his services to the Eels

The last point is interesting.

Lyon will always be scum no matter what his excuse were at the time. Leaving your teammates like that, he was a coward!!

Ray Price is Parramatta!! Haven't seen a player since Price that has given so much on the field. He was a true warrior. Fitzgerald was just a nasty piece of work. He should have been punted from the club a lot sooner.

Watmough podcast (The one where he called Cherry-Evans a ****wit). He talks about signing for Parramatta and said at the time his body was gone, he wasn't interested in playing further and after Manly shafted him he just wanted to retire until Brad Arthur gave him a call and changed his mind.

He then went on to say he was laughing all the way to the bank with what Parramatta had offered him. He even admitted he hated going out to Parramatta for training and everything.

It just summed up our recruitment back then.