Parramatta Eels
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| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Parramatta National Rugby League Club |
| Nickname(s) | Eels, Parra |
| Website | parraeels.com.au |
| Colours |
Blue Gold |
| Founded | 4 November 1946 as Parramatta |
| Current details | |
| Ground(s) |
|
| CEO | Bernie Gurr |
| Chairman | Max Donnelly (Administrator Appointed) |
| Coach | Brad Arthur |
| Captain | Tim Mannah & Beau Scott |
| Competition | National Rugby League |
| 2016 season | 14th |
 Current season
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|
| Records | |
| Premierships | 4 (1981, 1982, 1983, 1986) |
| Runners-up | 5 (1976, 1977, 1984, 2001, 2009) |
| Minor premiership | 5 (1977, 1982, 1986, 2001, 2005) |
| Wooden spoons | 13 (1947, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1970, 1972, 2012, 2013) |
| Most capped | 330 - Nathan Hindmarsh |
| Highest points scorer | 1,971 - Michael Cronin |
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their home ground is Parramatta's Pirtek Stadium.
It took thirty years for the club to make the grand final, which they did in 1976 and 1977, losing on both occasions. However, this period foreshadowed their most successful period in the early 1980s, when they won four premierships and qualified for five grand finals in six seasons. This was a golden era for the club and yielded their only premiership titles. In 2016, a salary cap breach saw them stripped of their 2016 Auckland Nines premiership. The club plays in the National Rugby League, the premier rugby league football competition in Australasia. Parramatta sides are also fielded in lower grades and junior competitions run by the New South Wales Rugby League where they regularly win premierships in various grades.
The roots of the playing of rugby union and rugby league in Parramatta lie in the 19th century with the formation of the Parramatta Rugby Club in 1879. With the advent of a Sydney District competition in 1900, the Parramatta club merged with Western Suburbs and played some of its matches at Cumberland Oval. On a local level, rugby league began to be played in 1910 when a district competition was formed. Other clubs in the Parramatta district also emerged; over the ensuing decades, clubs established in suburbs throughout the area.
Pressure in the area for a local club to participate in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership began in the mid-1930s with a formal proposal put to the NSWRL in 1936 by local rugby league identities such as Jack Argent and Jack Scullin. The proposal was rejected by all clubs except Western Suburbs who, despite having the most to lose from the entrance of a Parramatta side (with much of their territory being lost to Parramatta), voted for the entrance of the new club. The advent of World War II put the establishment of the club on hold and a Parramatta district club was not proposed again until 1946 when the club was successfully admitted into the Premiership.
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