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History of the Parramatta Eels
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History of the Parramatta Eels
The history of the Parramatta Eels dates back to their formation as the Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club in 1947 to the present day.
The roots of the playing of rugby football in Parramatta lie in the 19th century with the formation of the Parramatta Rugby Club (now known as Parramatta Two Blues) founded in 1879. With the advent of a Sydney Rugby union District competition in 1900, the Parramatta club merged with the Western Suburbs club, with the club playing some of its matches at Cumberland Oval.
When the NSWRL Premiership was formed in 1908, a club made up of Western Suburbs Rugby Union “defectors” formed the Central Cumberland club which participated in the first year of competition before the club was absorbed into the Western Suburbs DRLFC, also formed in 1908. Rugby league began to be played in the Parramatta district in 1909 with local teams, such as Iona and Endeavours, forming a district competition. Many other clubs within the Parramatta district also emerged with clubs being established in suburbs across the district over the ensuing decades and a Western Districts side representing the area in the President's Cup.
Agitation in the area for a local club to participate in the NSWRL 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.
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.
In the 1947 NSWRFL season, Parramatta's first, they finished at the bottom of the table, with one less win than fellow premiership debutants, Manly-Warringah. In 1948, Parramatta were winless in their first eleven matches but the signing of former Western Suburbs and Leeds five-eighth Vic Hey as captain-coach helped them to eighth with five wins and a draw. In 1949, with popular former Balmain winger Mitchell Wallace setting tryscoring records beaten only during their golden age of the 1980s, the “Fruitpickers” as the club was popularly known, finished fifth with eight wins and four draws. The club also saw utility back Ian Johnston win its first Australian guernsey.
The promise of 1949 was not fulfilled during the 1950s. Hey had been plagued by injury in his first two years at the club and retired as a player after 1949, with the result that Parramatta fell back to ninth in 1950 before winning nine matches in 1951.
In their first five seasons Parramatta had won 28 and drawn eight of their ninety matches for a not disrespectful 35.56 percent winning rate, but the period from 1952 to 1961 was to prove the most disastrous of any NSWRFL club since University won only fifteen matches in nine seasons between 1929 and 1937. In these seasons Parramatta won only 35 and drew two of 180 matches and claimed the wooden spoon on no fewer than eight occasions, including six in succession from 1956 to 1961. After Hey moved on at the end of 1953 Parramatta went on a merry-go-round with coaches: they had five in as many years from 1954 to 1958, and even former Rabbitoh premiership coach Jack Rayner could not lift them off the bottom between 1958 and 1960.
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History of the Parramatta Eels
The history of the Parramatta Eels dates back to their formation as the Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club in 1947 to the present day.
The roots of the playing of rugby football in Parramatta lie in the 19th century with the formation of the Parramatta Rugby Club (now known as Parramatta Two Blues) founded in 1879. With the advent of a Sydney Rugby union District competition in 1900, the Parramatta club merged with the Western Suburbs club, with the club playing some of its matches at Cumberland Oval.
When the NSWRL Premiership was formed in 1908, a club made up of Western Suburbs Rugby Union “defectors” formed the Central Cumberland club which participated in the first year of competition before the club was absorbed into the Western Suburbs DRLFC, also formed in 1908. Rugby league began to be played in the Parramatta district in 1909 with local teams, such as Iona and Endeavours, forming a district competition. Many other clubs within the Parramatta district also emerged with clubs being established in suburbs across the district over the ensuing decades and a Western Districts side representing the area in the President's Cup.
Agitation in the area for a local club to participate in the NSWRL 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.
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.
In the 1947 NSWRFL season, Parramatta's first, they finished at the bottom of the table, with one less win than fellow premiership debutants, Manly-Warringah. In 1948, Parramatta were winless in their first eleven matches but the signing of former Western Suburbs and Leeds five-eighth Vic Hey as captain-coach helped them to eighth with five wins and a draw. In 1949, with popular former Balmain winger Mitchell Wallace setting tryscoring records beaten only during their golden age of the 1980s, the “Fruitpickers” as the club was popularly known, finished fifth with eight wins and four draws. The club also saw utility back Ian Johnston win its first Australian guernsey.
The promise of 1949 was not fulfilled during the 1950s. Hey had been plagued by injury in his first two years at the club and retired as a player after 1949, with the result that Parramatta fell back to ninth in 1950 before winning nine matches in 1951.
In their first five seasons Parramatta had won 28 and drawn eight of their ninety matches for a not disrespectful 35.56 percent winning rate, but the period from 1952 to 1961 was to prove the most disastrous of any NSWRFL club since University won only fifteen matches in nine seasons between 1929 and 1937. In these seasons Parramatta won only 35 and drew two of 180 matches and claimed the wooden spoon on no fewer than eight occasions, including six in succession from 1956 to 1961. After Hey moved on at the end of 1953 Parramatta went on a merry-go-round with coaches: they had five in as many years from 1954 to 1958, and even former Rabbitoh premiership coach Jack Rayner could not lift them off the bottom between 1958 and 1960.