2009 Parramatta Eels season

The 2009 Parramatta Eels season was the 63rd in the club's history. They competed in the NRL's 2009 Telstra Premiership, just making the finals by finishing 8th (out of 16). The Eels then continued their winning streak into the play-offs, reaching the 2009 NRL grand final which they lost to the Melbourne Storm. Mid-season the Eels had a change of CEO, Denis Fitzgerald was replaced by Paul Osborne. Fullback Jarryd Hayne was the only Eels player selected to play in the 2009 State of Origin series.

Summary

Under new coach Daniel Anderson, the Eels had an indifferent start to the season which saw the release of star halfback Brett Finch. After 18 rounds and incredibly inconsistent form, the Parramatta Eels had won only 5 games and were sitting third-last and were in direct contention for the dreaded 2009 NRL Wooden Spoon. TAB SportsBet had the Eels as $151 outsiders to win the NRL Premiership.

Though beginning in Round 19, upset victories against the Melbourne Storm and the Canterbury Bulldogs set the platform for an unexpected 10 wins from the next 11 games, which propelled the Eels into the Top 8 and consequently, premiership contention. This unanticipated winning streak was directly attributed by many sporting experts including Rugby League legend Andrew Johns to the spectacular run of form of star fullback Jarryd Hayne. Winning the award for man-of-the-match in every game from Round 19-24, and again in the first week of the finals, Hayne was described as "the best player in any code of football in Australia" by premiership-winning coach Phil Gould. Following his astonishing string of 7 man-of-the-match performances, Hayne won the award for Dally M Fullback of the Year and was crowned the best and fairest player in the game, winning the Dally M Medal for 2009.

After a 7-game winning streak, the Eels succumbed to a heavy defeat to the minor premiers St George-Illawarra Dragons, however they returned to Kogarah in Week 1 of the 2009 NRL Finals Series and defeated the Dragons 25–12 featuring an impressive late game try by Dally M medal winner Jarryd Hayne. Following successive wins against the Gold Coast Titans (a team that Parramatta had never beaten before), 27–2 at SFS and the Bulldogs, 22–12 in front of a record-breaking non-Grand Final crowd of 74,549 at ANZ stadium, the Eels qualified for their first Grand Final since 2001, becoming the first 8th-placed team to ever qualify for a Grand Final. On 4 October 2009, Parramatta Eels played the deciding game of NRL, against the Melbourne Storm at ANZ Stadium in front of a crowd of 82,538.^[1] The Melbourne Storm defeated the Eels 23–16, ending what critics called "the Parramatta Fairytale" and winning the NRL Premiership.^[1]

On April 22, 2010 the Melbourne Storm were stripped of the premiership as a result of long-term gross salary cap breaches disclosed by the NRL. However, the premiership for 2009 was not handed over to the Parramatta Eels, instead remaining vacant.

Fixtures

Trial matches

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
14 February	Penrith Panthers	Exies Oval, Griffith	Win	34–12	N/A	N/A	N/A
21 February	Penrith Panthers	CUA Stadium, Penrith	Win	10–18	N/A	N/A	N/A
28 February	Sydney Roosters	Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, Gosford	Win	24–30	N/A	N/A	N/A

Note: Match one was an unofficial trial match.

Regular season

The 2009 Telstra Premiership season draw for Parramatta is as follows^[2]

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
14 March	Round 1	New Zealand Warriors	Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland	Loss	26–18	Grothe, Hayne, Inu	Burt 3/3	20,102
20 March	Round 2	South Sydney Rabbitohs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	Win	8–14	Mateo, Reddy	Burt 3/3, Finch 0/1	20,871
28 March	Round 3	Canberra Raiders	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Win	18–16	Grothe (2), Hayne, Inu	Burt 1/4	11,116
3 April	Round 4	Sydney Roosters	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Loss	24–6	Hayne	Burt 1/1	11,231
10 April	Round 5	St George Illawarra Dragons	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Loss	8–22	Burt	Burt 2/2	19,017
19 April	Round 6	Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	Loss	18–48	Hauraki (2), Hayne	Burt 3/3	18,233
24 April	Round 7	Brisbane Broncos	Suncorp Stadium, Queensland	Loss	40–8	Tautai, Uaisele	Burt 0/2	30,887
1 May	Round 8	North Queensland Cowboys	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Win	28–18	Burt, Galuvao, Hauraki, Hayne, M. Keating	K. Keating 3/3, Burt 1/3	8,104
8-11 June	Round 9	Bye
17 May	Round 10	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	Brookvale Oval, Manly	Loss	34–10	Hayne (2)	Burt 1/2	15,916
22 May	Round 11	South Sydney Rabbitohs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	Draw	16–16	Hayne (2), Grothe	Burt 2/4	10,670
30 May	Round 12	Cronulla Sutherland Sharks	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Loss	10–13	Burt, Reddy	Burt 2/4	7,014
7 June	Round 13	Newcastle Knights	Newcastle International Sports Centre, Newcastle	Win	18–20	Moimoi, Reddy, Robson	Burt 4/4	18,085
15 June	Round 14	Wests Tigers	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Loss	23–6	Burt	Burt 1/1	12,003
19-22 June	Round 15	Bye
28 June	Round 16	Brisbane Broncos	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Win	21–14	Grothe, Inu, Mortimer, Reddy	Burt 2/4 & FG: 1	10,030
5 July	Round 17	Penrith Panthers	CUA Stadium, Parramatta	Loss	38–34	Mortimer (2), Burt, Hayne, Hindmarsh, Reddy	Burt 5/6	16,845
13 July	Round 18	Gold Coast Titans	Skilled Park, Robina	Loss	18–12	Galuvao, Grothe, Mortimer	Burt 0/1, Inu 0/2	14,009
20 July	Round 19	Melbourne Storm	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Win	18–16	Lowrie, Moimoi, Robson	Burt 3/4	10,804
25 July	Round 20	Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	Win	8–27	Grothe (2), Burt, Kingston, Moimoi	Burt 3/5 & FG: 1	31,664
2 August	Round 21	Cronulla Sharks	Toyota Park, Cronulla	Win	0–30	Hayne (2), Reddy (2), Inu	Burt 5/6	12,246
9 August	Round 22	Newcastle Knights	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Win	40–8	Burt (2), Grothe, Inu, Moimoi, Reddy	Burt 8/8	17,669
15 August	Round 23	New Zealand Warriors	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Win	40–4	Burt (2), Reddy (2), Grothe, M. Keating, Mortimer	Burt 6/7	12,627
21 August	Round 24	Wests Tigers	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Win	18–26	Burt, Hayne, Inu, Robson	Inu 5/5	34,272
28 August	Round 25	Penrith Panthers	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Win	48–6	Mortimer (3), Burt (2), M. Keating, Moimoi, Reddy	Burt 8/8	20,237
4 September	Round 26	St George Illawarra Dragons	WIN Jubilee Oval, Kogarah	Loss	37–0	Nil	Nil	17,974
13 September	QF	St George Illawarra Dragons	WIN Jubilee Oval, Kogarah	Win	12–25	Burt, Grothe, Hayne, Mortimer	Burt 4/4 & FG: 1	18,174
18 September	SF	Gold Coast Titans	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Win	27–2	Kingston, Mateo, B. Smith, Wright	Burt 5/5, Hayne FG: 1	28,524
25 September	PF	Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	Win	12–22	Burt, Galuvao, Mannah, Mortimer	Burt 3/4	74,549
4 October	GF	Melbourne Storm	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	No Contest	23–16	Grothe, Moimoi, Reddy	Burt 2/3	82,538

Squad

Ladder

National Rugby League

2009 NRL season
	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	St. George Illawarra	24	17	0	7	2	548	329	+219	38
2	Bulldogs	24	18	0	6	2	575	428	+147	38*
3	Gold Coast	24	16	0	8	2	514	467	+47	36
4	Melbourne	24	14	1	9	2	505	348	+157	33
5	Manly-Warringah	24	14	0	10	2	549	439	+90	32
6	Brisbane	24	14	0	10	2	511	566	−55	32
7	Newcastle	24	13	0	11	2	508	491	+17	30
8	Parramatta	24	12	1	11	2	476	473	+3	29
9	Wests Tigers	24	12	0	12	2	558	483	+75	28
10	South Sydney	24	11	1	12	2	566	549	+17	27
11	Penrith	24	11	1	12	2	515	589	−74	27
12	North Queensland	24	11	0	13	2	558	474	+84	26
13	Canberra	24	9	0	15	2	489	510	−31	22
14	New Zealand	24	7	2	15	2	377	545	−188	20
15	Cronulla-Sutherland	24	5	0	19	2	359	568	−209	14
16	Sydney Roosters	24	5	0	19	2	382	681	−299	14

* Bulldogs stripped of 2 competition points after an interchange breach in round 2

National Youth Competition

National Youth Competition season 2009
	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Manly	24	19	1	4	2	879	417	+462	43
2	St. George Illawarra	24	19	0	5	2	758	461	+297	42
3	Melbourne	24	19	0	5	2	833	597	+236	42
4	Wests Tigers	24	15	1	8	2	709	588	+121	35
5	Brisbane	24	15	0	9	2	698	551	+147	34
6	South Sydney	24	13	1	10	2	776	568	+208	31
7	New Zealand	24	13	1	10	2	725	612	+113	31
8	Canberra	24	11	2	11	2	706	685	+21	28
9	North Queensland	24	12	0	12	2	668	683	-15	28
10	Newcastle	24	9	1	14	2	596	756	-160	23
11	Bulldogs	24	9	1	14	2	649	867	-218	23
12	Parramatta	24	8	0	16	2	604	698	-94	20
13	Penrith	24	8	0	16	2	573	755	-182	20
14	Gold Coast	24	8	0	16	2	542	738	-196	20
15	Sydney	24	6	0	18	2	443	736	-293	16
16	Cronulla	24	4	0	20	2	391	838	-447	12

Awards

• Michael Cronin clubman of the year award: Nathan Hindmarsh ^[4]
• Ken Thornett Medal (Players' player): Jarryd Hayne
• Jack Gibson Award (Coach's award): Joel Reddy
• Eric Grothe Rookie of the Year Award: Daniel Mortimer

References