Parramatta’s Season Has Gone From Bad To Surreal

There are unravelings and then there is what the Parramatta Eels are going through right now. The rugby league club from Sydney's inner-west working class and multicultural mecca is embroiled in a multi-dimensional shit storm that is staggering in its complexity. All of it with only two thirds of season out of the way.

Gangsters, brothel-owners, match fixing, sex tapes, a prescription drug overdose, salary-cap rorts, money-laundering allegations, and, incongruously, some of the best form in the competition thus far has made for one of the most compelling stories in world sport. With their biggest test of the season to come this weekend in the West Sydney derby with The Penrith Panthers, all eyes are on the embattled Eels.

First, the allegations of salary cap rorting, which were upheld this week seeing Parramatta docked 12 competition points by the NRL. They have now dropped from third on the ladder to 14th and must win all eight of their remaining games to qualify for the finals series. The salary cap investigation is one of three major investigations the Eels are undergoing, with police yesterday revealing they are also investigating the club over money-laundering and fraud allegations on top of match-fixing allegations.

The Eels earned the attention of salary cap investigators this year shortly after securing the services of Kiwi international and premiership winning Manly 5/8th Kieran Foran who signed to the club on a deal worth 4.8 million dollars.

Foran has since left the club in a shock mid-season departure citing family and health reasons. He was rushed to hospital following a prescription drug overdose earlier in the year following a stint in a rehabilitation clinic following the breakdown of his relationship with the mother of his two children. It was revealed shortly after Foran had also lost $75 000 dollars from his betting account in a two hour gambling splurge. The story uncovered Foran's links to the infamous former brothel-owner and renowned gambler, Eddie "Everywhere" Hayson, one of the most scrutinised figures in the rugby league fraternity.

With Foran gone from the club, the Eels now have room in their salary cap to resign local junior and Campbelltown housing commission product, Jarryd Hayne, as he returns to the NRL following his failed bid to make the Fiji Sevens Olympic squad. Pundits believe Hayne will only join the club if they can keep their finals hopes alive, which means they will need to beat Penrith this weekend. They will be forced to do so without star playmaker Corey Norman after he was found guilty of drug possession this week and ordered to sit out.

Norman was caught with MDMA capsules and muscle relaxants at a Sydney Casino in May. The bust came on the same night a photo of him was uploaded to Instagram dining with known figures from the Sydney underworld. He was been convicted of drug possession this week and fined $400.

In the lead up to his trial, a sex tape was shopped around several news agencies for an asking price of 150 000$ in which Norman is alleged to be seen pouring beer over a woman while performing an explicit sex act.

At the very same time a snapchat Norman sent to teammates featuring and "old man" snorting a white powder was also leaked to the press.

Despite the many scandals, Norman has found some career best form this season steering the Eels to 10 wins and equal third on the ladder before they were docked the competition points. He was mesmeric against the Sydney Roosters last weekend with immortal and Channel Nine commentator Andrew Johns wondering "whether there was two of him out there."

The other Parramatta player pictured dining alongside Norman and the underworld figures at the Casino the night he was busted —Junior Paulo—has also since left the club. Paulo was already under investigation by the Eels after he was revealed to have donned headgear and played a game of third-grade club rugby union under a fake name with friends. Junior Paulo, it is worth mentioning, is a friggen giant and not the kind of guy you wanna be running into in a game of low-grade park footy. He is now at the Canberra Raiders.

And of course Semi Radradra, the Fijian try-scoring sensation who inexplicably deserted his team mid-season and fled back to Fiji only for it to be revealed he was facing an investigation from police for an assault on his ex-partner. Radradra has pleaded not guilty to three domestic violence charges and has since returned to play for the Eels. As it happened, he returned to Sydney on the same flight from Fiji as former Eel and good friend, Jarryd Hayne. Radradra injured his knee in last weekend's clash with the Roosters and is likely to miss the rest of the season.

Without Foran, Norman, or Radradra for this weekend's all-or-nothing clash, the Eels will look to their second tier stalwarts to pick up the slack and get them over the line. Players such as in-form front rower Danny Wicks who in 2011 served 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of supply for trafficking 150 ecstasy tablets and more than 20 grams of methylamphetamine. And last week's man of the match, Manu Ma'u, who also served time in prison in New Zealand for his part in a gang fight as a teenager. Rugby league, it's tough at times.

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