| Year: | 2016 |
| Team Colour: | gold |
| Font Colour: | blue |
| League: | NRL |
| League Rank: | 14th |
| League Wins: | 13 |
| League Draws: | 0 |
| League Losses: | 11 |
| Points For: | 298 |
| Points Against: | 324 |
| Cup: | World Club Challenge |
| Cup2: | Auckland Nines |
| Cup2 Result: | Champions (Won 22–4 vs New Zealand Warriors, Grand Final) |
| Ceo Title: | CEO |
| Ceo: | John Boulous |
| Coach Title: | Coach |
| Stadium: | Pirtek Stadium (Capacity: 20,741) ANZ Stadium (Capacity: 83,500) TIO Stadium (Capacity: 12,500) |
| Avg Attendance: | 13,929 (Home) 16,739 (Home & Away) |
| Agg Attendance: | 167,144 (Home) 401,740 (Home & Away) |
| High Attendance: | 31,815 (24 March vs Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Round 9) |
| Top Tries: |  Bevan French (19) |
| Top Goals: | Michael Gordon (71) |
| Top Points: | Michael Gordon (162) |
| List: | yes |
| List Link: | List of Parramatta Eels seasons |
The 2016 Parramatta Eels season was the 70th in the club's history. Coached by Brad Arthur and co-captained by Kieran Foran and Tim Mannah, they competed in the NRL's 2016 Telstra Premiership.
Prior to the start of the 2016 NRL season, the Parramatta club faced the prospect with starting the season on -4 points due to salary cap indiscretions in 2015, however the NRL was satisfied with governance changes at Parramatta and no points were deducted.[1]
Parramatta started the season with a 17-4 loss against the previous years runners up in Brisbane. The club would win their following three matches in a row including a 20-16 victory over the reigning premiers North Queensland. On 3 May 2016, NRL CEO Todd Greenberg announced that the club would be docked the twelve competition points they have accrued so far this season, as well as fined $1 million and stripped of the 2016 NRL Auckland Nines title it won in February.[2] In addition, the NRL also announced that the Parramatta club would not be able to accrue any further competition points until they fell under the salary cap, which they were reported to be $500,000.[3] Five officials, including chairman Steve Sharp, deputy chairman Tom Issa, director Peter Serrao, chief executive John Boulous and football manager Daniel Anderson, were also sacked.[4]
On 9 July 2016, after over two months of club officials contesting the preliminary penalties, Parramatta were handed their punishment with the addition of their for/against points tally accumulated from rounds 1-9 being deducted. At the time of the points deduction, Parramatta sat just outside the top four on the table.[5] Although the points deduction had been handed down, Parramatta were still mathematically able to make the finals if they could win 12 of their remaining 15 games. The first match after Parramatta were stripped of the competition points was against South Sydney at Parramatta Stadium. Parramatta would narrowly lose the match 22-20. It was around this time that star recruit Kieran Foran was released by the club having just played nine games for personal reasons and multiple off-field issues.[6] [7]
On 29 August 2016, Parramatta played their final ever game in the top grade at Parramatta Stadium against St. George Illawarra as it had been announced earlier the club would move into a new ground which would later be known as the Western Sydney Stadium. Parramatta would win the game 30-18 with Bevan French scoring a hat-trick. Parramatta finished the season with a 40-18 victory over the New Zealand Warriors to finish 14th on the table.[8]
See main article: 2016 NRL Auckland Nines.
| Match No. | Home | Score | Away | Match Information | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=17% | Date and time (Local) | width=18% | Venue | width=7% | Attendance | |||||||
| align=center | 1 | Parramatta Eels | 4 – 14 | Melbourne Storm | Saturday, 6 February, 12:55 PM | Eden Park | 70,000+ over two days[9] | |||||
| align=center | 2 | Sydney Roosters | 11 – 14 | Parramatta Eels | Saturday, 6 February, 4:25 PM | |||||||
| align=center | 3 | South Sydney Rabbitohs | 11 – 24 | Parramatta Eels | Sunday, 7 February, 11:00 AM | |||||||
| align=center | Parramatta Eels | 12 – 8 | Newcastle Knights | Sunday, 7 February, 1:55 PM | ||||||||
| align=center | Parramatta Eels | 17 – 8 | Melbourne Storm | Sunday, 7 February, 4:40 PM | ||||||||
| align=center | Parramatta Eels | 22 – 4 | New Zealand Warriors | Sunday, 7 February, 6:40 AM | ||||||||
| Source:[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] | ||||||||||||
| Match No. | Home | Score | Away | Match Information | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=17% | Date and time (Local) | width=18% | Venue | width=7% | Attendance | |||||||
| align=center | 1 | Parramatta Eels | 20 – 20 | Gold Coast Titans | Saturday, 13 February, 7:40 PM | ANZAC Oval | 2,405 | |||||
| align=center | 2 | Penrith Panthers | 8 – 22 | Parramatta Eels | Saturday, 20 February, 7:10 PM | Pepper Stadium | 5,580 | |||||
| Source:[15] [16] | ||||||||||||
See main article: 2016 NRL season results.
| Position | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Head coach | | Brad Arthur | |
| Assistant coach | | Peter Gentle | |
| Assistant coach | | Steve Murphy | |
| Chief Medical Officer | | Dr Louis Shidiak | |
| Physical Performance Manager | | Paul Devlin | |
| Strength coach | | Jarrod Wade | |
| Contact Coach | | Brett O’Farrell | |
| Head Trainer | | Craig Sultana | |
| Assistant NRL Strength and Conditioning Coach | | Nathan Beutel | |
| NYC Head of Strength and Conditioning | |||
| Video analyst | | Craig Crossman | |
| NSW Cup Head Coach and Development Coach | | Joey Grima | |
| Under 20's Head Coach | | Luke Burt |
In:
| Name | From | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | [18] [19] | ||||
 | [20] | ||||
| | [21] | ||||
| [22] | |||||
| | [23] | ||||
| | |||||
| | [24] | ||||
| | [25] | ||||
| | |||||
| | |||||
| | [26] | ||||
| | |||||
| | |||||
| | Youth | ||||
| | Youth | [27] | |||
| | Youth | ||||
| | Jeff Robson (mid-season) | [28] |
Out:
| Name | To | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Retired | [29] | |||
| [30] | |||||
| | [31] | ||||
 | Retired | ||||
| | |||||
| | [32] | ||||
| | [33] | ||||
 | [34] | ||||
| | [35] | ||||
 | [36] [37] | ||||
| | [38] | ||||
| | |||||
 | Eric Newbigging | [39] | |||
| [40] | |||||
| | Ryan Morgan (mid-season) | [41] | |||
| | Kieren Moss (mid-season) | [42] | |||
 | Junior Paulo (mid-season) | [43] | |||
| | Nathan Peats (mid-season) | [44] | |||
| | Kieran Foran (mid-season) | Released | [45] |
| Player | Team | Call-up | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semi Radradra | World All Stars | 2016 All Stars Match | |
| Beau Scott | World All Stars | 2016 All Stars Match | |
| Clinton Gutherson | NSW City | 2016 City vs Country Origin | |
| Nathan Peats | NSW City | 2016 City vs Country Origin | |
| Michael Jennings | New South Wales | 2016 State of Origin Series |
| Player | Team | Call-up | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semi Radradra | Australia | 2016 Anzac Test | |
| Manu Ma'u | New Zealand | 2016 Anzac Test | |
| Brad Takairangi (18th man) | New Zealand | 2016 Anzac Test | |
| Vai Toutai | Tonga | 2016 Pacific Test | |
| Peni Terepo | Tonga | 2016 Pacific Test | |
| Junior Paulo | Samoa | 2016 Pacific Test | |
| Kaysa Pritchard | Samoa | 2016 Pacific Test | |
| Kaysa Pritchard | Samoa | v Fiji, 8 October 2016 | |
| Manu Ma'u | New Zealand | v Australia, 15 October 2016 | |
| Manu Ma'u | New Zealand | 2016 Four Nations | |
| James Hasson | Ireland | 2017 World Cup Qualifiers |
