‘I’ll make the tough calls’: New Eels CEO reveals blueprint for success

Newly appointed Parramatta chief executive Mike Rush has outlined his vision for the Eels, vowing to make the difficult calls required to bring success to a club that hasn’t won a premiership since 1986.

Rush - who replaces Jim Sarantinos - stepped down as St Helens chief executive in February. He’d held that role for 13 years and had been at the club for 27 seasons.

He will take on one of the toughest challenges in Australian sport after his term as Saints CEO garnered five premierships, including four consecutive grand final wins between 2019 and 2022. St Helens also defeated Penrith in the 2023 World Club Challenge.

In his first interview since being appointed to the top job at Parramatta, Rush said the club didn’t require a rebuild, that he would provide coach Jason Ryles - who he once tried to recruit - with a competitive roster, and that he was hellbent on making the Eels “competitive, quickly”.

“All I can promise is that I will work so hard to make it the most successful club, so that the fans and commercial partners are all proud,” Rush told this masthead.

“There’s a lot of hard work to run any club, but when you take on the challenge of turning a club into a successful club, and winning more than one trophy over a period of time, it’s a lot of hard work.

“That’s all I can do; rip in, make a start and not be scared to make decisions. I’ll be making decisions to improve that club and give it its best chance of winning a competition.”

Rush held a range of football operations roles at Super League powerhouse St Helens, from head coach through to CEO. He said his priority was providing Ryles with a roster capable of competing for titles.

“Rebuild is probably the wrong word because Jason and his staff have been making changes for the last couple of years in regards to the playing roster,” Rush said.

“My task and challenge is to ensure we best use [the salary cap] to deliver a successful team on the field. But I don’t think a rebuild is what we’re after. It’s more a progression and continuation of the work that Jason has done so far.

“Recruitment is big. You need to get your recruitment and your salary cap management aligned. We need to generate a genuine pathway for our local juniors.

“Everybody would love to see Parramatta juniors making it into the top squad and being successful. There’s work to do to make sure we can do that.

“And like any good club, you supplement your local base in the squad with really talented individuals at the highest level. The announcements of Spencer [Leniu] and other players like Jarome Luai, you can see that journey is already there.

“We just need to make sure we manage our cap and our recruitment really well.”