Former long-serving National Rugby League side Parramatta CEO Denis Fitzgerald could “make a shock return to the Eels boardroom,” according to Adrian Proszenko of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Fitzgerald is “one of 22 candidates to have nominated” for the upcoming Parramatta District Rugby League Club elections. It “wouldn't be a Parramatta poll without drama” and Fitzgerald's emergence as a candidate comes "amid allegations some of the candidates are ineligible to stand, threats of Supreme Court action and the postponement of a ballot that was originally scheduled to take place next month." And, “in a further twist," there are concerns the PDRL, the body that oversees the NSW Cup side and the development of talent in the "rich Parramatta nursery," could become insolvent after the Parramatta Leagues Club demanded A$175,000 ($151,045) provided to the body be returned for alleged overspending. Fitzgerald hasn't had an official role at the club since he was “sensationally trumped at the polling booth by a rebel 3P ticket” in ‘09. It ended the three-decade reign and marked the beginning of Roy Spagnolo's chairmanship of the Eels board. Spagnolo has “subsequently been ousted from the leagues club board,” which controls the football club, but remains the chairman of the PDRL. Under the club's complex constitution, a minimum of three PDRL board members must be represented on the PLC board, which controls the Eels (SMH, 11/19).
