“We’ve got a good team that we’ve been building for a while,” McElduff said. “At the start of the season,your goal has to be the top four and then the next goal has to be a prelim final,because if you do those two things,you’re a chance to get to the grand final and win the comp.

“The coach and the players have done that.

“Brad’s attitude last night was the right attitude;we get to play,we’re going to Townsville,and we’ll give it a crack.

“He’s got two years left on his contract – we extended it at the back end of last year because he deserved it. We felt he was capable of delivering for us,and he’s done a good job this year.”

Arthur will mark a decade as head coach of the Eels next year and is poised to eclipse Brian Smith’s record of 244 matches in charge of Parramatta. The former Storm and Manly assistant has come out of the other side after being at the helm during the tough times,including the salary cap debacle.

The chairman and the board have remained out of the spotlight during the resurgence after years of factionalism threatened to tear the club apart.

“The club has been very stable for the last six years,and you’ve seen the results on the field,” McElduff said. “For the previous seven years,there was so much instability,and it showed on the field.”

On the eve of the Raiders clash on Friday,a leaked document indicated there were perceptions of nepotism in the Eels’ pathways system. Instead of derailing their campaign,the story had the opposite effect.

“I reckon we showed how it affected the group,” Arthur said in his post-match press conference. “Someone’s got an agenda,and they’re not going to break the spirit.

“There’s some personal interest and whoever’s got the agenda,you’re not going to break this group. We’ve worked too hard.”

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