Loyal: When Brad Arthur was re-signed by the Eels, several players recommitted to the club. Credit:AAP "I think he said he was 24 and he was only 21 years of age. It was clear from the start he was a coach, though. By the time everyone found out he was 21 they didn't care because he was that thorough, that organised." The fresh-faced former Parramatta junior was given a salary of about $15,000, and a job on the side with the club president, a builder by the name of Danny Hadlow. It was a decent whack for a team whose total payment bill to players and the coach was in the range of $50,000. "I don't think we've ever paid that since," says then club secretary Roy Mills, now chairman of Group 7. "To get somebody like that down to coach a local team was a big ask. Managing these local blokes would be no mean feat." The grand plan

Parramatta chairman Max Donnelly sends a text message to Arthur after every game. It's about as much contact about football as he likes to have with his coach, who under the previous NRL club administration would have to front for the first half-hour of board meetings and be told which players he should sign. Proud: Brad Arthur (fifth from right, bottom row) with the Batemans Bay Tigers. Arthur's replies to the boss, though, are evidence of a steely and unwavering determination that has evolved over a two-decade journey from the south coast to the big time of the NRL semi-finals, which start next weekend. After the Eels were thumped 48-10 by Sydney Roosters in round 10, Donnelly flicked him a message, not really knowing what to say. "Corey [Norman] went off with what looked like a grim injury, we didn't have Mitch Moses [until the following round], and we'd been beaten heavily," Donnelly said. "So I sent a note and Brad came back and said, 'this is all part of the grand plan, you don't win premierships in May'."

Donnelly sent Arthur another text last week after they had put 52 points on Brisbane – at Suncorp Stadium no less. "I said, 'wow, that was amazing'," Donnelly said. "And he said, 'we just have to keep ourselves level'. That was his response. I know for a fact he was pissed off they let in 34 points and he let the players know." If one thing is certain it is that Arthur will not be buying into the hype around the Eels as they look to secure a top-four finish against South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Friday night. Fairfax Media did not speak to him for this story, reliably informed he did not want to talk about himself. But amid Parramatta's best days in years his is a tale that should be told. How Roycey Simmons took Arthur aside at the Panthers and told him as diplomatically as he could that he was not big or quick enough to make it in the top grade. How he went to Cairns, after two years, 1997 and 1998, at Batemans Bay, and led the Brothers club to four premierships and six grand finals in eight years. How he set up Melbourne's first under-20s team from scratch and two years later, in 2009, won the NYC title. It was at the Storm, where he became a first-grade assistant coach and where he was most greatly influenced. Arthur is in the Bellamy mould, an often cranky exterior masking the powers of a master man-manager and motivator with a deep love of the game. The intensity of those off the Bellamy conveyer belt can sometimes go overboard. The example of Michael Maguire at South Sydney would certainly indicate that it can have a limited lifespan.

Arthur can be hard, too. When he took over as interim coach of Parramatta for a handful of games in 2012, following the sacking of Stephen Kearney, it is said that he told his players not to joke and laugh around on the field after a loss. The Seven Hills kid who used to watch from outside the picket fence at Cumberland Oval years later knew what it meant to be a Parramatta supporter. If they were hurting, so the players should be. After four seasons as full-time coach, however, no one can doubt the success he's had in getting the men in blue and gold playing for him. No matter how many water bottles get tossed around in the coaches' box. "The passion he has, he brings the best out in his players," Eels forward David Gower said. "The boys want to play for him. He's a nutcase, but you have to be to be a head coach these days. He definitely brings the best out of you, that's what he expects from his players. "He's pretty black and white, what you see is what you get. The smiles are few and far between." France-bound Semi Radradra is even more emphatic. "I will never play under any other coaches [in the NRL]," the Fijian winger said. "I love playing at this club, especially when Brad is head coach. He's pretty honest and smart, he understands the players."

Arthur was known as something of a control freak in previous seasons. But with a head of football, Daniel Anderson, and a meddling board hovering over him it was an environment that few young coaches have been burdened with. The tipping point of that dysfunction arrived with last year's salary cap controversy that – as painful as it was for those affected – can now be seen as the scandal Parramatta had to have. Having resisted efforts from directors to sack him in 2015, Arthur has told people that it was only when his contract was extended until 2019 last August that he truly felt free to simply coach. These days the Eels don't even have a head of football as such – that role is effectively shared by Arthur and chief executive Bernie Gurr, who has been busy rebuilding the club from its head office. Those who make comparisons with Bellamy argue Arthur has instilled the same culture at the Eels. It doesn't matter if Cooper Cronk or Corey Norman isn't playing, if everyone plays their role then it won't affect the team's performance, or so the mantra goes. And the makings of where Parramatta sit now, Donnelly identifies, occurred last year when after being stripped of 12 competition points they were knocking off opponents with a virtual reserve-grade line-up. "Corey had just copped an eight-week suspension, Jarryd Hayne was causing us a bit of grief, Kieran Foran had done his shoulder and wanted a release and they couldn't make the eight," Donnelly said.

"There was every reason for that team to not perform well. To their credit I think they won four of their last eight games. That's when I realised that Brad Arthur was the man for the job. And in my first week [as Parramatta administrator] I had fired most of the management. "The minute we retained Brad it was 'bingo'. Corey re-signed and then all the players we were trying to re-sign, they all extended." Better players It's been a long time since Simmons had the chat with Arthur. And having seen a glimpse of his work ethic and football nous in the lower grades at the Panthers, he isn't stunned one bit at what Arthur has done with the Eels. "I honestly said to him 'you never know, you could work your way back into the league if you get some success in the country'," Simmons said.

O'Brien, who is godfather to Arthur's daughter Charlotte and ended up following him from Batemans Bay to Cairns to Melbourne, reckons he has left each club in better shape. "I think the thing that struck everyone [in Batemans Bay] was that the first-grade team trained three nights a week and would usually start at 6pm," O'Brien said. "But Brad would be there for hours before helping with the under-14s, under-16s ... it just showed how much he cared. "From Batemans Bay, to Cairns, to Melbourne, to Parramatta – he makes them better players."