By PETER JESSUP
If there's a man under pressure in the NRL right now it's Brian Smith, coach of the Parramatta side who have won only three games this season and only five of their last 27 matches in the competition.
The club haven't had as bad a run as this.
Their longest
losing sequence is 19 games from May 1959 to June 1960.
Smith gives the impression that, should he ever get close to threatening that record, he would walk.
His team have broken their string of losses with victories over the Knights in round three, Wests in round six and Souths in round 12.
Founded in 1947, the Eels have been to eight grand finals and won four. They're a club built on pride, one that always made much of the working-class ethic on which they were built, as opposed to the "silvertails" of Manly and the Roosters who enjoyed big financial backing.
Last week's 50-14 thrashing at the hands of the Raiders was close to the club's worst defeat - 68-0 to the Raiders at Canberra in 1993.
Smith told the Herald it was unacceptable. "You can crack, but you can't crack to that level."
Signed in 1997, he has since been given a free rein in running the coaching system through the club.
After success in lower grades in 1998-99, his contract was extended until the end of the 2007 season.
But that doesn't seem comfortable right now. Smith is squirming, though adamant the club are behind him and that he knows how to lead the team to victory again.
The Eels' chief executive, Denis Fitzgerald, last weekend said the loss at Canberra had ended their finals chances this season. But he reiterated earlier support for Smith.
At troubled sports clubs, the words "The coach has our full support" are often a precursor to his getting the axe.
Injuries have cost the Eels heavily. Captain Nathan Cayless has been out with a broken arm for most of the season and has six more weeks before returning, rampaging secondrower Nathan Hindmarsh has been out for months after ankle surger, and eight other first-choice players have been affected by long-term injuries.
