Quote: BrisbaneRhino "The Eels backline of that era was amazing, and quite a few played in England - Grothe, Hunt, Ella, Kenny, Sterling plus the likes of Paul Taylor (Oldham IIRC). In fact I'm pretty sure you could make an 'all Parramatta' 1-7 who had played in England (even though a couple weren't regulars for them) by about 1985.'"
Paul Taylor was very unusual, that I can recall at least, in that he played full-back (on defence) - dummy-half (on attack) for Parramatta. It worked for them but that was under the innovative coaching guru that was the late, great Jack Gibson.
The one and only prominent member of that era's Parramatta back-line that didn't make it across for a club spell was Mick Cronin. Cronin was coming towards the end of his career though unlike the rest of that back-division. Would still have been great to see another Aussie 'Hall of Fame' legend turning out. It was the Beetson/Cronin (Parra team-mates) highshot incident in Origin 1 that brought meaning to the tagline 'State against State - Mate against Mate'
Without Cronin Origin would be the Aussie equivalent of our War of the Roses.