Serious rift between coach and star leaves latter without a club

Paul Kent and James Hooper have spoken out about the rift between Parramatta Eels winger Blake Ferguson and coach Brad Arthur.

Ferguson is in the last year of his contract at Parramatta and has spent the last six weeks out of the team – though he came on to the wing in Round 19.

Hooper and Kent have revealed on Fox Sports that the winger didn’t take his demotion very well, which explains why he hasn’t been in the squad as of late.

“He was dropped based on some defensive decisions we were told at the time that Blake was making,” Hooper said.

“We know the Eels have had a lot of problems down that right edge and Waqa Blake was also positioned on that side of the field at that stage of the season.

“There was a bit of talk that Fergo didn’t take his dropping too kindly. I think he might have had some pretty stern words with the coach about it and expressed some strong views.”