Parramatta’s latest NRL sponsor is currently engaged in legal action against the Cronulla Sharks.
Shine Lawyers are representing former Sharks players Isaac Gordon and Josh Cordoba, who are taking action against the embattled club over Cronulla’s 2011 supplement program.
Now the firm has decided to join the Eels as a corporate partner for the next three years.
Gordon and Cordoba’s lawyer James Chrara on Monday tweeted his delight at Shine Lawyers joining forces with the Eels.
“As NSW GM for Shine Lawyers and Eels tragic, I am immensely proud that Shine are sponsoring the Eels in 2014,” Chrara tweeted.
Chrara’s two previous tweets were to announced that another former Sharks player Broderick Wright had joined the lawsuit against the club, and to congratulate the NRL for taking preliminary action against Cronulla for breaching the game’s code of conduct.
“Congrats NRL on your action against the Club for breaching the NRL code through their failures to protect the health of the players,” Chrara tweeted on December 16.
Although Shine Lawyers’ sponsorship of the Eels is completely separate to their action against Cronulla, it’s an unusual link.
Trent Elkin, the trainer accused of being integral to Cronulla’s 11-week supplement program from 2011, was employed by the Parramatta Eels until the NRL provisionally de-registered him late last year.
Shine Lawyers will appear on the bottom back of the Eels jersey and say the move is to grow their relationship in the greater Parramatta area.
“Shine have witnessed the Eels’ strong community connections and through our partnership with the club, we hope to develop and grow our relationship with the communities of western Sydney,” said Shine’s chief marketing officer Stephen Deane.
The partnership was welcomed by Parramatta chief executive Scott Seward.
“Partnerships at our club must be more than financial, we must share similar values and principles for them to be genuinely beneficial to both parties,” Seward said in a statement.
“In Shine Lawyers we believe we have found exactly that and are extremely confident that together we can make a real positive difference in the greater western Sydney community.”
