Parramatta members have taken an important step towards having the ultimate say on whether the club is ever privatised after agreeing to an amended resolution on its potential sale.

Eels members had six resolutions - four ordinary and of two the "special" variety - put to them at a fiery Parramatta Leagues Club annual general meeting on Monday night. The meeting was one of the most emotionally charged given the club was expected to learn its fate regarding allegations of salary cap breaches the following day. Eels chairman Steve Sharp and his board declined to address the salary cap issues, claiming the matter was not the purpose of the gathering.

Upon entering the auditorium, members were furnished with last year's minutes, a copy of the constitution and two drink vouchers. There was also an important amendment to the most controversial resolution, relating to the process around any attempt to privatise the blue and golds.

There were fears that members, angry at board and management for the cap dramas engulfing the club, would howl down every resolution. However, the most controversial, about whether members should have a say in its sale, received 186 votes. There were 263 members in attendance.

The resolution was amended from the way it was originally presented in the annual report to read: "That the members hereby recommend to the board: that the board draft an amendment to the constitution for both the Parramatta Leagues Club Limited and the Parramatta National Rugby League Club Limited to the effect that the board does not have the power to sell the shares in Parramatta National Rugby League Club Limited without the approval of members, first having been obtained at a general meeting by way of a resolution passed by a simple majority of those members present and voting at the meeting."

The board claimed that, as it stood at present, it was able to sell the club to whomever it pleased without member consultation. There was the usual robust discussion about whether the amendment passed legal muster, but the members made it clear they wanted the ultimate say on privatisation.

Current officials didn't say as much but it's believed some were concerned of a supposed plot for Macquarie Bank heavy hitter Bill Moss to buy the Eels. Ironically, the same board was pushing for Moss to become an "independent" director at the 2014 AGM, only for the majority of the members to howl down the motion because Moss was perceived as being too closely aligned with Sharp at the time.

It was a fiery meeting from the outset. Sharp hit out at "factionalism" and "smear campaigns" and was challenged on a number of points by former CEO Denis Fitzgerald.