Dyldam Parramatta Eels second-rower Kenny Edwards says the Eels’ larrikin halves pairing is helping keep the team motivated as they work to build momentum in the 2014 season.
Edwards played alongside halfback Chris Sandow in the NRL for the first time in Saturday’s “Battle of the West” against the Penrith Panthers, and describes Sandow’s talk as one of his greatest assets.
“I was on his edge on the right edge [on Saturday],” Edwards said.
“He’s a chirpy bloke, he’s a happy little fella, and his talk was big for us especially in defence.”
And with the cheeky halfback playing alongside Edwards’ schoolmate Corey Norman, Edwards knows better than anyone how entertaining the combination of the two can be off the field, as well as on it.
“If they’re not the funniest halves combination in league I don’t know who is,” Edwards said.
“They’re both little brats, they bag us for everything we do.”
“It’s good to have that in a team; it brings a bit of camaraderie.”
“Even this morning, we trained pretty early and maybe we weren’t too keen to get started and those two were just turning the music on yelling at everyone.”
“We’re a tight knit group of boys. We’re starting to build a culture here and I think what our coach has instilled so far is just hard work, [but] hard work together.”
“It’s good to be starting to get that belief in the group.”
While the Eels came away victors in Round 4 with a 32-16 win over the Panthers, Edwards struggled in the second half with his left ankle, but the second-rower is confident he’ll be back for Round 5 at Suncorp Stadium.
“I’ve been treating it 2-3 times a day and it’s coming right,” Edwards said.
More of a concern are the in-form Broncos, and Edwards said it’s difficult to single out just one danger man from the Brisbane side.
“They’ve got strike weapons all over the field,” Edwards said.
“They play second phase footy really well so we’ll have to be on our game.”
The Dyldam Parramatta Eels play the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on Friday, April 4, with NRL kick off at 7.40pm.
