Dyldam Parramatta Eels Head Coach Brad Arthur spoke to the media after his side’s loss to the Melbourne Storm on Sunday night, and said while the Eels prepared well, they fell short to a strong team.
“We’ve trained really well,” Arthur said.
“I thought they we worked pretty hard, I thought our effort was pretty good.”
“At the end of the day, they’ve got seven internationals that played in that game last week and I think their class told out.”
“They stuck at what they needed to do for longer, well for the whole game and we just sort of deviated a bit it away from our plan.”
“They kicked well, they just done all the little things spot on, and that’s what they do to you, they’re a good team.”
When asked about the disallowed try to Chris Sandow for a double movement, Arthur said that while it was an important moment in the game, the Eels had other opportunities to score and it was not a deciding factor.
“Heat of the moment,” Arthur said of Sandow’s decision.
“It was a big moment in the game but we probably need to learn to respond a little bit,” he said.
“I thought there were some moments in the first half too that went against us and we stuck to what we needed to do and just maybe in the second half they stuck to what they wanted to do for 80 minutes and we didn’t.”
Having Richie Fa’aoso removed from the field to complete a concussion test was another test the Eels had to overcome.
“I don’t even know what the injury is,” Arthur said.
“They said he had to come off, he got a whack around the head. We just got to work out who has go to go back on.”
“I just went and spoke to him and he said he’s ok. I’m sure the physios and the doctors need to have a look at him.”
“No disrespect to Richie, but I haven’t really thought too much about it, like I said I had a quick check on him, but there’s probably more important things that we were talking about at the moment.”
After nine rounds of the season, Arthur said the team is not where they want to be and they need to be more disciplined in their execution.
“No, its not where we want to be,” he said.
“We completed at 54% today and gave away nine penalties compared to receiving five and they completed at 80%.”
“We made just under 100 more tackles than the Storm.”
“It’s hard to keep fronting up when you’re just exerting that much energy. But it’s no one else’s fault but our own.”
The Eels will now look to secure a win in Round 10 at Pirtek Stadium next Saturday against the New Zealand Warriors.
