Dyldam Parramatta Eels Head Coach Brad Arthur has spoken to the media after his side’s devastating loss to the New Zealand Warriors, saying he is proud of his team’s effort in the golden point contest.
“I’m proud of the boys, I thought they tried very hard.” Arthur said.
“But, I think at half time we made 70 more tackles we’re just making it very hard for ourselves with some fundamental errors.”
“We probably bombed two or three tries and you can’t afford to do that at this level, you’ve got to take the opportunities.”
After trailing 12-0 at half time, the Eels came out firing in the second half as they scored three tries to get themselves back in the contest. When asked what he said in the sheds at half time, Arthur confirmed nothing he hadn’t previously spoken to the boys about.
“Nothing I didn’t say to them before the game,” he said.
“I just think maybe we were a little bit down on confidence or a bit nervous early in the piece.”
“I thought we stuck to our plan in the first half except we competed 10/18 they had 60 something percent of the ball and we had under 40%, we were just making it hard for ourselves.”
“We just knew if we could try to get 50/50 in possession we’d be a chance.”
After holding the Warriors scoreless in the second half before a field goal from Chad Townsend put the Warriors back in front, Arthur said he believed his side had the momentum heading into golden point.
“We had all the momentum and we got down to the other end of the field and made an error and gave them reasonable field position,” he said.
“I think that was our problem in the first half, we gave them good field position and I think in one occasion we had back to back sets in the first half where it started in good ball and we dropped it on tackle one or two."
“Whereas they had consecutive sets at times. you just can’t build any pressure making silly errors.”
With a new halves, Arthur confirmed keep the same combination in Norman and Kelly next week when the team takes on the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
“He helped Corey control the game, and defensively he was good,” Arthur said of Kelly.
Arthur also commented on Chris Sandow’s Man of the Match performance today when he played an instrumental part in Wentworthville’s win over the Warriors.
“He went really good, but he needs to at that level, he needs to go back there and play above that level,” Arthur said.
The Eels will play their Round 11 clash against the Rabbitohs next Friday night and Arthur believes that the effort needs to continue through to next week’s game.
“Injury wise we’re ok, just a lot of disappointed players,” he said.
“You put in that amount of effort and it doesn’t always work out.”
“The true test of character will come next week now that we come with the same amount of effort.”
