Dyldam Parramatta Eels prop, Junior Paulo has spoken about the team’s two point loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Friday night, and he said that although the result was disappointing, there were definitely some positives from the game.
“I can tell you we got a lot more positives than negatives out of that,” Paulo said.
“Especially coming off a loss you don’t expect too many positives but I guess the past two weeks have been more positives than negatives coming out of it and that’s a good sign for us.”
“We’re heading in the right direction.”
After playing his first game since receiving a nine-game suspension in Round 1, Paulo said that he was excited to be back out on the field with his teammates.
“I was blowing after the first 10 to be honest,” he said.
“I just needed a minute to regather myself, but it was a good first hit out again.”
“[The time off] felt like another pre season to be honest, but I was happy just to be out running beside the boys again.”
The past fortnight has seen the Eels just fall short of two wins, with a golden point loss to the Warriors before their two point loss to the Premiers, but Paulo believes that there are minor errors costing his side games, which is the most frustrating part.
“It has been [frustrating] because it’s been in the last couples of minutes, or the previous week before, it’s been in golden point, so it’s one of those things where we just need the luck on the outside,” he said.
“I guess coming out of that Souths game, there was just a defensive lapse in the last four minutes. It’s frustrating losing as a team but it’s just those little things that are costing us.”
“For us moving in the right direction, everything’s probably ticking all the boxes so far.”
Although the Eels are sitting last on the ladder, Paulo says the pressure isn’t mounting yet and he believes the wins are not far away.
“I don’t think we have too much pressure on ourselves,” he said.
“There has just been a couple of little mistakes that we’ve just got to work on.”
“Of course sitting at the bottom is where no club wants to be, but for us, we just need to keep chipping away and I guess we’re almost there.”
