Dyldam Parramatta Eels Head Coach Brad Arthur says the mood around the Blue and Gold camp has been positive this week after coming away 26-20 victors over the Penrith Panthers at Pepper Stadium last week.
Arthur says the squad has remained positive and upbeat the last month, despite coming away with just the one victory.
“We have been pretty positive and upbeat for the last month with our training because I think we have played each game with a huge amount of effort and have been in all those games and probably games we should have won,” Arthur said this morning (June 7).
“We have become hard to beat but we just need to learn how to win now, and against Penrith we managed to close the game out, and we have to try and build off the back of that.”
The two points was a good reward for the Blue and Gold who suffered a two point loss to the Rabbitohs and a golden point defeat to the Warriors the week before.
However now that the Eels have set a standard of what the need to do to win, Arthur expects that from his team every week.
“It was a good reward, because the boys have been trying very hard, but it’s important now that we have set a base level with our effort levels and we cant go back from that now.” Arthur said.
The Eels will take on the in-form Cowboys tomorrow night at Pirtek Stadium and the Blue and Gold will have a big challenge against their opposition who are searching for their tenth consecutive victory.
“The focus has been on pretty much been on us backing up the energy and effort that we played with the other day,” Arthur said.
“We played with a real power game and our forwards were nice and solid and we couldn’t ask for a better test against a great forward pack that the Cowboys have.”
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Arthur also commented on the form of young second rower Tepai Moeroa, who spent a few weeks back in the NSW Cup after injury concerns, and the Blue and Gold Head Coach has been impressed with his form since returning.
“I think it worked well for us [Tepai spending some time in the NSW Cup]. If you have a look at him now, he has trimmed down a little bit and he has worked really hard on his conditioning,” Arthur said.
“He started the year and played a couple of good games for us but through unfortunate circumstances has been through hospital and a few injuries and lost his conditioning and hasn’t been playing and defending how he used to.”
“We put him back to reserve grade, he got fit and the last few weeks he has been tremendous for us.” Arthur added.
Arthur named his side earlier in the week, and it includes the young forward Daniel Alvaro, who made his NRL debut last week but saw just 6 minutes of game time.
“It is good for Danny. He is well liked amongst the group and well respected for the respect he shows the rest of the boys and he is just a good worker who trained really well in the pre season,” Arthur said.
“He only got six minutes last week which was unfortunate the way the game went but hopefully we can give him a bit more time this week.”
