Eels press conference - Round Nine
The Parramatta Eels have fallen short in an incredible come from behind victory, going down 22-20 at Shark Park in Round Nine of the NRL Telstra Premiership tonight (Saturday 5 May).
However Blue & Gold Head Coach Brad Arthur said that the side just didn’t give themselves a chance to come away with a victory, and only had themselves to blame.
“We spoke at half time about giving ourselves a chance and we didn’t give ourselves a chance until about 10 minutes to go.” Arthur said.
“Even in the second half, dropping the ball over the line or a forward pass, we just didn’t build or sustain any pressure except the pressure we put on ourselves.”
“We have nobody to blame but ourselves.” Arthur added.
“Our first couple of last tackle options in the second half, they got the ball starting on the half way. That is not giving yourselves a chance.”
When asked whether it was a step back from how the side had played the last two weeks, Arthur said the side just didn’t build and sustain any pressure.
“I thought we played dumb last week as well. Our effort and attitude was great and probably with the amount of ball they had in the middle period of the second half there, we probably should have been down a bit more there on our try line and down a few more tries.” Arthur said.
“We rallied but we didn’t give ourselves a real good account of putting ourselves in field position and seeing what we can do with the ball.”
“We just didn’t build and pressure or show any patience.”
Eels co-captain Clint Gutherson reflected Arthur’s frustration, saying the side did not give themselves a chance to win the game until it was too late.
“We just gave too many penalties and let them off the hook. They were rolling us 60-70m through the middle and they were kicking it to where they wanted to.” Gutherson said.
“It’s frustrating. It’s not the way we wanted to finish.”
“We spoke about it at half time, going out there and giving ourselves a chance and we waited to the last six minutes and we ran out of time.” Gutherson added.
“We weren’t good enough and it showed.”
