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Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur says the Eels can’t fluff their way to win NRL games, and the team needs to earn the right to win.
Read on to see what else Arthur had to say about the Eels’ 16-10 loss to the Penrith Panthers in Round 11 at Bankwest Stadium.
On the Eels mindset
“I thought at the start of the second half we were trying to trick our way. We talked about the conditions and we were trying to grind but we didn’t complete our first five sets (in the second half) and we turned the ball over cheaply. It’s not the mentality. We ran away from collisions instead of running into them. We needed to run into the teeth of where they were and get whacked a little bit and get down the field,” Arthur said.
On the Eels lack of consistency
“From two halves really. Our first set our completions were pretty high and then second half we gave away cheap possession; we wanted to throw thirty passes sideways instead of just spending a bit of time there,” Arthur said.
On the conditions of Bankwest Stadium at night
“Yeah it was slippery … but it was slippery for them too. Looking from tonight, we probably need to focus and concentrate a bit more too,” Arthur said.
On where the Eels went wrong
“It’s the attitude to grind. I know we can play some football but we have got to do that all the time. You can’t win games doing that (how the Eels played), you have to win the right to win games and we’re not willing to stick at it. In the first half we were putting ourselves in the position, you know we were starting to earn the right, but the way we started the second half, we just wanted to get it over and done with. You have to earn the right to win a game of football instead of trying to trick our way or fluff our way and in this tough competition you can’t do it,” Arthur said.
On Blake Ferguson playing in the centre’s
“Yeah look he had an unhappy night with his hands, but he wasn’t on his own,” Arthur said.
On the Eels’ ladder position after loss
“There’s a lot on the line every week. You should want to win every week regardless of the ladder or (it being) a local derby, we need to be prepared to grind in football games.
