Parramatta Eels’ coach Brad Arthur says he shouldn’t have to drop players from the team to get a positive response.
Arthur praised the Eels’ improved defence in their 26-14 win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Round 12 at Bankwest Stadium.
Here’s what he said about the game in the post-match press conference.
On the Eels’ win after three losses
“I’m not real pleased I had to do that (drop players) to get a response. We showed with our energy and the effort we put into our game tonight, and I know they had some quality (players) missing but in the last three weeks that has been lacking,” Arthur said.
“I thought the physicality to start the game, we knew they were probably going to come at us really hard to see if we were going to have a crack and to the boys credit … to start the half we had a couple of shots down at their try line and the boys backed themselves which was good. On the back of not getting a reward (a try) and coming away empty, we defended well and made them have to kick from inside their half,” Arthur said.
On how the Eels go forward after win
“I might have to change the team again to get a response. We have to challenge the players to having that want and desire week in, week out,” Arthur said.
“I think we are good enough to fight our way into the semis, if we have the want and desire and the right attitude, but it’s a tough competition and we have to find a way to come with that (right attitude) every week,” Arthur said.
“The priority is backing up next week now. We are going to Shark Park and they are a tough grinding team so we need to be right on top of our game. We are nearly at full strength. We have a couple of blokes coming back into the team; Nathan Brown is getting close and Dylan Brown is a couple of weeks after that,” Arthur said.
On Mitch Moses’ performance
“Yeah he was good for periods, but also a couple of his kicks especially at the back end of the game there, I don’t think we got to a kick in the last couple of sets; there was ten minutes to go and we had some good field position, but it was an improved performance from Mitchell. He ran the ball and he controlled the team well,” Arthur said.
“He has a lot going on, thinking about running the football and controlling the team so yeah I thought he did a pretty good job,” Arthur said.
On team’s reaction to refereeing calls
“Yeah that was good, I thought there were quite a few calls that went against us, but we decided we wanted to be better defensively tonight. We still had a couple of soft tries under the post but I thought our defence paved the way for putting some points on, in a tough win,” Arthur said.
