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Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur says the Eels need to start getting important details right, if they’re going to win tough games.
Here’s what he had to say following his side’s 17-16 point loss to the Broncos in Brisbane.
On the Eels loss
“They tried hard again and showed the effort was there. They had plenty of fight at the back end of the game. We scored three tries to two but we just lacked in a couple of moments, a couple of big moments in the game and we were just putting ourselves under a bit of pressure. There are probably more positives in it than negatives but we just have to get some of that detail right,” Arthur said.
On the return of Blake Ferguson
“Yeah look, he has been out for a while, he hasn’t been doing a whole lot of training and I thought he was way better in the second half just to find his rhythm. He hasn’t played outside of Waqa before and he is going to be better for us next week and you know, what’s after that,” Arthur said.
On Junior Paulo’s performance
“Yeah he was really good today. He is a big body that doesn’t take any shortcuts in defence and he carries the ball strong out of the backfield so he has got plenty of footy in him. I don’t know what his minutes were tonight but we needed him out there,” Arthur said.
On whether Arthur believes the Eels are premiership contenders
“Once we work out who the top eight is, anyone in the top eight can win it, it’s the best team on the day. But that’s not our focus, we need to worry about Manly, we have a tough game next week and you know we need to get a few of those details right that we just are lacking,” Arthur said.
On where the Eels went wrong
“I thought we started well, we got those first 25 minutes right, we just lost our way. If we, you know, if something goes wrong in a set or at the end of a set, we can still compound it with the next set or the next two sets and get back to going set for set footy like we did in the second half. If something goes wrong we just have to ride it out, defend our set and get the ball back and get the kick away,” Arthur said.
On where the Eels are at as a team
“Our last couple of games, the Dogs (Bulldogs) last week was a really good grind and fight for us and we kept fighting until the end and we lack a bit of detail around that game too. The detail in a few areas, we have to get right and tonight was a tough grind and I’m sure that’s what’s coming next week,” Arthur said.
