Another hit part of job for drought-breaker Ferguson

Blake Ferguson may have had his nose banged up again but at least he's able to say he's scored a try in 2020.

During one of his many dashes upfield in the Eels 24-18 win over the Warriors – he made 203 metres in 20 runs - Ferguson received a whack under the nostrils.

"I got hit on my teeth and my nose was bleeding, but it's all right," the 30-year-old winger said.

"It probably bent it back into shape a bit more."

Ferguson does have a nose leaning to the left from a collision last year. It has since become a regular item on social media due to its odd shape.

But neither his nose nor his try-scoring curse have been a worry.

It seemed his drought would extend for a 17th match in 2020 after he mistimed his chase of a Mitch Moses grubber in the ninth minute against the Warriors.

"I just misjudged the bounce and knocked it on. It was a bit disappointing - a bit of a skill error," he said.

"It was a seven-tackle set which was a bit disappointing, I should have scored that to be honest. I ended up getting another one later."

He did indeed. A fine run midway through the second half had Ferguson jumping for joy.

"I'm just happy playing and getting the work done and doing a job for the boys. I'm happy to get the win to be honest," Ferguson said, when asked if he feared he might stay try-less for the season after scoring 10 in 2019 and 18 in 2018.

"It was a good opportunity, [an] ad-lib sort of thing where it just sat up in my hands so I was happy about that," he said of his try.

Now the mission is to keep the Eels in the top-four and eliminate the mistakes that have crept into their game over the past month.

"Making stupid errors ... we're better than that. We have a good team here, we just need to put an 80-minute performance together. I don't think we've put one together this year. Once we fix that we'll be right," Ferguson said.

"We need to get back to the footy we were playing after the COVID break and then just simplifying our game, not making any errors and taking our opportunities. I missed one tonight, that was pretty disappointing. 

"We're in lapses at the moment where we give teams an opportunity and they take it, and we can't be doing that when it comes to semi-finals."

The Eels have the Panthers on Friday, then finish off the Broncos and Wests Tigers.

After the finals, there is the 2020 State of Origin series. Ferguson played the last two matches of the 2019 series for the victorious Blues.

He's not concerned if his lack of tries might have put him back in the pegging order for coach Brad Fittler.

"I haven't been thinking about that. Six weeks is a long way away, I'm just trying to get the work done and stay consistent in preparation. Just enjoying footy," he said.