With the recent departure of representative regular Anthony Watmough, along with star hooker Nathan Peats, Isaac De Gois has been thrust into the starting side to help fill the void.
De Gois, a 210-game NRL veteran, is now the most capped NRL player at the club and will be heavily relied upon with Parramatta now only a faint hope of playing finals football in 2016.
With Kieran Foran still missing from the side, combined with the salary cap dramas still plaguing the club, Parramatta have every right to make up the numbers this season. De Gois says the players have other ideas, and it starts with the culture and feel around the club, which is still fantastic.
“We’re a pretty tight group here, its really important, not just with everything going on, if nothing was going on, its just important to have a good culture, a good core of not only players but staff that all get along and we ‘ve got that here, its’ enjoyable coming to training.”
De Gois has played first grade for the last 12 seasons with four different clubs. After stints with Wests Tigers, Newcastle and Cronulla, the 31-year-old says he wants to extend his career beyond 2016 and revealed the club he wants to play for next year.
“I want to definitely play on, the body is feeling good, as long as it feels good I’ll keep putting my hand up to keep playing. I ideally want to stay at Parramatta.”
With senior players such as Danny Wicks, Beau Scott and Corey Norman playing at the club, De Gois isn’t feeling the extra pressure of being the most experienced member of the team. The consummate professional understands his new role in the side and feels blessed to be able to play the game he loves.
“When he (Peats) was out I was starting and playing more game time, so whatever brad wants me to do I’ll do my best to do it.”
De Gois is the definition of a player who gets the most out of his skills and body. He is tireless in defence and is regularly the first man up in the defensive line, setting the line speed for his big forward pack. His most notable statistic this season is that he is only one of three Eels yet to commit an error, helping justify his new starting role.
“I wasn’t aware I had no errors but that’s obviously a great thing, we’ve got a pretty good bench here, it seems to be going well for us at the moment so hopefully we can keep plugging along.”
And plug along they must, with Melbourne at home Monday night, the Eels will face a stern test and must win to keep their finals hopes alive. Kick off is at 7pm and tickets are still available.
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