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Brad Arthur concedes the pressure on him is only going to intensify after Parramatta suffered their worst loss in more than two years, while leading pundits declared their campaign already dead and buried.
The Eels reached their lowest ebb in Saturday night’s 56-10 flogging from Manly, poor in both attack and defence and now facing serious judiciary concerns after Ryan Matterson was sent off for a shoulder charge that knocked out Manly centre Brad Parker.
The loss prompted club great Peter Sterling to rule them out of title contention, admitting they won’t be able to perform for four straight weeks in the finals.
Phil Gould was also scathing of the Eels hopes.
“They are as far away from winning a premiership as I think they’ve ever been, even though they’re up there in sixth position,” Gould said on Nine’s post-match show.
“People have thought [the Eels are] in a premiership window and I’ve kept saying, ‘You’re not, you’re not in a premiership window’.
“They fold under pressure every time. As soon as some team takes it to [them] they get isolated as a team.
“There’s no sense of team, there’s no sense of resilience about them, there’s no common cause about them.
(Photo by Getty Images)
“They’re not like the top-two teams [Melbourne and Penrith]. The top-two teams are developed teams, they’re kids that have come through together, playing together for a long period of time, they’ve been in the Storm system or the Panthers system, and even South Sydney and the Roosters have more of a culture and more of a feel and a personality and character about their club than what this Parramatta team does at the moment.
“And that’s not casting aspersions on individuals; it’s just the way it’s been crafted and brought together and cobbled together with high-price purchases. It’s not always the way to win a premiership.”
Michael Ennis, speaking on Fox Sports said: “I said a number of weeks ago they looked like they had fallen off a cliff and that was without Mitchell Moses. Since he’s come back, the confidence with him out of the side had started to erode and you can already see at the moment even with him back in the side, they’re so deflated,” he said.
“It’s filtered right through their play. Clint Gutherson carrying the ball for 50 metres, Maika Sivo carrying the ball with no venom compared to what we’re used to… and that’s the backbone of Parramatta.
“You think of why they were so good so early on in the season, it was because they had this ruthlessness about their defensive line where they were flying up, wanting to get physical and dominate the opposition. We didn’t see that tonight, they were retreating from the start.”
Cooper Cronk described theEels in recent weeks as “a shadow of themselves.”
“For me, sometimes defence can be systematic, it can be a technical thing, but sometimes it’s pure attitude and that’s where all the good teams base their performances on — a real grunt, a real effort, a real desire to be great defensively and then the attack flows off the back of that.”
With their top-four hopes now all but shot, Parramatta must try to build some momentum before finals in games against North Queensland, Melbourne and Penrith.
But already under pressure before the season began for failing to make an impact in finals and again last week for their loss of form, Arthur admitted more heat was now coming.
“It’s coming. It’s what it is, it’s footy,” Arthur said.
“That part of it I can handle. I don’t like seeing the players disappointed and not happy and not enjoying our footy.
“And when you get beat like that obviously there is no enjoyment.
“The other bit, it’s going to be there we have to deal with it.”
The long-time Eels coach admitted it was on him to turn his side around, after they executed poorly in attack and leaked 16 line breaks.
They have now scored just four tries in their last three games, and coughed up the ball in almost every good scoring opportunity on Saturday night.
“We have to (turn it around). We can when we need to,” Arthur said.
“The responsibility falls on my shoulders and we will turn it around.
“We probably need to change things up a bit at training. maybe not focus on footy this week.
“Sometimes the harder you work, the more of a hole you get yourself into.”
It’s almost certain to get worse for the Eels before it gets better, with second-rower Ryan Matterson sent off for a shoulder charge on Brad Parker.
Matterson was almost immediately marched when his shoulder contacted Parker’s face, leaving the Manly centre concussed.
Even a grade-two shoulder charge would result in a three-game ban, while a grade-three charge would result in at least a four-match ban and rule him out of the first week of finals.
“It was an accident, a tackle gone wrong,” Arthur said.
“He used his right shoulder and it was meant to be a left shoulder tackle.
“He got knocked in the head himself. There was no malice or intent in it.”
With AAP
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