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Eels coach Brad Arthur hit out at critics of his halfback and his team after they buried their semi-final hoodoo to dismantle the Green Machine and advance to the Preliminary Final for the first time since 2009.
Arthur said star playmaker Mitchell Moses erased any doubt about whether he was a bona fide star in the NRL with a top-notch display while he also returned serve at critics who have claimed they are on the verge of yet another meek finals exit.
“If someone’s got an agenda, they’re not going to break us,” he said when asked about negative coverage of his team in the lead-up to the Semi-Final clash with Canberra, including a report which alleged nepotism in the ranks.
“You’re not going to break this group, we’ve worked too hard.”
The Eels jumped out of the blocks early at CommBank Stadium to all but seal their victory over Canberra and make it past the second round of the playoffs after bowing out at the semi-final stage four times in the previous five years.
They led 22-4 at half-time and went on with the job in the second stanza to run out comprehensive 40-4 winners with Moses at the forefront.
“There was talk about him not being able to handle the pressure, I think he showed he can handle the pressure tonight,” Arthur said of his No.7.
“We had to win our last three games to get ourselves a chance in the top four and Mitchell stood up and delivered for us.”
Parramatta will head north next Friday to take on North Queensland in Townsville for a Grand Final berth – they haven’t made the premiership decider in 13 years and hold the NRL’s longest premiership drought after coming up short every year since 1986.
“The job’s not finished. We’ve got a big week ahead of us,” said Arthur. “I thought we went out there tonight and backed ourselves. We went after it. Maybe against Penrith (last week) we were a bit tentative and didn’t play to our strengths. We’re a team that we’ve just got to go after the game and see what happens.”
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Arthur said the club had organised for a charter flight for their trip to Townsville next Friday: “We will fly in and we’ve got one job to do.”
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart conceded his team was outclassed.
“They were on tonight, a couple of bounces didn’t go our way but they were too good,” he said.
“After Round 12 this year if one of you had come to me and said to me I’ll do a deal with you and you can get to the second semi-final and get flogged, what do you reckon I would say? We were coming 11th or 12th or 15th at one stage.
“That game there, that does not define these blokes, the team, the club, I’m very proud of them. Disappointed with the result, absolutely.”
Stuart said they would have made the top four if not for major injuries to Jamal Fogarty and Josh Hodgson.
Canberra started poorly and coughed up the ball when Jordan Rapana made a basic error in the seventh minute and Eels centre Will Penisini punished him by dragging Seb Kris over the line to open up a 6-0 lead.
Rapana’s handling woes continues soon after when Clint Gutherson jolted the ball from his grasp as he tries to dive over the line in the 13th minute.
On the next set a Dylan Brown grubber went straight through Xavier Savage’s legs and Tom Opacic pounced to make it 10-0.
It got worse for the Green Machine from the restart when Kiwi forward Corey Harawira-Naera reeled out of an attempted tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
Rapana’s night went from bad to worse when he made a poor read on a Moses cut-out pass and Waqa Blake stepped past Savage for a 16-0 advantage at the mid-point of the first half.
When Junior Paulo surged through some non-existent Raiders goal line defence it was 22-0 and the contest was all but over.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Gutherson streaked away to put the Eels’ tally ahead of the clock but mercifully for the Raiders, referee Ashley Klein ruled the last pass forward.
Savage finally struck a blow for the Canberrans in the 28th minute with a long-range individual try but it could have been worse for the Raiders after Eels winger Maika Sivo’s try late in the first half was disallowed by the bunker because the ball slipped from his grasp as he scrambled over the line.
Any hope of a Canberra comeback was snuffed out five minutes into the second half when Moses sprinted over out wide and converted from the sideline for a 28-4 buffer.
Parra’s eternally anxious fans were able to breathe a sigh of relief to kick-start their celebrations in the 73rd minute when Marata Niukore stormed onto a Gutherson pass to open up a 30-point cushion.
Raiders five-eighth Jack Wighton was put on report for a shoulder charge on Moses in the closing stages which could affect his World Cup availability for the Kangaroos but there appeared little in the incident for him to worry about.
Niukore finished off a helter-skelter attacking raid featuring a Moses chip and chase, a speculative flick pass and a superb Sivo offload in the shadows of full-time to send the Blue & Gold faithful into raptures.
Opacic “doesn’t look great” for the clash with the Cowboys, according to Arthur after suffering a hamstring strain.