Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur says his pride in his side hasn’t changed following their semi final loss to the Melbourne Storm.
Here’s what he had to say in the post match press conference.
Arthur on the loss
“Disappointed. Just spoke to the boys now. Before the game, myself, everyone involved, just proud of the boys and nothing has changed. We just didn’t get it right tonight. Our start was ordinary. The second half, we dropped some opportunities but we had plenty of fire and that just shows how we can move forward,” Arthur said.
On what went wrong
“We did some dumb things. There were some moments there we just didn’t’ get right, which we have been really good at the last two months. I’m not sure what it is but we made a couple of decisions in defence and we were passive on the edges and we haven’t done that in twelve weeks, we were full of aggression and we did that in the second half,” Arthur said.
On how far the team has come
“Oh look, it’s a good improvement but we are disappointed because we feel like we put ourselves in a good position but we just weren’t ready for that tonight. Overall, like I said, I was proud of the group and everyone involved before tonight and nothing has changed right now. Hopefully the enjoyment of winning some games and playing at the stadium; they’ve been tighter and more together and there’s enough motivation for them to want to get that experience next year,” Arthur said.
On the Storm’s form
“They came first at the end of the season for a reason. They have got the legs after playing tonight to go four games in a row and they’re a very very good football team and they showed it tonight,” Arthur said.
On moving forward as a team
“We are positive about moving forward but from inside of me is probably not a great word now. I’m disappointed but I’m extremely proud and we have something there to build on but we just need to have that want and desire. A lot of the good times we had this year will be a driving force” Arthur said.
Replies
A better result than anyone, myself included, thought this year. A disappointing end to the year, but the Storm are the Storm for a reason. From last to 5th - I'll cop that. Now we have to show consistency and growth into next year. 5th is a start, but it's useless if we don't go on with it and stay around top 4 next year and grow as a team.
We also need to get smarter in learning to play different styles depending on our opposition and the conditions. Top 4 are top 4 because they adapt week to week. We had one style of play, and when it came off it looked awesome. Problem was it enabled the good teams to set a plan as to how to negate our style of play.
It was a season to be proud of, as long as we build on it.
I agree with everything you said until you got to our style of play.
We changed our style the last few weeks, to a style that worked, and changed back to the style that mostly didn’t. Why was that? What happened to the expansive game, up in your face defence, quick play the balls and quick shifts from right to left etc?
I know it was raining but we seem to get over awed by the storm every time we play them and get suckered into playing their footy. We will NEVER beat them in a semi until we play OUR footy.
Weather conditions and lack of confidence and execution.
Captains post I resonate with a lot of it the key now is execution and even more so consistency.
Thats the difference between us and the teams ahead of us the difference between a good night and a bad night isn’t night and day like Parra’s performances are.As soon as Parra can learn to close that gap they’ll be in with a better shout against top quality teams.
Arthur did a good job this year.
Thats a pretty spot on analysis.
You’re spot on most of it comes down to the coach if he can’t instill the confidence in his players and come up with the right game plan on the day then he shouldn’t be coaching that simple
I think our style of footy doesn’t suit wet night games. It’s fast and frantic and comes off awesome on a dry arvo. But ends up in to many dropped balls if the pill gets a bit slippery
trouble is we are one trick ponies at the moment. We just don’t have those short passing decoy/ dummy trick plays that teams like storm and roosters excel in
The Storm have been playing the same style for 10 years. Other coaches have tried to imitate their style and combat their style but they just keep winning
I believe we should have ignored the weather and played again as we did the previous weeks.
Hopefully we will next year. Go back to playing as we did against Manly and the Broncos
Fingers x
Not gona lie I thought we would be Bottom 4 this year after the 2018 season. The team has done the supporters proud and there were plenty of memorable performances at Bankwest stadium.
Next year the goal would be to firstly replace our leaving players with similar or better quality players and to secondly bring the form we showed at Bankwest out onto enemy territory.
The performances this year really gave fans hope that we are going in the right direction and that we could be a force to challenge for the premiership when players like maika, mahoney and Dylan Brown mature. Verry proud of the eels this year!
the storm at home on a wet field and rain ruined our chances ,but most did not think we could win , and then beat the roosters next week.
i would say next week the storm will be gone too,there not on ammi park and the rooster are fresh and have little injury problems.
if all go's to plan that game will also finish the roosters , so on that canberra or south should win..
if cam smith gets a holiday the storm can't win,, cam smith should retire after what he did last night to reed , its a dog act, on a young player, and the nrl should act....hes has to go..
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