Parramatta Eels captain Clint Gutherson didn’t hold back the morning after his side’s most embarrassing loss this season.
Losing to the Tigers by a last ditch drop goal hurts, however to go down by 30 points against one of the competition’s most disappointing clubs was humiliating, for a side tipped for success come September.
Coming off a bye round and Origin players having five days to recover and recuperate, Gutherson was not out to make excuses.
“It was really embarrassing knowing that we just performed like that,” Gutherson told Sky Racing’s Big Sports Breakfast.
They got a few lucky tries early and a lot of their tries came off kicks, look when they’re going that hard and playing that type of footy you get those tries and that’s the way that footy is.
“It just felt like we didn’t go after the collision, we were trying to shift off the back of anything and we were throwing the ball out the back for no reason.
“It was extremely disappointing, Brad was pretty off it in the sheds after the game but look we can’t really do anything after that game now, we’ve got to review it tomorrow and look at what did and what we did throughout the week
The Eels have confused fans and pundits as many predicted to see the blue and gold in the competition’s grand final at the end of the year.
Brad Arthur’s men were the first side in the NRL to beat the Penrith Panthers this season, however their consistency is in question by not only fans but players as well.
“That’s probably two or three games this year where we’ve really shot ourselves in the foot against an opposition that’s at the bottom of the table,” Gutherson said.
“We find a way to turn up when its a big game in a top of the table clash but when we go to these little games where we’re expected to win and we just can’t turn up and play the footy that we want.
“We were really embarrassed coming off the field last night and look we get to go again this week but we’ve got to be able to have a tough conversation at training and see where it all went wrong.”
Moreover the Gutherson believes that Parramatta’s lack of patience to reduce the deficit is where it all went wrong for the Eels.
That’s the thing at the moment once we get a couple of tries behind we’re probably trying to chase the score too quickly,” Gutherson said.
Look I went for the all or nothing play in the second half and the fox was good enough to pluck it out of the air and run away.
“It’s probably just the mindset we get into when we get behind early that we need to chase points straight away but we know as a team we can score tries in bunches we’ve just got to drag them back into the game.
“Even when we did that last night we got down there, we gave ourselves a chance to get back in and we were just dropping easy ball or forcing offloads, we just didn’t field any pressure whatsover.
“Credit to the Bulldogs, they played great and came ready to go and came after us early in the game but Panga Jr was out there on a mission and we got stuck in to what they were trying to do, got stuck into the push and shove but extremely disappointing.
“You’ve got to be able to move on pretty quick but look we’ll have to have some stern words tomorrow in the review and try and find out what went wrong on the weekend and in the game.”
The Eels had three Blues players return for the clash against the Bulldogs, with the rest of the squad given five days off the week before with the bye Round.
Lack of time, preparation and rest was clearly not an issues for the Eels, something Parramatta’s captain took complete ownership over.
“100% we agree, we had a long turn around after a bye as well so there was no excuse,” Gutherson answered.
“Our Origin players had six days to come back and play.
“We were sitting in the sheds and we didn’t even know what to say and how we did it but it’s disappointing Loz.
“We’ve got a short turn around this week coming into a Saturday, we’ve got the Roosters who are playing good footy so if we turn up like we did against them (Bulldogs) then it’s going to be an even bigger score.
“Look we’re the only ones that can change it, nothing that the staff or anything like that have done because they gave us a few days off to get away from footy and to produce that performance is quite embarrassing, we’re the only ones that can change it and we have to change it pretty quickly.”
While the Eels will no doubt be having those tough conversations when reviewing a game they’ll hope to forget, they’ll also turn their focus to the matchup this Saturday when they take on the Roosters at CommBank Stadium
Replies
Yawn
ka chink ka chink
I don't like the guy.
He can see what they did wrong but he's the Captain and also one of the main culprits??
He is pretty much explaining why he shouldn't be captain.
" but when we go to these little games where we're expected to win and we can't turn up and play the footy we want."
And here lies the problem, there are no little games in the NRL, with an attitude like this we will never win a comp. Gutho is not a Captains arsehole and until we get someone with no ego and a feel for the game, we will struggle.
That was one of the worst performances from an Eels side in a long while, more than embarrassing.
The problem too is "Play the footy we want" So if you cannot play the footy you want to play you shut up shop and are gone? Have to be flexible. You think Penrith go into everygame playing the way they want? When things don't go their way they adapt and change to get the win. Instead us? "We cant do what we want to, woe is us".
It's the NRL you will never be able to play the way you want to consistently.
Agree 100%, Gutho is not a leader, we should have played hard ball with his contract, no other club was interested, we should have sounded out Manu, might have got him for $800k.
Gutho is starting to wear thin with me, his ego is out of control plus he has no man management skills.
These "little games" are in some ways more important than the big ones. For and Against matters end of season, making a statement and growing in confidence with a big win matters.
So much wrong with this attitude, if the hunger and belief isn't there that we HAVE to win every single game in the season then we are no hope of going deep into the finals, let alone winning a premiership.
What a terrible, unprofessional attitude.
Lol ok what did you want him to say? At least he's owned it. Pretty accurate, dogs got some early luck and momentum and we got rattled. Can happen, shouldn't at this level but can. Nothing you can do but turn up next week.
Owned what ? He's sugar coating everything. It's all BS
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 12 Next