‘How did we lose that?’: Eels coach Brad Arthur can’t believe it
Long-suffering Parramatta Eels fans have been left to rue another brutal loss as the 2022 grand finalists found a new way to lose at Magic Round.
Eels coach Brad Arthur has been left in disbelief after the 2022 grand finalists let yet another game slip through their fingers in a 26-24 loss to the Gold Coast Titans on Magic Round.
The Eels fell to 4-6 for the season, two wins out of the top eight.
It’s far from what the rugby league world would expect from a grand finalist team as the side languishes in 12th after 10 rounds.
Although the Eels still have three byes under their belts, it’s been a brutal start to the year.
After losing four of their first five — only defeating the reigning premiers Penrith — the side was able to get off the canvas with three wins from the next four games.
But you could argue the 26-24 loss to the Titans could shape to be the most important loss of the season.
The Eels had 53 per cent of the possession, completed 29 of 35 sets, ran a combined 406m more than the Titans, ran over 150 more post-contact metres, had seven line breaks to five, made 14m more per set and had 18 offloads to nine.
Although there were some negatives, including 41 missed tackles to the Titans’ 22 and losing the penalty count seven to three, Eels coach Brad Arthur had one question for his players at full-time.
I said to the team just then — how did we lose that?” Arthur said in his press conference.
“It felt like we did more than enough to win it. The effort was really good, we did a lot of good things, more good things than bad. But couple of big moments and a couple of system errors in defence hurt us.”
Captain Clint Gutherson said he was perplexed about the loss as well.
“We were right in it, we played some good footy, missed a lot of opportunities, gave up some cheap tries,” he said.
“You can’t give teams those easy tries. As Brad said, our effort was there until the end but sometimes we make it too hard on ourselves.”
The other downside for the Eels is that Mitchell Moses will miss next week’s match with an 11-day stand down after he reeled out of a tackle late in the match and was issued a category one HIA.
It means he’ll miss next week’s match against the Raiders.
“He’s alright now, but it wasn’t good,” Arthur said.
As for who will take the reins next week: “Probably Jake (Arthur) but we’ll worry about that tomorrow.”
On the bright side, Dylan Brown has best performance of the year so far, one that Fox League commentator Andrew Voss believed made him “one of the best players of Magic Round”.
Brown had a remarkable 232m in 19 runs as well as two line breaks, a line break assist and two try assists in a complete match.
“He chased the game hard, stepped up, ran,” Arthur said. “That’s two weeks in a row now he’s been like that.
“He was probably the best player on the field.”
But there’s a reason Moses was given an over $1m a season contract extension earlier in the year and he will leave an enormous hole for the Eels against the Raiders who have won four straight.
And Moses will return for the clash against the red hot Rabbitohs in round 12.
With every loss for the Eels after a slow start to the season, the chance to make the finals dwindles slightly further.
While you could argue that although they are 12th, the Eels for-and-against is still +32 and the closeness of the competition means they’re two wins out of equal third, they are also only one loss out of equal last on the ladder.
And while every team needs to go one game at a time, the Eels can’t leave it too late to get into finals contention with the clubs’ final five games including matches against the Storm in Melbourne, Broncos at the Gabba, Roosters at home and Panthers at Penrith.
Replies
"Captain Clint Gutherson said he was perplexed about the loss as well." Seriously what a turkey is princess Gutherson. Perplexed about the loss🤣 Well Princess I'd be more perplexed about how you gave the Titans 16 of their 24 points. Boy what a turkey 🦃
Yes not a good example from the bloke who's supposed to be captain. Sounds like he's convinced we were entitled winners.
Why in feck does this unwashed bum of a journo, Andrew McDirty, with 20 chicko rolls worth of grease in his hair, have a massive picture of his grubby mug in this article?
You could dead set deep fry a couple of scallops in his hair on a 30 degree hot day.
Give yourself an uppercut Andrew, lift your game ffs.
Looks like the type who steals ladies knickers off their clotheslines.
Similar trait as Poppa Popsicle I believe
How can you say the effort is there and then say we gave up easy tries. The effort is not there. Defence is effort. The problem is our defence. The attitude comes from the coach. A good coach installs the attitude aka Bennett.
Effort is there to score 5 tries. I believe though the players could be playing for themselves.
I think it comes down to a few things.
We had a centre in the first half who did not pass the ball and when he did in the 2nd 1/2 we scored twice.
Our wingers forgot to slide and this cost us 2 tries.
We through a cutout pass that was intercepted which is caused by centres not passing the ball.
Despite winning the ruck we where panalised out of the game at very critical times.
We are carrying a few players and started expecting a few of the young players to stand up but this has not happened.
We won the game in the forwards but lost it in the backs and with goalkicking. Moses was very quiet all match and to me something was not right with him?
BA should now realise that good statistics does not exactly win you games. Having the same game plan for every opponent is not working. Stop being stubborn BA and start listening to others who might have good suggestions on how to play the game.
Apparently he is the be all and end all when it comes to coaches.
He can do no wrong in some people's eyes.
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