Parramatta second-rower Ryan Matterson has admitted the Eels were "rattled" by the Titans' onslaught before half-time of their season opener, but says the team's ability to grind out a win is a sign of their growth.
The Eels looked set for a big win after slamming home five tries to two inside the opening 33 minutes, before Gold Coast hit back with three tries in six minutes.
The Eels eventually hung on for a 32-28 win, and Matterson said the game was a prime example of the team being a more legitimate premiership contender this season.
The game that we had on the weekend, if it was last year I don't think we would've been able to come back from a game like that," he told 2GB's Wide World of Sports radio.
Especially with the way the Titans came out, they put a few points on and kind of rattled us going into half-time.
"If that was the old Parramatta side, we would've buckled in maturity, but we kept a cool, calm and collected mindset, and we ended up coming away with the win."
Parramatta's 2021 season was brought to an end in a tightly contested semi-final against the eventual premiers, Penrith, and Matterson said the disappointment of the loss had driven the squad right throughout the summer.
"The work that we've done in the pre-season, especially with our maturity, we've grown from last year," he said.
see him miss up to two weeks (Getty)
"With that tough loss against Penrith, going out the way we did, we've bounced back and we've had a harder pre-season and we're learning from it."
The win was soured by a hamstring injury for Matterson, who said he expected to be sidelined for one to two weeks.
"Early in the first half I had a bit of a hammy strain," he said.
"I ended up having my second stint and re-did it again."
The Matterson-less Eels will hope to continue their unbeaten start to the season when they face the Cronulla Sharks at PointsBet Stadium on Saturday.
Replies
Sadly the line, ("If that was the old Parramatta side, we would've buckled in maturity, but we kept a cool, calm and collected mindset, and we ended up coming away with the win.") was used last season multiple times.
I would rather hear honesty in it's raw form than these throw away lines used over and over.
We went out there and scored a few quick trys so we thought this is going to be a push over and took our foot off the gas.
But we did regain our composure last year, multipe times. This team has grown and is still growing. It doesn't happen all at once, not for the top teams and certainly not for us.
Is she old enough to be on this chanel?
I wonder if Putin would adopt her?
he already has trump and they would fight too much sadly
"we've had a harder pre-season"
Classic. Once again, BA has managed to pull off the hardest pre-season yet.