Eels coach Brad Arthur takes a new approach to training in bid to inject some life into Parra’s season
PARRAMATTA have watched with envy how South Sydney have been reborn. Now Eels coach Brad Arthur has lifted the Rabbitohs’ strategy in a bid to save the club’s ailing NRL season.
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TO beat North Queensland in Darwin last weekend, Parramatta borrowed from South Sydney’s blueprint for success.
And this week they are hoping it will help them beat the Rabbitohs at their own game when the sides clash on Thursday night.
Eels captain Tim Mannah has revealed coach Brad Arthur has restructured his side’s entire week in bid to inject some life into their season, adopting Bunnies coach Anthony Seibold’s strategy of a fixed day off three days before a game and a less physical captain’s run.
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Mannah says the undesirable position of being 11 losses from 13 matches meant they we were “willing to try anything.”
“We’ve restructured our whole week. Instead of having a day off two days into a captain’s run we have a day off three days before now,” he said.
“Then we’ve made [Tuesday] our big day for the game and [Wednesday] captain’s run will be real light.
“It will almost be a walk-through just to run through our plays.”
Players were also handed the reigns during the captain’s run video session with Arthur taking a step back and allowing his troops to control proceedings.
“It was really good to see the guys take some ownership and some players spoke up about how we are going to play and what we need to do,” he said.
“It was similar to the kind of messages the coaches would give us but it was coming from the players.”
Mannah says the restructure to the training week and last weekend’s 20-14 win over the Cowboys has given the Eels a renewed sense of confidence.
“The thing we have lacked this year is just a bit of belief in confidence,” he said.
“The feeling after the weekend was that the boys got a bit of that back, the way they trained today shows they have taken it into this week as well.”
However, the forward does concede he can’t pinpoint exactly why his side’s confidence disappeared in the first place despite coming into the season as one of the title favourites and on the back of an impressive run into last year’s finals series.
“It’s a question we have been asking ourselves all year,” Mannah said.
“I don’t know if it was an expectation thing that we let ourselves down on but whatever it was we didn’t handle the situation well this year we should have been better.
“All we can control now is what is in front of us as we still have a lot of footy in front of us. Last week was a really good step forward and hopefully we can continue on this week.”
Halfback Mitchell Moses has been named on the extended bench to return from a knee injury. He ran freely in Tuesday’s field session but he will need to prove his fitness in Wednesday’s captain’s run before he is given the green light.
Norman found some form against the Cowboys with his halves partner out but Mannah rubbished any talk the two playmakers are incompatible on the field.
“I think he [Moses] steers the team around really well, we need that from him,” he said.
“They’re both high quality football players.
“They both get along well. When you are losing everyone finds something, the rumours coming out … none of it was happening. I guess when you are losing you create that environment, you create that energy for people to feed off.
“It’s not so much about who is playing but how we play and with that confidence and belief back we are better off.”
Originally published as Eels coach Brad Arthur takes a new approach to training in bid to inject some life into Parra’s season
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