Parramatta Eels coach: ‘We owe it to the fans to make up for last year’
Eels coach Brad Arthur and several off-contract players are in last-chance saloon to succeed in 2019, but they aren’t feeling any extra pressure to end the Eels’ 33-year premiership drought.
It is the last-chance saloon for Parramatta’s head coach and several off-contract players — but the embattled club’s key personnel are feeling no extra pressure to end the Eels’ 33-year premiership drought.
Brad Arthur is in the final year of his contract in charge of an NRL team which collected the dreaded wooden in 2018.
He has won just 45 per cent of games since taking over in 2014, but says it is business as usual ahead of the club’s season-opener away to the Penrith Panthers on Sunday.
“If I coach well and we play well, then everything will look after itself,” Arthur told the Advertiser.
“I’ve been under pressure every year I’ve been here. That’s the nature of the job — and it’s not something I’m even concerned about.”
Both Arthur and the players know how critical the opening five rounds are to their season, before they play their first home game at the new $360 million Bankwest Stadium on Easter Monday.
“We need to give our fans plenty of hope and get some confidence,” Arthur said.
The Eels are $2.50 outsiders with Sportsbet to beat the Panthers this weekend, when they’ll be without forward Peni Terepo, who has been stood down over allegations of being drunk and abusive on a flight from Tonga to Auckland on Saturday.
Utility Brad Takairangi said the players were “under no illusions that we need to be playing good footy” from Round 1, as new contracts were on the line.
“We all know that we have to play well to start the season off,” he said.
“If you actually have a look at the roster, I think we’ve got 15 to 20 players coming off contract so everyone’s sort of in the same boat.”
Prop Daniel Alvaro said the players had “become good at putting any outside noise out of our heads and just getting on with the job”.
“The boys all want to go out and make sure they do the right thing for the team and for ‘BA’ so I’m sure we’ll have a good year,” he said.
Playmaker Mitchell Moses also said, this week, he did not feel the weight of pressure to finally deliver on-field success at the Eels.
“We’ve got to go out there and do our job, and that stuff will sort itself out,” he said.
The Eels are rank outsiders with bookies to win the premiership in 2019, with both Sportsbet and the TAB posting Arthur’s men at $41 in early markets.
Arthur said he was confident of a strong showing this season — and thanked the long-suffering fans for staying “thick with us”.
“They are great. You know, I want them to be cranky and upset when we lose,” he said.
“I feel the same hurt as they feel, and we’ve let them down. But we also know that the majority of our supporters are thick with us.
“We owe it to our supporters that we make up for last year — and give them something to be proud of.”
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