Crawley Files: Why Mitchell Moses and Brad Arthur need to deliver now for Parramatta

Right or wrong, Mitchell Moses has the stigma of being a flat-track bully. But now is time to change that perception for the good of his team, writes Paul Crawley.

Brad Arthur consoles Mitch Moses. NRL Imagery

One thing Peter Sterling was never accused of being was a flat-track bully.

I mention Sterlo because it’s time for Mitchell Moses to show everyone he’s not one either – and prove how much he has grown as a footballer this year.

If you haven’t heard the term, it’s a reference to cricketers who can thump the bowling on a flat pitch but not when there’s a bit in it for the bowlers.

In other words, they shine when conditions are easier.

Right or wrong, Moses has the stigma of being at his best when the going is good – but struggles when his team is under the pump.

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Brad Arthur consoles Mitch Moses after a match. Picture: NRL Imagery

With Parramatta taking on Penrith on Friday night with Nathan Cleary missing and his NSW jersey up for grabs, Moses might never get a better cue to change that perception.

It’s also the prompt for the Eels as a team to change some perceptions to … mainly that they have promised to be a genuine premiership threat with top-five finishes in three of the past four years, but never made it to a preliminary final let alone a grand final.

We are also approaching a period in Brad Arthur’s coaching career when he also needs to make a statement.

But firstly, let’s focus on Moses, who came out this week and said he was now ready to play for NSW in Cleary’s absence.

“You would like to think (I’m ready for Origin),” Moses said.

“If I wasn’t ready by now, I would be kidding myself, I guess.”

But let’s not kid ourselves on this, either. Because the reality is that only five months ago Laurie Daley, one of the greatest Origin performers but also one of rugby league’s genuine Mr Nice Guys, really applied the blowtorch to Moses by accusing the Eels playmaker of being “a flat-track bully” in the countdown to this season.

“The thing with Mitchell is he has all the skills but as a halfback you have got to get the right balance,” Daley said in February.

“You’ve got to be able to challenge the line and get a team around and manage the team exceptionally well. But you have got to make the right decisions at the right time.

“They have a term for it in cricket, a flat-track bully.”

Daley is not prone to dishing out overly critical comment unless it is justified.

And the reason I bring Sterlo into it now is because it’s also the opposite of what they used to say about Parramatta’s greatest halfback.

I put a call into Mick Cronin this week and asked him to give his recollections of what made Sterling so great.

What Cronin pointed to straight away was not Sterling’s playmaking genius, but his ability to inspire “when the team wasn’t necessarily at its best”.

“I always say he was ‘just a footballer’,” Cronin said, meaning he wasn’t gifted with speed, size or strength, but had a football brain and instinct – and mental toughness under pressure – that stood him apart.

Peter Sterling was a competitor for the Eels who put his body on the line.

“And he was a competitor, too. I have seen him help us win games through his defence.

“And not because of great tackling prowess. But it was just getting up continually in their faces and putting pressure on the opposition.”

Sterling won his first Dally M Medal in 1986 along with the Clive Churchill for best on ground in the club’s last grand final victory.

But what is often overlooked is he also took out the Dally M and Rothmans Medals double in 1987 and the Rothmans again in 1990, with the Eels finishing out of the finals in both years. When they needed him most, Sterling stood tall.

Moses is now 26 and 160-plus games into his NRL career.

There has definitely been signs of a growing maturity in most of his games this year, but the weeks and months ahead is when it is really going to count.

Which brings us back to Arthur. Like Moses, he came into this season with his coaching reputation at the crossroads after last year’s all-too familiar exit – where the season-ending loss to South Sydney was the Eels’ fifth finals defeat in six appearances.

Brad Arthur has managed to get the Eels to finals, but not ultimate glory. Picture: Jonathan Ng

While no one disputes what a wonderful job Arthur has done picking this club up off the bottom of the ladder – and guiding them through the salary cap crisis – to be back among the genuine premiership heavyweights, the jury is still out on whether Arthur can take Parramatta to the next level.

Meaning, breaking the league’s longest premiership drought, which stretches 35 years.

As with Moses, most would assess Parramatta’s season so far to be well above a pass mark given they sit third on the ladder.

But there were those back-to-back losses against Manly (28-6) and South Sydney (38-20), in particular, that certainly raised some serious questions.

Friday night’s test against the Panthers will be the perfect chance for the entire Parramatta team to dictate this debate.

The Eels are just missing Reed Mahoney through injury and only have Junior Paulo backing up from Origin.

The joint ladder leaders will be without their star playmaker in Cleary and fullback Dylan Edwards, and they have five others backing up from Sunday night’s Origin in Brisbane.

Yet the bookies maintain that it’s the Panthers who are still the favourites and the Eels the outsiders.

Why is that? Is it because the past comes back to haunt the Eels at this point every year?

The mock on them is they have the talent but haven’t shown enough mental toughness when it counts.

If they want a snapshot of what it takes to realise their dreams, Arthur should show them that ’86 decider – a grinding 4-2 victory against Canterbury in the only tryless grand final in history.

Sterling and his mates carried their mentor Cronin through the game because “The Crow” couldn’t see out of his right eye. He had suffered a serious eye injury in a pre-season trial and had only had half a dozen games back.

The Eels of the time were best known for their brilliant backline but the most enduring moment of that victory was Bulldogs winger Peter Mortimer being bundled through the corner post in the dying minutes with no less than six desperate Eels defenders all over him.

Sterling was first on the spot and wrapped his arms over the ball while his mates buried Mortimer into submission.

He says of that moment: “When I think of the 1986 grand final, I think of that tackle, I think of that desperation. I think of that will to stop a great Canterbury side in their tracks at the death.”

That was typical of the Eels of the ’80s in the toughest moments. Their fans are still waiting for a flashback.