NRL 2020: Clint Gutherson reveals what sparked Parramatta Eels training stink
Parramatta Eels captain Clint Gutherson has revealed the incident that forced coach Brad Arthur to stop a wild contact session and why it is a great thing for the premiership favourites.
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Parramatta captain Clint Gutherson reckons it was a dog shot started everything.
And the offender?
“Reg,” he said Monday afternoon, referencing new Eels prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard. “He shot out and took my head off.”
But RCG, well, he disagreed.
Adamant it wasn’t him who triggered the now infamous Eels training barney which, in an opposed session last Saturday, was backpage of The Daily Telegraph within 48 hours.
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Instead, the Eels No.8 suggested it was a lower grade forward – name withheld – who was playing the role of Brisbane defender in said session that eventually forced coach Brad Arthur to step in and calm his players.
Regardless, it seems Parramatta are ready to restart the NRL season.
Big time.
As revealed on Sunday night, Arthur was forced to intervene in a weekend training session as his players prepared for a Thursday Night Football showdown with Brisbane — and breakout young gun Payne Haas.
Asked how said brouhaha started, Gutherson laughed: “Reg, the big fella.
“He tried to get a dog shot on me.
“I just picked the ball up in the out field and he shot out and took me head off.
“It wasn’t anything. The boys stepped in and Brad stepped in and said ‘boys let’s settle it down’.”
Asked soon after the claim, Campbell-Gillard said with a grin: “Are you really listening to that?”
OK, maybe not.
But regardless of how things started, it was heated, right?
“You could say it was,” the Eels prop continued. “That’s the way the boys have been training and the way we want our reserve grade to be putting heat on us.
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“It’s all friendly and you shake hands afterwards and move on.
“But I wasn’t involved.”
Gutherson added that the training fireworks proved his side, who lead the competition after two rounds, were ready for the code to resume.
“That’s the way footy goes,” he said of the opposed session. “And the way our reserve grade boys are pushing us, pushing for spots, it’s good.
“It makes it interesting every day at training.”
Makes for an interesting restart to the NRL season too, especially given the Eels are readying for a showdown with reigning Dall M Rookie Haas, who is quickly emerging as one of the most destructive attacking weapons in the game.
Asked how the Eels planned to stop the breakout Bronco, Gutherson continued: “I don’t think you can stop him.
“You just have to try your best to contain him.
“He’s a freak of nature.
“Same of the stuff he does on the field is ridiculous.
“His first run and his last run are exactly the same.
“That’s what makes him such a special player – his speed and how big he is, how skilful he is.
“But they’ve got a great forward pack and we have to do a job on them otherwise they’ll roll us.
“Restarting the season, you win games (in the middle).
“You saw in our first two games before everything got called off, whoever held the ball longest, kicked to the corners, that was the most important.
“And it will be the same against the Broncos, who will be out to prove a point.
“We’ve got a big job on our hands and the boys are looking forward to that.”
Campbell-Gillard agreed.
“He’s a beast,” the Parramatta bookend said of Haas. “He will definitely be someone we need to focus on this week.”
While the Eels won both their opening games, Gutherson said the players had spoken at length about treating the Broncos game as a season opener, with a focus on building up their fundamentals again rather than trying to restart from where they left off.
“Once the competition was postponed, we lost all the momentum we had built over those opening couple of rounds,” he said. “So we’ve spoken about starting again.
“Treating this game as Round One and building the platform again.”