Parramatta Eels hit low ebb with embarrassing defeat to Wests Tigers
PARRAMATTA supporters turned out again in force on Monday — but will they be back for a team that that can just about dismiss a top four spot only a month into the NRL premiership?
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EMBARRASSING Eels. Pitiful Parra.
Take your pick.
This is a horrendously ill-disciplined side playing without passion and soul.
A team that has conceded 122 points in just four rounds, the most of any club in the premiership. That’s an average of 30.5 points per match.
A team dead-last on the NRL competition table, having lost their opening four matches.
A team that that can just about dismiss a top four spot only a month into the NRL premiership.
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A team installed as $13 pre-season premiership favourites by the TAB who are now out to $31, only in front of Newcastle, Canberra and Gold Coast on the betting markets.
A team who was the second best-backed side pre-season to top four finish.
A couple of late tries against Wests Tigers could not mask a totally ineffectual and limp performance by Parramatta. And they couldn’t even blame Jarryd Hayne, out with a quad injury.
In another numbing performance before a bumper Easter Monday crowd of 30,420 at ANZ Stadium, Parramatta was well and truly whacked 30-20 by a rampant and enthusiastic Wests Tigers.
Wests Tigers led 30-6 midway through the second half.
Parramatta coach Brad Arthur claimed his side was “ill disciplined” and threatened to sack any players not prepared to remedy a clear discipline issue within the side.
“If blokes can’t be disciplined, they won’t be in the team moving forward,” Arthur said. “Individuals have to be accountable for it. We will dig ourselves out but it needs to be right now.
“We’ve got no-one to blame but ourselves. None of the boys are playing real well. We’re zero and four. If you don’t have the ball, it makes it very hard. We just have to knuckle down and get that first win and then we’ll go from there.
“We are giving away penalties and leg-ups out of the back field for off-side. It doesn’t matter if the referees want to stand 20 metres back, you’ve got to be behind them. You can’t stand in front of them.
“Until we address that, until we fix that, we are going to have the same problems.
“We are making 400 tackles a week, it’s ridiculous. At one stage there, we made 90 tackles more than Wests Tigers. The penalties, yeah, they’re soft. But when you give teams that much football and it’s back-to-back, it takes a toll.”
Arthur admitted morale inside his camp was low.
“They’re down,” he said. “It’s a problem, the discipline.
“We are not giving ourselves a chance in any of the games at the moment. We are not putting ourselves in a position to try and win a game.”
Wests Tigers are now 3-1 — who would have believed it?
Parramatta hasn’t endured a 0-4 start since 2012.
In the NRL era, since 1998, only five of 22 teams have lost their opening four games and made the finals.
Told his side would now be written off, Arthur said: “We deserve it.”
Eels skipper Tim Mannah agreed.
“That’s accurate,” Mannah said. “We just can’t keep waiting for things to change. We have to make it change.
“At the moment we’ve got no-one to blame but ourselves. We know what we’re capable of doing.”
The season is just a month old but no doubt Parramatta fans will start to vent their frustration at the team and Arthur.
Parramatta supporters turned out again in force on Monday — but will they be back?
Defeat must have left Eels halfback Mitchell Moses with a sinking feeling. He left Concord for Parramatta during last season.
“In the first 10 to 15 minutes, we went set-for-set and had equal ball, we were okay,” Arthur said. “But the last 20 minutes of that first half, there 13 or 14 sets and we only had it for three or four.
“Both teams had 18 sets of ball in the second half and we showed with 50 per cent of possession that we can play. It was too late.
“We showed in that last 25 minutes we can be a decent football team. The game goes for 80 minutes.”
Wests Tigers set up their win with a thoroughly impressive three-try first half performance.
Star five-eighth Benji Marshall inspired two of the tries, he was magic in the opening 40 minutes, running, jinking, kicking, passing, tormenting.
Wests Tigers completed at 95 per cent in the first half.
There was one contentious try right on halftime. Wests Tigers winger Corey Thompson grounded the ball on the tryline, the ball simultaneously hitting the corner post.
Referee Gavin Badger recommended the try with video referee Ben Galea agreeing. It was a pivotal call that went against Parramatta.
Wests Tigers hustled and bustled Parramatta throughout the opening first half, they certainly are a fun team to watch.