BRAD Arthur is sitting in his office, contemplating life without Jarryd Hayne. “The players haven’t dwelled on it,” Arthur said. “It's an opportunity for some of them to be the dominant figure instead of having one person be the dominant figure.
“I know Jarryd had an outstanding season for us, but he will openly say he wouldn’t have been able to do what he did this year without other blokes playing their role. A lot of the time he was the pin-up boy so to speak in some of the good wins we had, but there was plenty of other boys who outplayed him on certain occasions.
“To be honest, I know people think I might be lying, but once he made his decision, I supported him to go and take up a different challenge.
“Then I have just focused on what can we get out of it now.”
Arthur tells you this as he sits at his desk in the Eels administrative building adjacent to Parra*matta Stadium. His players, sans Hayne, have begun filtering in for a series of meetings ahead of next week’s trip to the US west coast, where the entire first grade squad will undertake a week of altitude training.
The trip will be valuable for Arthur as well. At some point, he will sit down and pick the brain of Seattle Seahawks coach Peter Carroll, whose book, Win Forever, is among the papers and files on his desk. While this is going on, somewhere south of Seattle, Hayne will be in the midst of transforming his body for the rigours of the NFL.
Arthur has had a week to digest Hayne’s decision, which arrived while he was in the middle of a family holiday in Bali. If he is concerned at the loss of the Dally M medallist, he doesn’t show it.
Instead, while most question the club’s ability to rebound from the loss of a player who appeared to singlehandedly win games for the Eels on occasion last season, Arthur talks about his belief that Parramatta can get better. He talks about others stepping up in Hayne’s absence, most notably the man who will wear the No 1 jersey, Will Hopoate. And he talks about becoming a better coach.
“I think we’re going to be a bit tougher and have more of a physical presence this year,” Arthur said. “The other thing is we have had 12 months for the boys to get used to the style of footy we want to be playing. I like to think I am a better coach now than I was at this time last year and I hope I am better in 12 months.
“I have learnt a bit about the players and they have learnt a bit about me. My coaching staff, I think they are up there with the best assistants going around. Yeah, Jarryd is freakish, but it gives the rest of them the chance to stand up and be the dominant people in this club.”
One of those players is Hopo*ate, who made a successful return to the NRL last year after the completion of his Mormon mission. Hopoate won a NSW jersey but he finished the year carrying a shoulder injury. “Will Hopoate — he is the fullback,” Arthur said.
“He is going to train at fullback. We still have Reece Robinson there who is a handy fullback. He will get an opportunity but I see Will as a quality fullback and I know it's a position that he wants to play. It’s his preferred position. He’s going to be fitter, faster, stronger. He is going to be able to back up week-in, week-out. Hops had some outstanding games for us but it is hard to do it week-in, week-out when you have been out of the game for that long.
“Then he played some rep footy and carried that shoulder injury for the rest of the year. So he wasn't at 100 per cent. I know a lot of players aren’t at round 25, round 26. But it’s a big ask, first year back. He has another 12 months of fitting in with these boys, feeling his way with me and the style of coach I am.”
Arthur already has cause for optimism. Among the players to return yesterday was halfback Chris Sandow. Remarkably, a player who has battled with weight problems his entire career, checked in at his playing weight. “Chris normally never takes off his shirt in the pre-season,” he said. “Now he won't keep it on. It shows he’s desperate to do well.”
Then there is Anthony Watmough. The NSW and Australian forward is closing in on 300 first- grade games and will take a leadership role within the side, which will begin next week when he joins the squad in the US. “I have spoken to all the players today in small groups and the one word I keep using, and the common theme I keep talking about, is physical presence,” Arthur said.
“I think we didn’t have that this year. At times, that let us down. We played some good exciting football and we played physical against Manly, but then we failed to back it up for the next two weeks. I think we can be stronger and more powerful. We weren’t able to match teams physically week-in, week-out. That comes with experience and age, both of which Choc (Watmough) brings.
“It comes with your nature and how you train as well. That's something else he brings. He is hard and he is tough. Our boys are willing to work hard.
“Some of them don’t know what it means all the time. He is a bloke who is going to show them. Regardless of how sore you are or what happened to you on the weekend, that is gone.
“You come back and we’re ready to go again. If you train hard on the Tuesday, you back it up on the Wednesday.
“Starting in round one, everyone wants to make the eight. There are a few other things that are non-negotiable around here with us. We have to look vastly better than we did this year. There has to be massive amounts of improvement. We’re not here to make up the numbers.”
Brent Read ‏@brentread_7https://twitter.com/brentread_7/status/528136967393792002
