Dear Parramatta Members and Fans,
As we prepare for our Round 24 clash with the Gold Coast Titans on Sunday, this is a chance for me to explain how valuable a road trip can be for a team and give you an inside look at how we prepare for one.
Now everything preparation wise pretty much stays the same on a weekly basis for the team regardless of where we are playing.
We come in after our previous game for recovery, then we get into a review process and take what we can from that performance at the start of the week. We focus on the things we did well and then on the things that we need to improve on from our win over the Roosters, and finally we need to do to get the job done this week against the Titans.
Then it is into a preview for two days and we have our last session on Saturday in Sydney before we travel up to the Gold Coast that afteroon. We’ll have dinner together as a team and then get up and be ready for the game on Sunday.
So it is similar to what we do in the lead-up to a home game, except the players are not around their families for the last 24 hours. This does however give them a chance to go out with their mates, go for a walk around the town where we are playing and just hang out.
The key element of a road trip is the time you spend amongst one another and it brings you tighter as a group. And the trips that you win, they are the trips that are really enjoyable and beneficial to the bond in the squad.
That being said, there are things beyond strengthening our bond that we need to get right for Sunday.
We have once again made defence a big focus at training because at times against the Roosters it wasn’t good enough.
It’s more so in periods during the game, rather than the entire game that concerns me.
We are going to sleep when we kick out to a bit of a lead and instead of keeping them under the pump, we invite them back into the contest. This is through a lack of urgency and intensity with our defence.
Although we won by 14 points last Saturday, the Roosters were on our tryline four times and they scored four tries and that’s the area we need to be tougher and stronger.
We just need a bit more of that killer instinct when we get a good start.
Because in this competition teams are not going to go away, if you give them a sniff and a bit of momentum, it’s really hard to peg them back like we saw against the Tigers.
Cheers, Brad Arthur
