Eels coach Brad Arthur has players convinced he can turn Parramattas fortunes around
CHRISTIAN NICOLUSSI
The Daily Telegraph
April 15, 2015 12:00AM
SOME OF the games biggest stars continually rave about coach Brad Arthur now long-suffering Parramatta fans are waiting to see if the hype is warranted.
The Eels have just two wins after six rounds, and face tough road trips to Newcastle and competition leaders Brisbane.
If theyre not careful, they could easily find themselves having to make up too much ground in the premiership race.
Internationals Kieran Foran and Beau Scott will head west to play under Arthur next year.
So what is it about Arthur, the intense bloke with a career record of just 16 wins from 36 NRL games, that has his current crop of players convinced he can turn the clubs fortunes around, starting with this weekend?
To be fair to Arthur, he did win 12 games last season, which was more than double what the Eels had chalked up the previous two seasons.
But passionate Parramatta fans wont cop another downward spiral on the ladder.
High-profile recruit Anthony Watmough said Arthur helps you as a person and as a player, and he doesnt overlook a thing.
You dont want to be going into a game with doubts, and hell tell you what to work on and what you need to be better at for the team, Watmough said.
Chris Sandow said: When he talks, you listen. You just want to play for him.
David Gower added: Hes honest and makes everyone accountable, not only to yourself, but your teammates and your coaching staff.
Brad is the first one to put his hand up to say, is there anything I need to be doing better for us as a team? And its always us, its never me or you.
He wears his heart on his sleeve, and he expects that from his players. You want to go to war with a bloke like that.
But what about the Knights?
How can a team dust the premiers, then two weeks later get flogged by the Gold Coast at home?
We stepped out of the game for three and four-minute stages, Gower said of the shock loss to the Titans.
We threw two intercept tries, a couple of times they scored on our edges ... in the NRL, we shouldnt be making those mistakes. Weve done video and know where we went wrong, we understand every team in this competition can beat anyone on any given day we have to respect every team we come up against, and more importantly, we have to respect ourselves and know what were capable of, and what we can do when we play Parramatta footy.
Good sides can play poorly and win, unfortunately for us we need to play well all the time to win, and thats something we have to make sure were on top of every week.
