Eels ready to unleash: Anderson
Ben Blaschke
NRL.com
It has been a week from hell at Parramatta but under-siege coach Daniel Anderson says his side is only 40 minutes away from putting their opposition to the sword.
The Eels slumped to their second consecutive loss against St George Illawarra last Friday night, just days after veteran halfback Brett Finch walked out on the club, with Anderson forced into a major backline reshuffle that has failed to fix their point-scoring problems.
After five rounds, the star-studded Eels boast the second-worst attack in the competition and could manage just a single try for the second week running in their 22-8 loss to the Dragons.
But rather than criticise his sides lack of flair, Anderson says his charges will turn the corner sooner rather than later and refused to rule out a finals berth.
Despite what some people have said, I think the boys are more motivated than ever to do well and they are comfortable in the positions they are now playing in, Anderson told NRL.com.
What we need to do now is refine our execution and make it all a lot more clinical.
We still have a tendency to go for the big plays and overplay it. We try too hard and go for the big play instead of relaxing and letting the game open for us.
But our attitude was there for everyone to see on Friday.
We are a team that needs to take our opportunities but that will come in time.
The Eels were left ruing a slew of early chances that went begging against St George Illawarra last week, namely an offload from Krisnan Inu that failed to find an unmarked Taulima Tautai and a bizarre play by Tautai when he leaped highest to catch a bomb but chose to bat the ball back rather than catch it, despite finding himself unchallenged in the air.
Parramattas attack has been widely criticised following their efforts against the Dragons but Anderson said the entire result could have been different had just one of those chances been taken.
If you get one result from instances like that in the run of the score, it changes the dynamic of the game, he said.
It doesnt mean you are granted the two points but I think that if we take some opportunities we will feel rewarded and confident then you get braver as the game goes on.
Our opposition was obviously very classy and they did what was needed to win the game but I would have liked us to take an opportunity or two to put a bit more pressure on them.
We had some very serious chances to post points and I think we will feel good about ourselves when we do start to take them.
At the moment we are a team that is second-guessing themselves.
But you build confidence and when you do so, youre away.
Asked if it was simply a case of the Eels clicking, Anderson replied: I dont know if you just click.
Im not sure if that will ever happen but what will more than likely happen is that they will work hard, like they did on Friday night, but they will be rewarded for that effort.
Where the ball bounces, such as when St George Illawarra scored their (second) try, well be the first one to the ball next time and maybe in the next set we will be the ones rewarded instead.
Thats what I mean I dont think its going to go click and were away, we need to scrap and fight for the little momentum changes in the game on the back of the effort that we put in.
Then the confidence will come.
Anderson said his players remained in high spirits despite the events of the past week.
I spoke to them briefly after the game and we pulled up okay at recovery, he said.
Physically we were a little bit banged up but the players were a lot more pleased with their efforts than the week before.
