Mar 24, 2004
By Josh Massoud
After responding to one of the most tumultuous weeks in the clubs history with a brave away win over Brisbane, the Parramatta Eels have been told they must lift their game by 100% in the lead up to Saturday nights joust with Newcastle.
Having silenced talks of a team crisis following their opening round thrashing to the Bulldogs and Jamie Lyons shock walk out two days later, Parramatta now face a Knights side boasting seven Kangaroos and an undefeated start to the season for good measure.
Eels coach Brian Smith reported the atmosphere at training to be more positive following the improved performance against the Broncos. However, Smith has no doubts that a repeat effort this weekend will not even see his team half the way to recording consecutive victories.
Whatever improvement we came up with last week Id think wed have to come up with nearly double that to get ourselves into the game, he said.
Smith believes a more wholesome completion rate will rectify widely reported defensive lapses. The Eels conceded three soft tries to Bronco dummy half runners last week and confront Danny Buderus considered the best number nine in the business this Saturday.
Theres an awareness there that we made some fundamental errors in both attack and defence last week, Smith said.
[Dropping the ball] in our end just puts so much pressure on you and in the end its hard to expect any defence to work to the level wed like it to if we continue to make that number of errors.
Like most observers, Smith is impressed by the Knights early form, which he describes as fresh and full of it, and is mindful they are hardest to beat before representative matches begin to exact a toll.
As a footy fan I just love watching them play," Smith said. "Theyve got so many options in their game attacking wise and theyre a ruthlessly effective defensive attacking team when theyre in the physical state theyre in at the moment.
Although riding high after successive away wins to commence their campaign, Newcastle second rower Steve Simpson said the team needed to iron out disciplinary creases that saw them concede a whopping 15 penalties en route to defeating Melbourne last week.
Both last start winners have stuck with their successful combinations, although the Eels were forced to bring Dene Widders onto the bench to replace Luke ODwyer, who fills in for Lee Hopkins at lock.
Smith said Hopkins, who was rushed from Suncorp Stadium last week after suffering an eye injury, is not expected to be fit for several weeks.
TEAMS
Knights: 1. David Seage, 2. Timana Tahu, 3. Matthew Gidley, 4. Russell Richardson, 5. George Carmont, 6. Kurt Gidley, 7. Andrew johns (c), 8. Josh Perry, 9. Danny Buderus, 10. Matt Parsons, 11. Steve Simpson, 12. Daniel Abraham, 13. Ben Kennedy.
Bench: 14. Adam Woolnough, 15. Matthew Kennedy, 16. Todd Lowrie, 17. Michael Ennis.
Eels 1 Luke Burt, 2 - Wise Kativerata, 3 - Matt Petersen, 4 David Vaealiki, 5 Eric Grothe, 6 Daniel Wagon, 7 Adam Dykes, 8 Aaron Cannings, 9 John Morris, 10 Michael Vella, 11 Nathan Hindmarsh, 12 Nathan Cayless (C), 13 Luke Odwyer,
Bench: 14 James Webster, 15 Craig Stapleton, 16 Adam Peek, 17 Dean Widders, 18 - Corey Pearson.
