Despite a shock loss to the Wests Tigers on Easter Monday, there’s no need to worry for Parramatta fans – at least not yet.
The Eels had won every game so far this year bar a close loss to the resurgent Sharks – including a stunning golden point win against the Storm. They were expected by most to rack up a score on the winless Tigers, and came in as heavy favourites with the bookies.
But sometimes, you get strange results like this. In 2014 Souths lost to the teams that finished 13th, 14th, and 15th during the regular season, while the Sharks won just one of their final six games before the finals in 2016. Both went on to win the premiership.
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“The Eels are always vulnerable to that, aren’t they? Every time they’re raging hot favourites they can find a way to bring themselves undone,” Phil Gould said on Nine’s 100% Footy.
“They were quite undisciplined with the ball. I guess in the early part of the game they felt like they could score every time they tried to run a play, and a few of those just didn’t go to hand – that gave the Tigers a little bit of confidence.”
Gould praised the grit of the Tigers as they weathered the storm in the first half, taking a 14-10 lead into the sheds.
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“The Tigers have come up with some good defensive efforts this year – they’ve been quite annoying for sides in trying to score points and they just frustrated them out of it,” Gould said.
And indeed, on another day – some of the passes that went to ground, or options that weren’t quite on, come off, and Parramatta blow their opponents off the park.
“Had some of those passes stuck at the back end there, they would have scored some miraculous tries – they’ve got that in them, but they’ve also got that loss in them,” Gould said.
“They’re a vulnerable team sometimes, like that, but they’ll still be there at the back end of the year.”
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Paul Gallen agreed but said if there was one area that Parramatta needed to improve on, it was showing patience.
“The Melbourne Storm are disciplined, the Sharks can be disciplined, the Roosters are disciplined – they just get through their sets, grind into the ground, put the ball in the in goal and get a repeat set of six,” he said.
Gallen said the Tigers repeatedly gifted the Eels field position in the opening exchanges, but the Eels were too prone to an ill-advised offload or taking the wrong option.
“Parramatta wanted to score every time they got up there.”
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