NRL: Brad Arthur speaks to the media after their round 5 loss to the Canberra Raiders.
Brad Arthur and the Eels are under “huge pressure” to deliver in the coming weeks after being blown out of the park by the Raiders on Sunday night. Without regular halfback Mitchell Moses , Parramatta were in “disarray” with the microscope being firmly placed on Arthur’s coaching and Dylan Brown in the No.
7 jersey. The Eels now sit in 14th after five rounds, beating the Bulldogs and Sea Eagles in their first three games before losses to the Tigers and Raiders. The only place to watch every game of every round LIVE with no ad-breaks during play is Fox League, available on Kayo. New to Kayo?Veteran rugby league reporter Phil Rothfield believes the Eels’ nightmare is only going to continue in the coming weeks with a tough draw looming. Should the Eels be unable to find form, Arthur could be on the chopping block after failing to reach the finals in 2023 and losing a grand final a year earlier. “They are in all sorts, I had a look at their draw... they have got an ugly draw, they’ve got the Cowboys, Dolphins who are leading the comp, then they’ve got Manly,” Rothfield said on“Then the Broncos, and then the Melbourne Storm. That is a really tough draw without their champion playmaker and the halves they are using right now, it’s just not working. “Dylan Brown, I thought he was poor last night. Again, it’s a tough game rugby league, Brad Arthur’s been there 10 years and there will be conversations now. “He missed the top eight last year and I know we’ve only had five rounds, but as I’ve explained to you with that draw, they are in a lot of trouble. “They are not entitled to get beat in the manner in which they were last night. There’s huge pressure on Brad and the team now.” Moses has been sidelined until at least Round 12 after surgery on a fractured left foot, with Arthur calling on five-eighth Brown to assume halfback responsibilities.Partnering him has been three-game rookie Blaize Talagi who has been thrown into the deep end wearing the No.6 as a teenager. Both Rothfield and league legend Laurie Daley agreed Arthur has to shake-up his halves if they want to turn their form around. “They had no halves depth, they had to move Brown to where he’s playing now and is Clint Gutherson an option to move to five-eighth now and move the young kid, Blaize Talagi, out,” Rothfield said. “I think they’ve got to do something in the halves, they have to do something very, very quickly,” Laurie Daley said. “The bottom line is there’s not a more demanding fan base than the Parramatta Eels, it’s been so long since they won a premiership,” Rothfield added. “When they are getting knocked off 41-8, by a side, when you look at those two rosters at the start of the season, if you were a coach who would you rather be coaching. “Parramatta on paper have a clearly superior roster to the Raiders, but Ricky got them up last night.” Even Parramatta icon Nathan Hindmarsh was scathing of the Eels’ performance against the Raiders, and refused to use Moses’ exile as an excuse.Meanwhile, NRL legend Matty Johns revealed he believes the pressure of organising and running the team could be too much for Brown, having played in the No.6 his whole career. “The Eels were just in disarray, they were falling off tackles left, right and centre,” Hindmarsh said. “Mitchell Moses is out right, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse right because across the board defensively the Eels were poor, well below their best. “Well below 50 per cent of their best, they weren’t in the contest... they just were never in the contest.” “Fantastic runner of the football Dylan Brown, an unorthodox player, I just don’t think at this point of his career he’s a seven... I think it’s weighing on him,” Johns said. “That pressure could be there but Matty as we’ve spoken about, he’s been there long enough, he’s got that experience underneath him,” Hindmarsh added. “He can lead the side around, I don’t know why he’s, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. He’s a better ball runner than he is an organiser.
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