Beau Scott is too humble to admit the massive role he has played in the Eels' defensive fortunes so far this year, their best start defensively to a season since 1993.
The 39 points they've conceded so far is streets ahead from where they were positioned just 12 months ago where they conceded in the opening month of the season an average of 22.25 points per game.
Parramatta coach Brad Arthur credited Scott following Parramatta's 8-0 win over the Wests Tigers for his responsibility in overhauling the club's defensive structure.
"Beau Scott just in defence you could be defending inside or outside him and you just know he's going to make his tackles and keep turning up," Arthur said of Scott, who has made 143 tackles for one miss already in 2016.
Centre Brad Takairangi spoke in the same vein as his coach when it came to Scott.
"[Scott] definitely brings defensive steel to our edge. He does an outstanding job out there. He has been awesome for us and hopefully he can keep doing it," Takairangi said.
"He is so experienced. We definitely try to lift our defence game [to match Scott's]. He brings a lot of talk and a lot of confidence to the team. He's definitely someone nobody wants to wrestle, I'll tell you that for sure."
Scott declared though the side is still at an early stage in its development, and was quick to point out Parramatta's attacking struggles.
It comes just days after Scott was given the honour of presenting Eels captain Keiran Foran his 150th NRL game jersey; such is the former Knights' stature at the club already.
"It's only early days. When it comes to the defence aspect I can't go asking people to go do something I feel I'm not willing to do so I have to lead by example I guess and that's the way I sort of treat it and look at it," Scott said.
"Our defence was pretty good [against the Tigers]. On the flip side we have a fair bit of improvement to do with our attack and completions. We have plenty of work in front of us yet."
The question now is can the Eels – who won their third straight game against the Tigers – hold up their defensive prowess and continue winning?
Whether they can or not remains up in the air if St George Illawarra's start to 2015 was anything to go by.
The Red V's focus on defence last year held true until Round 12, where at that stage they were conceding 11.45 points per game, and had won eight of their first 11 games.
From there, it wasn't pretty. The players admitted to burning out, losing nine of their next 13 before being knocked out by the Bulldogs in the qualifying finals.
Scott and Takairangi remained unperturbed however.
"I'm not sure what year [the Dragons] had last year to tell you the truth. To start a season and I guess zero-in on the defence side of things, I can't see anything wrong with it," Scott said.
"I think it's just managing that now and playing a bit smarter. Obviously we are putting a lot of trust in each other in that side of the football game.
"We're earning each other's trust and getting a bit of belief in the way we're winning games which is ugly but it can't be the worst way to win games."
Takairangi saw it in another light: "Brad outlined [after the Tigers] that it comes back to ball control. If we aren't controlling the ball as much we have to double up on our defensive efforts.
"If we can control the ball a bit better and not give away as many penalties it will help us out defensively."
