Former Wests Tigers five-eighth Mitch Moses says being happy and settled off the field has contributed to him finding form – career-best form, in many judges' eyes – on it for Parramatta of late.
The Eels are 8-2 since Moses joined, having won their past six straight, and Moses this week praised the influence of coach Brad Arthur and halves partner Corey Norman in driving him to some dizzying heights of late.
In a team where every man from 1-17 has been nailing their role of late, Moses has been a standout; he has perplexed opposition defences with a near-perfect arsenal of long and short kicks and deft late passes while his defence has improved out of sight over the past two months.
Such is the control in Moses's game currently, a casual fan would have little clue he's had a tumultuous year across two clubs and no fewer than four coaches (Jason Taylor, Andrew Webster and Ivan Cleary at the Tigers plus Arthur at the Eels) following a well-publicised mid-season switch from Concord.
"Definitely (I'm happier now). When you're winning games you're obviously always going to be happy," Moses said this week ahead of his team's Friday night clash against Newcastle.
"The boys here have made me feel really welcomed and comfortable and made my transition really easy. I'm definitely a lot happier person.
"I got all that stuff out of the way and got my future sorted so I've been going to the games clear headed. I'm definitely a lot happier now."
Moses said going into games with a clear head has improved his on-field football after some mixed form earlier in the season at Wests.
"I always knew I could do the kind of stuff I'm doing now, it's just a matter of bringing a few things together and working a few combinations out but the change has been good for me. I've just got to keep my head down and keep doing what I've been doing the last couple of weeks," he said.
"I feel like I've found my feet here at Parra and probably had a bit of a more mature approach to my game, not pushing as many passes, just keeping it simple and it's been working well the last couple of weeks."
Despite having a close relationship with former halves partner Luke Brooks at the Tigers – who he still lives with – the perception was that the pair never truly clicked in an on-field sense with each tending to put in their best performances in the absence of the other.
That has not been the case with Moses and Corey Norman if the pair's first couple of months together is anything to go by.
"He takes a lot of pressure off me, he's got that left-foot kicking game as well so we've got threats on both sides of the field," Moses said.
Moses also praised Arthur, who seems to have found the way to get the best out of the enigmatic No.7.
"BA's been massive for me as well. Just sitting down with him before I came here, picking his brain about footy, I definitely had a massive connection to BA," Moses said.
"He's really opened up my game and just let me play what's in front and he's given me that free rein to do what I want but at a limit where I think my footy is at that good stage now where I'm not playing that big play and trying to grind out games a lot better than I used to.
"He's been massive for me. I've had four coaches this year so he's definitely been a massive help for me."
Moses also expanded on his improved defence under Eels tackling coach Brett O'Farrell, who has halves Moses's average missed tackles per game as reported recently by NRL.com.
"It was more technique stuff. There was never a problem with getting my body in front or anything like that, I never shied away from that," Moses insisted.
"It was a bit of technique stuff and we cleaned it up a bit and it's going all right at the moment. I do a fair bit of extras with him, it's working all right at the moment, I'm just going to keep my head down and doing what I'm doing."
Moses said while he was aware there were question marks over his defence heading into his stint at the Eels, he never used criticism of his defence as motivation.
"Not so much (a motivator), I knew I was getting my body in front, I wasn't shying away from tackles or anything like that, it was just a bit of technique stuff we needed to fix up and I fixed that up now and it's paying dividends," he said.
