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Eels take honest look at themselves

It's been a big week for the Parramatta Eels with the knee injury to five-eight Corey Norman and the long-awaited arrival of Mitchell Moses allowing some players to gloss over the fact they were embarrassed 48-10 by the Roosters in Round 10. 

The loss snapped Parramatta's three-game winning streak and evoked memories of their 56-4 defeat at the hands of the Tricolours back in 2014. 

"We probably haven't played like that since playing the Roosters in 2014 at Allianz when I think they put 50 on us," Eels utility Kenny Edwards said. 

"When everything's going against you, it feels like the world's coming down, but we've got to be better than what we dished up on the weekend because that was complete rubbish. We'll be looking to turn that around against a massive forward pack this week."

‌The Eels don't have time to feel sorry for themselves with the blue and golds set to face a Raiders side that is coming off a shock loss to the Newcastle Knights.

Edwards said he and his teammates underwent a tough but fair video review of the Roosters game and are ready to move on from the hurt of last Sunday.  

"We went back and did our video and we hurt a lot in the video session today and the day after the game was a big wake-up call," he said. 

"It's something that we've struggled with the last few years; we'll go three in a row and then get complacent and think we probably don't need to work as hard. On the weekend what we dished up was a crap attitude, to be honest.

"It was an honest video session. No one could hide behind their chair. Everyone got put on show. We're all men; once we walk out of that room it's all done and we got on with training. Our energy on the training paddock straight after that was good and we've just got to bounce back."

While the forwards were well beaten through the middle, Parramatta's lethal left edge of Michael Jennings and Semi Radradra conceded four tries against the Roosters and now face the unenviable task of trying to contain Canberra's dynamic duo of Joey Leilua and Jordan Rapana who are primed for a big game after a couple of quiet outings. 

Jennings said he was looking forward to the battle with Leilua, describing his unpredictably as the most difficult thing to contend with.   

"You always want to play against quality centres and he's up there as one of the best. For me, it's about focussing on what I do best and doing my job on him," he said. 

"It's just the not knowing [that sets him apart]. He does a lot of things that are unpredictable so I guess you've just got to be on your game for the whole 80 minutes."

 

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