Veteran Eels fullback Michael Gordon has joined the ongoing debate regarding five-day turnarounds, saying he "prefers" shorter gaps between games.
Gordon was of the opinion that longer turnarounds – such as the 10-day turnaround Parramatta had between Rounds 3 and 4 – were "annoying".
It comes just days after Storm and Kangaroos skipper Cameron Smith expressed the turnarounds as "ridiculous" and that it impacted the quality of his side's 18-14 win over Newcastle.
"Personally I prefer five-day turnarounds because you don't train as much. It's all recovery; you pretty much do one session," Gordon said.
"Unless you're carrying niggles, after two-three days your body is pretty good again so they don't worry me one bit.
"If you have niggles then yeah sure I understand you want all the extra days you can get, the longer the turnaround the better in that case. But there have been times where you have an 11-day turnaround after playing on a Thursday – that annoys me more.
"I find if you play Sunday then back it up on a Thursday/Friday night that's a perfect scenario for me. Last week I felt awful in the game against the Wests Tigers [after a 10 day gap] and this week I felt fine [after six days] so it's different every week."
Gordon's teammate Corey Norman shared a similar opinion and said the lack of training in between games doesn't have an effect on the team's structures.
"I don't mind [shorter turnarounds]. But it does take a little bit of a toll on your body. When you have them back to back to back I think it affects you a little bit," Norman said.
"It's only Round 5 and we had all pre-season to get [our attack] right though. It's going to come, we just have to be patient and stick to what we're doing and it should come."
Meanwhile Gordon managed to find plenty of positives in the Eels' 20-18 defeat to Penrith after losing out in the final 10 seconds.
"I thought we were physically dominant again. They play an unpredictable style, Penrith: they offload, they run across field, they'll kick and they don't have a set structure which is hard at times," Gordon said.
"We controlled the game so well and created that many opportunities, it's just that little bit of polish we're still missing at the moment and I don't think it's far away.
"To lose in that fashion was that little bit more heartbreaking, though I can't fault the effort of the players. Again everyone turned up and worked their backside off. It was just one of those games that got away."
