Coach Brad Arthur says he will turn the Eels' fortunes around despite conceding his team aren't acting like a side that wants to play finals football.
After a 56-10 thumping by Manly, who scored 10 tries to Parramatta's two, Arthur couldn't put is finger on why the intensity seemed to have drained out of his players.
"It’s disappointing and I haven’t got the answer for you right now, why that wasn’t there," he said.
"Certainly it’s not a team, or we’re not showing, that we want to play finals."
Missing 41 tackles, making one line break to Manly's 14, having 13 sets less than the opposition, and running for 600 metres below Manly's output would seem to suggest that.
But Arthur vowed to turn things around and he would start with the basics - changing the focus of the Eels training session.
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"We probably need to change things up a bit at training – that’s a start, maybe not focus on footy… I don’t know. We’ve got a week to sort it out," he said.
Parramatta meet the Cowboys in round 23 but if they haven't steadied a slightly sinking ship by then, they may well be out of time.
The last two assignments in the club competition for the Eels are the Storm and then the Panthers - last year's two grand finalists.
"But sometimes the harder you work, the more of a hole you dig yourselves into," Arthur said, before acknowledging there was no other avenue open to the Eels than getting a win after four straight losses.
"Well we have to…. But yes we can, we need to. The responsibility falls on my shoulders and we will turn it around."
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Arresting the leaking points seems a mammoth job in some respects.
The Eels had conceded 80 points in the three losses – to the Raiders, Roosters and Rabbitohs – prior to facing Manly. Now that’s ballooned to 126.
And Arthur knows after a result like Saturday night at Sunshine Coast Stadium, the criticism from fans and commentators will only get louder.
"It’s coming and that’s footy," Arthur said.
"That part of it I can handle but I don’t like seeing the players disappointed, unhappy and not enjoying our footy.
"When you get beat like that, obviously there’s no enjoyment, so that’s the bit we need to change."
