Eels halfback Mitchell Moses has stressed the importance of starting the 2024 season well for the club to avoid chasing their tail like they were forced to do last year.
After losing four of their opening five games in 2023, Moses was hoping that his side's promising 26-16 win against the Titans to close out their Pre-Season Challenge campaign would help bring positive momentum to the opening rounds, starting with the match against the Bulldogs.
“I thought we started okay, probably let in a few too many easy tries that we're normally a lot better with; tries that we’re a lot better at defending and we need to fix that up,” Moses said.
“But you always have that rust the trial, so it's good to get it out of the way.
“We definitely want to start well; we want to start the season well and not chase our tail like last year.”
Almost inevitably after starting 2023 on the back foot, the Eels missed the finals last year; but their early finish, while disappointing, has meant the squad have been able to put in more time together in the pre-season, with Moses saying his team would have no excuses not to be ready by kick-off.
Reagan Campbell-Gillard Try
“It's the first time that we've probably had a full pre-season under our belt from November together for probably five-six years,” Moses said.
“We've linked up pretty well at training and I think it's a good headache for [coach] Brad [Arthur] to have going into Round 1.
“We've almost got everyone fit and ready to go.
“It's massive, I think if we can start the year well, we'll put ourselves in a good position to play at the back end of the year, but we need to take it week by week and see how we go.
“We had a good break as the season finished; obviously, we weren't happy with how we played last year and so we got away a bit and then we've been back for 16 weeks or so it's been good to have that; so if we're not fit and ready to go now, I think we're in some strife.
“We had a few camps, but I won't go too into depth, but it was good. A lot of the boys got a lot out of it and it's good to get away and change up the scenery at Kellyville.
“You can go in and have that repetitive mindset where you're going into training and you get a bit over it, so it was good that we broke it up with a few camps, so that was good.”
As for his own game, Moses said he hadn’t looked to change too much, but appreciated the time he’s had to work on the finer details during a long pre-season.
“We've come back in November, so I didn't change too much to be honest," Moses said.
"We were coming back that early and the pre-season was that long, that I got to do everything possible at training."
