All aboard: Eels need mini-bus for injured players

Parramatta hired a mini-bus to transport injured players to Newcastle on Saturday to watch their team-mates battle bravely to a 28-22 loss to the Knights at McDonald Jones Stadium.

Though they trailed 6-0 after two minutes, 24-10 midway through the second half and 28-16 with 10 minutes remaining, the under-manned Eels fought hard to the final siren and went close to scoring in the last minute and possibly forcing extra time.

Parramatta’s bulging casualty ward includes halves Mitchell Moses and Jonah Pezet (both hamstring), pack leader Junior Paulo (knee), outside backs Will Penisini (groin) and Bailey Simonsson (ankle), and forwards J’Maine Hopgood and Matt Doorey, who have both sustained season-ending knee injuries.

Fullback Isaiah Iongi (hand) returned against the Knights, scoring a try seven minutes from full-time to keep the Eels in the contest, and hooker Ryley Smith (sternum) made his comeback in NSW Cup against Newcastle in Saturday’s curtain-raiser.

Eels coach Jason Ryles was at pains not to use their injury toll as an excuse for the loss.

“It is a very young side but we’ve been really focused on what we can control, and that’s our prep, and our best prep each week,” Ryles said.

“They’re trying their hearts out, and they’re getting some lessons with the big boys, and that’s all part of it.

“But to sum up the other part of it, which I don’t like to talk about too much, we had a mini-bus bring our injured blokes up today, so that’s kind of where we’re at. To produce the effort and the fight that the boys did out there today, I’m really proud of them.”

Centre Sean Russell had a try disallowed in the 33rd minute because he was off-side chasing Ronald Volkman’s kick, and the Eels squandered several other try-scoring opportunities because of forward passes and sloppy finishing.

“It was disappointing in the end,” Ryles said. “I thought we tried really hard, the effort was there, we fought really hard, but unfortunately, execution let us down at the end of the day.

“I reckon we left probably four tries out there that were genuine tries, so another week of lessons, little moments in games that are so important, that are fundamental, which hurts.

“But it’s part of the journey, unfortunately, and we’ve just got to keep fighting hard and keep working hard to make sure that we don’t let that happen.

“On the other side of the ball too, they probably scored a couple of tries that were a bit easy and a little bit of a free passage, so we need to keep working on that as well.”

Ryles said Moses, who missed NSW’s 22-20 Origin victory over Queensland last Wednesday after suffering his hamstring injury at Blues training, would give himself every chance of returning against the Bulldogs at Accor Stadium next Monday.

“We’ll just have to wait and see how he goes,” Ryles said. “He had a run today and he got up to 80 per cent, so he was pretty good.”

Stand-in skipper Jack Williams was pleased with the “fight” the Eels demonstrated, despite being without so many senior players, but was disappointed they could not celebrate winger Brian Kelly’s 200th NRL game with a win.

“Like Rylesy touched on ...  we’re down on troops, but I think it’s going to be better for us in the long run,” Williams said.

“Having those guys exposed out there, like we were, we had plenty of opportunities to ice moments and we didn’t take them, which probably comes down to individual preparation and not getting your job right.

“Myself included, we’d like to have a couple of moments back, but in the long run, we’ll be better for it. But I can’t fault the scrap that the boys put in, or the effort that we all tried to put in for Brian’s 200th.”