We came with a shit attitude and thought we’d get it dished up.”
These words came from Mitch Moses in the aftermath of the Eels capitulation to the worst team in the NRL, the Dragons.
It was a loss that cut deep for the majority of the Blue and Gold Army.
An honest self assessment was the only acceptable response from the captain and the coach, but why was such a performance delivered?
If ever a team should never turn up expecting to win, it is our Parramatta Eels.
Parramatta has been so long without success, that no match should ever be taken for granted. Strike that. No minute of any game should be taken for granted. The problem for our club is that this is nothing new.
Despite different coaches, different players and different administration, this attitude has raised its ugly head multiple times, over many seasons.
I don’t have an answer. Professional mindset coaches employed by the Eels have failed to correct this affront to supporters, so it’s apparently not an easy solve.
Upset victories are part of sport. “We didn’t turn up” is a cliche that illustrates that upsets are not the exclusive domain of our Eels. But at what point should Parra be acutely guarded against allowing a poor attitude to manifest?
This has nothing to do with an injury crisis that nobody should downplay. It was real and it impacted the team. To suggest it didn’t is absurd. But, far too often, aspects of performances were determined between the ears and not by those missing from the action.
So whilst it’s valid to contend that Parra isn’t an island, they have become masters of the art of wrong attitude.
The simplest example can be found in how the club bookended 2026.
Coming into the opening round, the Eels had taken out the preseason challenge. It was on the back of a strong, promising finish to the 2025 season during which they defeated the eventual premiers in the Broncos.
Confidence was riding high. But surely they couldn’t have been over-confident? Surely they couldn’t have gotten ahead of themselves? Surely they didn’t need a round one reality check? After all, they were playing the Storm.
Think again. The performance was diabolical. It was Rylesy’s shout for the Schooner of Reality.
That quote
Then we come to the final round.
The opportunity was there to back up the best performance of the season delivered against the Sharks in Round 26. The Eels opponent, the Dragons, were the deserving wooden-spooners. Time to give long-suffering supporters a Blue and Gold infusion for their ever-hardening hearts.
Surely the desire, the intensity, the will to win would be there in spades?
Wrong again.
What was delivered was offensive to Eels fans. It was akin to the performance against the Tigers, except in that game Moses somehow engineered a late try to steal a victory over CommBank Stadium’s hapless part time tenant.
The start and the end to the season weren’t isolated incidents. Besides the Tigers near debacle, there was also the embarrassing thrashing at the hands of the Titans.
Back to the question at hand. How does a team with Parra’s recent record, let alone the history of the last 40 years, have a repeated track record of turning up and expecting to have a victory “dished up” to them?
Remember, it’s the coach and the captain pointing the finger post match at this “shit attitude”.
The coach and captain were blunt in their self assessment
It beggars belief.
As a rusted on supporter, one who is very often accused of being glass half full in my passion for the club, it pains me to write this. I had plans to pen an article that highlighted some of the positives to emerge this season. There were some, but I’ll leave that to others, and the coaches, for now.
Round 27 forced me to order a full round of reality schooners. In the light of “the day after” I have decided to skol the lot.
Roster changes alone won’t cure the malaise that for some reason continues to infest the mindset of those wearing our jersey. This is the greatest challenge facing the incoming CEO, let alone the current coaching staff.
I can’t accept any thoughts of being happy with the effort for the majority of the season. The cold hard fact is that until this “shit attitude” is eradicated from the DNA of the Eels, it will threaten to manifest at any given time.
Looking for the positive in my club will remain a trait of mine going forward. Cheering for those who wear the jersey won’t change. And no doubt I’ll re-set for next season with renewed hope.
But at the back of my mind lies the fear that until somebody can find a way of exorcising the poor attitude from the soul of our team, Premiership success for Parra will remain a long time coming.
Eels forever!
Sixties
Thanks Sixties, my comment here is short and sharp.
Its on field leadership – we need a guy to lead like Dean Pay for example. I am not saying that Jr and Moses cannot lead but we need that lead by example guy who can lead, and be tough playing and also lead. Jack Willams can be that guy but need more….I feel sometimes Moses is too emotional on the field and needs to be more level headed.
CEO needs to be footy minded and have the smarts……my confidence is not high and hope to be wrong.
I feel the problem is lack of respect for the ball. Whenever we have beaten a team that wasn’t imploding so that we could beat them, our completion rate was great. That is on the individual players. They would stress out any veteran player in the team. Ball handling is a fundamental skill and when you combine that with poor defence, the pressure gets to insane levels.
I don’t know where this attitude from our players comes from. Yes, we have had injuries and I won’t pretend like we haven’t had good years in the past decade, but it feels like our rebuild periods are this thing to fear like we don’t have the systems in place to be stable despite being a well off club.
While it is a minority, I have seen people trying to pin this problem on Ryles and Moses with some calling back for Brad Arthur. I wonder how many of them were calling for Arthur to get fired.
The way I see it is that our veterans are too few in number and are being expected to go above and beyond. Having young players is a good thing, but it isn’t a coincidence that the club are going after big name veterans. Unless you have a system like the Panthers, it is very difficult to build a team with a focus on juniors.