Girdler’s damning statement speaks to the gravity of a defeat that prompted Parramatta head coach Brad Arthur to dismiss his players as “part-time” footballers.
The coach is not removed from criticism with Arthur’s future at the club suddenly a focal point of discussion.
“The way the Eels fell away in the second half, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a performance quite like it,” Girdler said on Triple M.
“The amount of players that were left on the ground after contact, their inability at contact to win that part of the collision was just incredible.
“The Dolphins had a field day.
“The amount of talent they had on the sidelines, it was young guys coming in and still working with the NRL.
“They put a side like the eels to the absolute sword.
“Mitchell Moses was out, we understand that.
“But if you go through the experience they had you can understand Brad Arthur’s frustration so the players have to be held accountable but I have a feeling there will be a lot of talk about the coach in the next few weeks as well.”
What is causing concern from within the Parramatta club is that the Eels’ 44-16 defeat came just two weeks after Parramatta’s poor 41-8 loss to the Raiders.
It explained why after the shock 44-16 loss in Darwin, which included tries every three minutes in the second half by the Dolphins, Arthur held the players to account like never before in his 11 years at the helm. “What’s wrong with our season is we’re a part-time football team at the moment,” Arthur said.
“We pick and choose when we want to play and we pick and choose in the 80 minutes when we want to make a hard choice or a soft choice because the second half wasn’t good enough.”
“It all just got too fast for us and too hard and we gave up, simple as that.
“There are only a handful of players at this club at the moment who choose to come every week to play with the right mentality and toughness … and want to be an 80-minute footballer and want to be an NRL player every week .”
After the match, it is understood that Arthur was just as sharp inside the dressing rooms. Outside of a forced change due to an HIA scare over back-up half Daejarn Asi, Arthur is unlikely to make major changes to the side for two main reasons, including the lack of pressure and form from the lower grades and a desire to see if the current playing group is willing to respond to the current crisis.
The Eels take on arch-rivals Manly at 4 Pines Park on Friday.