Parramatta coach Brad Arthur has vented his frustration with Maika Sivo after the star winger’s “dumb” act essentially handed victory to the Sea Eagles on Friday evening.
The Eels were leading by eight points during the break before the team suffered a second-half capitulation at Brookvale Oval, with Manly steaming towards a 32-18 win. It was Parramatta’s fourth loss in five weeks, with the club reeling down at 14th on the NRL ladder.
“In the second half we probably beat ourselves,” a dejected Arthur told reporters in the post-match press conference, with Manly’s team song audible from the adjacent room.
“We can’t look for excuses, we’ve got to look at ourselves.”
Parramatta was trailing by just two points in the 70th minute when Sivo inexplicably forced his elbow into the head of Manly centre Reuben Garrick following a tackle.
The 30-year-old, who had already scored a hat-trick, was put on report and sent to the sin bin, copping a chorus of boos as he exited the field.
Sivo’s brain fade left the Eels with only 12 men for the remainder of the game, with Garrick scoring twice in the final ten minutes.
“It’s dumb, isn’t it,” Arthur responded when asked about Sivo’s misdemeanour.
“There’s no point in saying too much tonight on emotion. We’ll just let it settle.
“He doesn’t need me to tell him how silly it was.
“We put him back in the team and he showed why … he scored a couple of tries that probably no one else in our squad can score.
“I thought he’d done a really good job and he was playing good football.
“I don’t think I need to say too much. I’m pretty sure that he’ll be disappointed.”
Eels captain Clinton Gutherson shook his head in frustration when reporters mentioned Sivo’s late blunder.
“It was just stupid,” Gutherson fumed.
“We were right in the game, ten minutes left, we just got Will (Penisini) back on. Last tackle we catch the ball, we give ourselves a chance.
“Just silly things at the moment and really hurting us.
“You can’t do that in the NRL games, doesn’t matter who you’re versing. We killed ourselves.
“As captain, you take it personally when nobody is doing their job.”
Meanwhile, Arthur praised five-eighth Ethan Sanders on his debut despite a couple of defensive errors.
“He had done some really good things,” Arthur said.
“He went to the game, tried his best to defend, he got a couple of things wrong there … but pretty hard to defend against Olakau’atu in front of you.
“He did pretty good.”
The Eels will have a bye next weekend before facing the Brisbane Broncos at CommBank Stadium on Friday, May 10th.