Sitting on the couch last weekend, Dylan Brown was struck by the depth of Parramatta’s struggles.
“I was watching the Tigers game (against Canberra on Sunday),” the Eels five-eighth said.
“The live ladder came up. I had a fair understanding that we were down the bottom, but I didn’t realise we were last. When that came up, I thought it was pretty crazy.
“It sucks.”
With their 48-24 win on Sunday, back-to-back wooden spooners Wests Tigers leapfrogged Parramatta on the ladder on points differential after Gold Coast did the same with their own upset defeat of the Warriors.
The boilovers consigned the Eels to 17th place after round 16, marking the first time since their 2018 wooden spoon season that Parramatta finished a weekend on the bottom of the ladder.
It marks a new low in a disappointing campaign that has yielded only four wins from 10 games, and only one since the Eels fired long-time head coach Brad Arthur in May.
Parramatta’s playing group have felt the latest setback.
“We’re at the bottom of the table, that’s something I’m not very proud of, I know everyone in this club’s not very proud of,” said forward Joe Ofahengaue.
“I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t care about the ladder. I do. I don’t want to be at the bottom of the table, I don’t want to be easybeats.”
Brown feels despite the lower ladder position, the Eels have improved under interim coach Trent Barrett in recent weeks.
Since Mitch Moses and Clint Gutherson returned from injury, the side has defeated third-placed Cronulla and pushed top-eight sides Canterbury and the Sydney Roosters in close losses.
“I’m not saying there are bad teams in the NRL, but when we play the top eight teams, we play well. When we play the lower teams, it’s not so good,” Brown said.
“The last few weeks it feels like we’ve been playing all right. We just haven’t been defending points.”
Forward Bryce Cartwright says the Eels have the cattle to compete with the NRL’s elite.
Ten of the 17 players the club fielded in the 2022 grand final remain at Parramatta, including all but one member of the starting backline and both starting props.
Cartwright is hopeful the tide can begin to turn against 12th-placed Newcastle this Saturday.
“With the team we have, we definitely shouldn’t be there (on the bottom of the ladder), especially with the kind of footy we can play,” Cartwright said.
“But in saying that, we’ve put ourselves there, playing inconsistent. There’s a lot of games there we probably should’ve won.
“We can’t dwell on that, just focus on this week and improving the little areas that have let us down in the past.”