Parramatta interim coach Trent Barrett has named and shamed players after their “dumb errors” led to a stunning capitulation in the Eels’ 30-24 loss to the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
The visitors flew out of the blocks to stun the crowd and lead 16-0 after 11 minutes, before a litany of errors allowed Brisbane back into the contest and ultimately got them home to keep their slim finals hopes alive.
“I would have taken that lead (16-0) if you’d said that to me before the game…(but) the back end of the first half and the errors we made in the second half were poor,” Barrett said.
“Maika’s (Sivo) drop and the intercept for Reno (Adam Reynolds) – we missed the short side there when we should have scored and put them away.
“Kelma’s (Tuilagi) charge down – we don’t charge the ball down inside 10m. So there’s dumb things there that put us in a position to lose.
“And until we learn that and I can go in there and pat them on the back for their effort and attitude but that’s not enough to win an NRL game and they have to learn. We have to learn.
“We’ve got two weeks to go and we want to win those two games – it’s important for us to finish well.”
The loss means the Eels remain on equal points with the last-placed Wests Tigers following their 34-26 win over Manly on Thursday night putting even more emphasis on the race for the wooden spoon.
The result means the ‘Spoon Bowl’ is on, with the Wests Tigers to host the Eels in the final round of the season in a clash that will decide the wooden spoon.
Barrett said the club was well aware of the importance of avoiding the embarrassment of collecting their fourth spoon in 13 seasons.
“I’m not making excuses here but the players that we’re missing there’s $5 million not there and you look at the blokes who are sitting behind me in the box and there’s another six at home,” he said.
“We still put ourselves in a position to win and will be fighting really hard to avoid it (the wooden spoon) but the reality is yeah we are (a chance to win the wooden spoon).
“And we’re going to play the Tigers in the last round so it’s in our hands really”
Barrett said his troops must cut out the silly errors and lapses in concentration over the final two rounds of the regular season to finish the year on some sort of positive note.
“We just can’t play 80 minutes of football at the moment,” he said.
“As I said last week, we’ve nearly said it every week that effort and attitude will get you in the game but you’ve still got to execute to win it.
“But they did enough to (win) but we handed them a win – we got beat by six and there’s two tries there directly off one missed tackle and then two tries directly off our errors.
“To get to 16-0 we knew we had to start well up here and that was a dream start to be fair, but momentum can go against you pretty quickly and it did at the back end there of the first half.”
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