Parramatta coach Daniel Anderson questioned his squad's commitment and pride after the Eels' season of discontent hit a new low with an embarrassing 48-18 loss to the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium yesterday.
The Bulldogs' win came after a virus ran through the club during the week coupled with the effects of a short turnaround following Monday night's win over Souths.
The 2008 wooden spooners ran in nine tries and continued their blistering start to the season to climb to third on the ladder.
And Anderson claimed several of his Eels players opted to take soft options. They now sit second last with a 2-4 record.
''We need to tough it out, be grittier in our character and be grittier in our attitude and put your body on the line for the full 80 we came up with some soft decisions when it mattered,'' Anderson said.
''It's an attitude, it's a character.
''You can put yourself in the tough, courageous, uncompromising position on the football field and you can also put yourself in an option where you know the ball's not going to come you're way or you won't have to make the big defensive play and I thought we did that on a few occasions in the second half and that's disappointing.''
Anderson was asked if there was a solution to the problem.
''Appeal to the players sense of pride in performance, pride in wearing a Parramatta jersey, because I thought that we made it so that at times we didn't have a sense of pride in our performance,'' he said.
The Eels' troubles were summed up in a two-minute period early in the second half when Krisnan Inu and Weller Hauraki were left staring at each other as Gary Warburton went over untouched.
Inu sent the restart over the dead ball line on the full and Ben Roberts was cut down five metres short of the line after taking the quick tap before Hazem El Masri easily touched down two plays later to make it 26-12.
The rest was a cakewalk Brett Kimmorley turning back the clock with a 75m runaway try in the final minute as the Bulldogs added insult to injury.
Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore admitted the win was one his side got away with due to the virus, short turnaround and an eighth-minute foot injury to Josh Morris.
''I thought the way we defended today, if we were up against a better side who threw more at us, we could have been in a bit of trouble,'' Moore said.
As it is the Bulldogs have won five of their first six matches under Moore, who attempted to temper expectations.
''Maybe on the competition table we're a bit higher than I thought we might have been, but I always held pretty high hopes,'' Moore said.
''We've got to remember we're only six weeks into the competition so we can't get ahead of ourselves.''
For Anderson, the road ahead is looking much tougher.
''It's not where I thought we'd be,'' he said. ''It's how far we're behind other teams ... unless our performance improves and we have the consistent attitude over the course of 80 minutes then we won't compete in the NRL this year we'll be languishing.''
The Bulldogs shot out of the gate with a double to NSW Origin candidate Morris inside the opening eight minutes. But that proved to be the end of the road for the former Dragons flyer with a foot injury suffered as he scored his second try forcing him off.
Parramatta lost winger Eric Grothe (back) down the same flank, but he was hardly missed as Jarryd Hayne took advantage of Bryson Goodwin in defence to halve the deficit.
An opportunity went begging when Matt Keating tossed a pass over the sideline with the tryline in sight, the Bulldogs making no such error with Ben Hannant bursting through the Eels line before finding Patten in support for an 18-6 lead.
Again the Eels found points but again they were unable to sustain their charge as second-rower Warburton strolled over untouched out wide. AAP
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