Eels coach punches wall, makes park football comparison
George Clarke |
Jason Ryles punched a wall in anger and then aired his frustrations with his Parramatta side, claiming their performance in a loss to South Sydney was so bad that they wouldn’t have beaten a park football team.
Ryles was unable to contain his emotions on Thursday as the Eels were defeated 32-12.
The Parramatta coach bashed his walkie-talkie into the desk before smashing his fist through a wall in his box at CommBank Stadium midway through the first half.
“She’s pretty hot up there (in the box) sometimes,” Ryles said.
After they appeared to have turned a corner and ironed out their discipline and defensive issues over the last month, the loss to Souths was a reality check for Parramatta.
The Eels were way off the pace against the undermanned Rabbitohs, making 17 errors and missing 36 tackles with a completion rate of just 60 per cent.
“I probably don’t have the vocabulary to articulate how I actually feel, so disappointing is probably one way to put it,” Ryles said.
“It was self-inflicted that Souths didn’t have to earn a whole heap of what they did.
“They made their one-on-one tackles on the try line and we didn’t.
“We completed at 38 per cent in the second half with 40 per cent possession.
“You won’t beat a park football team doing that, so that’s the reality of where we are at the moment and we have to keep working hard to turn it around.”
The loss all but ends Parramatta’s slim finals hopes ahead of a testing month where they face Manly, the Sydney Roosters, Penrith and Wests Tigers.
The performance of the Eels (5-10) was all the more disappointing for Mitchell Moses, who struggled to shine as he fights to retain his spot in Laurie Daley’s NSW squad for the State of Origin decider on July 8 in Brisbane.
“We didn’t make our one-on-ones and just didn’t nail our chances when they did,” said Moses.
“We just made too many errors, errors out of the backfield and when you give a team like that good field position, they’ll make you pay.”
AAP