A bitterly disappointed Parramatta coach Brad Arthur has said that his team's season isn't over despite the Eels going down 42-12 to a Newcastle side out of finals contention.
While they currently sit equal on 28 competition points with the eighth place Broncos, Brisbane's 193-point superior for-and-against sees Arthur's men precariously placed leading into the final round of the season.
Asked what went wrong with his team after Newcastle scored five tries in 12 minutes to turn a four-point deficit to an eventual 30-point win, Arthur was bewildered by the form drop following a strong win over the ladder-leading Sea Eagles last Friday.
"I have no idea... In terms of the football we didn't complete the fundamentals of our game. We didn't complete our sets and we didn't stick our tackles," Arthur said.
"We just didn't play like we had been over the past month. It wasn't Parramatta-like for me considering what we have produced recently."
While a win would have seen the Eels go a long way in securing a game come the second week of September, Arthur doesn't plan on going back to the drawing board in focusing on how to beat the Raiders in Canberra next Saturday night.
"We have had a few games like that this year. We have been up-and-down a bit but we have bounced back. I don't think I'm going to do that much this week, the boys' pride is hurting and they realise that it is a lost opportunity and they certainly don't want to finish the season on a performance like that," Arthur said.
"We are disappointed but we are certainly not done. We will have to go back, work hard and see what happens from there.
"We have been pretty honest all year on how we need to improve. I don't think I'm going to get much out of showing too much video from this game. We just need to work out how we need to beat Canberra. That's all that matters at the moment."
With a spot in the finals potentially on the line against the Green Machine next weekend, Arthur's men will be looking for a repeat effort just four weeks after accounting for the Raiders in Darwin.
