Parramatta players say a build-up of emotion after a nightmare fortnight wasn’t the reason for their late fade-out in last week’s loss to a Greg Inglis-inspired Rabbitohs outfit and have vowed to lift their game for Monday night’s must-win home clash against the Storm.
The players also insist 12 wins from their final 14 games to sneak into the finals is not beyond them given the belief still at the club.
Speaking to media on Tuesday, forward Danny Wicks said it was business as usual this week, as it had been for the players throughout the whole salary cap investigation.
"We still think we're in with a great chance we've just got to do our best," Wicks said.
"Everyone's playing for each other. The belief comes within each other I guess. It's just a matter of turning up and getting the points on the board.
"Last week we turned up for 40 minutes and in the second half let it go a bit so there's no excuses for ourselves.
"I don't think [emotion was the reason]. The game was won, just a few little lapses in concentration by myself and a few other things that happened, that's rugby league.
"Personally I didn't [have any extra motivation], I'm not sure about the other boys but there's emotion in every game that we play, it just didn't turn to favour in the last game."
Wicks again paid tribute to the job coach Brad Arthur had done in shielding the playing group from the ructions higher up at the club.
"He's good at what he does, he only tells us what we need to know and that's as far as we buy into it."
Five-eighth Corey Norman agreed the players couldn’t afford to worry about what was happening elsewhere at the club.
"It's like it's been for the last six weeks. We just worry about who we're playing and not worry about what's going on over there [at board level]," Norman said.
"That's why we've been so good the last eight or nine rounds because we're worried about who we are playing and not what's gone on in the media. We have to keep that up.
"Last week was a disappointing loss and we really need to get back on board to face Storm who beat the Cowboys on the weekend. This week is going to be a tough ask already. We just have to worry about Melbourne and not the other stuff."
