Eels half Mitch Moses says he wanted to take his clutch field goal a play earlier but after icing a 13-12 win over rivals Canterbury at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night, was more focused on praising his club's coaching staff for getting his defence up to scratch.
Moses said after six games at Parramatta he felt comfortable in his new surrounds, particularly in defence, but was unhappy with the team's second-half performance that let their opponents back into the game.
"We shouldn't have been in that position; we'll take some positives out of it [because] we defended for the whole second half so we'll take the positives out of that," he said after the game.
Speaking of his 82nd-minute field goal, Moses said he'd actually wanted to take the shot the play before he eventually iced the match-winner.
"I was going to go the play before actually, it was kind of a quick play-the-ball and I wanted to go the play before but we took one more in and they were on the back foot so I demanded the ball there and once I got the ball I felt pretty comfortable in kicking it," he said.
"Once it got to 12-all (in the 69th minute) I wanted the ball in my hands straight away. I've been in situations like that before and I've missed a goal.
"From last year I remember we went to extra time against Melbourne at Leichhardt (a 19-18 loss in Round 7), I missed that one and I wanted to make up for that. I've been practising a lot since then. Every time after training. I was definitely confident once I got in that position I was going to kick it."
Speaking of his improved defensive effort, Moses credited extra sessions with club contact coach Brett 'Bump' O'Farrell.
"I've been working pretty close with our tackle tech coach 'Bump'. He's been massive for me, always gets me in before training to do a few extra tackles," Moses said.
"I felt pretty comfortable. It was just about me getting more comfortable week by week, new defensive structures, getting used to what Parra do and I'm definitely feeling more comfortable now."
Arguably the most dominant facet of Parramatta's game over the past two wins has been their long kicking game, with Corey Norman and Moses finding the grass on nine occasions compared to two against the Dragons a fortnight ago, while it was 7-0 on Thursday against the Bulldogs.
"We work on that a fair bit at training. We feel like if we're kicking good, we get a good kick chase on the back of it we end up playing pretty good," Moses said.
"That was the goal [on Thursday], make them turn around, turn their big forwards around. It finally took a toll on them towards the end of that first half they were tiring out a bit because we just kept turning them around but we should have gone on with it in the second half."
