It was Tony Montana (Al Pacino) in Scarface who said it best. Reflecting on the romantic enthusiasm of Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer) for himself, Montana says to sidekick-in-crime Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer): “The eyes, Chico. They never lie.” What he meant is that the eyes are the window to the soul, and that one can tell much about a person through their prism.
Step forward your sad-eyed disappointments of 2018, the Parramatta Eels, who on Saturday night in Canberra capitulated to local men who appeared to want it more, who believed in the man next to them, and who, in tough conditions, kept the Eels to a single, paltry penalty goal and thus friendlessly zero-and-six. And Eels fans face a sad and long old row to hoe.
Now, it’s hard to be critical of a rugby league player’s desire, especially from these cheap and comfortable couch seats. You can’t knock NRL players for not having a go because to play the blessed, brutal bloody game is to have a go. To turn up is to anticipate pain. And on a tough night in the capital, the Eels rocked up and did their best.
It’s just that their best is not very good.
Hooker Kaysa Pritchard made 66 tackles. Tim Mannah ran a game-high 142 metres, diamond-hard charges into the meat of the Raiders pack. Clint Gutherson, in his first game back from injury since July 2017, played with energy and skill.
But the trio had few mates. Outside of a belting by Luke Bateman in-goal, Bevan French, took off for his first run in the 68th minute. Corey Norman ran twice and was twice sold Blake Austin’s dummy. And in the middle of the ruck the understated, chunky Raiders hooker Siliva Havili embarrassed the Eels’ middle with incisions that made him look like Steve Walters.
Post-match, Eels coach Brad Arthur admitted he was so disappointed he was lost for words. He said he couldn’t fault his team’s effort.
“We’re trying really hard but that’s not good enough to win us NRL games,” he said. “We keep shooting ourselves in the foot with ill-discipline. We also can’t scrounge out a try at the moment which is not great for our confidence.”
Ah, confidence. Wayne Bennett calls it a celebration of hard work. NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said “confidence is contagious, and so is the lack of it”. Confidence is something you can’t fake. It seems the Eels have trust issues, belief issues. They haven’t achieved in 2018 and it would feel like they can’t, even won’t. Losing can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“Winning becomes a habit,” said Arthur. “Unfortunately so does losing.”
Again – it’s hard to knock them from these cheap seats. Bodies were put on the line. But a lack of belief, trust, confidence can lead to ineptitude. And it just didn’t look like Parramatta were really into their work. Body language is a “tell”. The eyes are a tell. And the eyes of the Parramatta Eels spoke of a collective unit that just weren’t into it. Not as much as the other mob, anyway.
Outside Gutherson, Mannah, Mitchell Moses at a pinch, the Eels’ energy wasn’t up to that from the Raiders. It’s hard to define “energy” in a footy team – but you know it when you see it.
On Saturday night in Canberra, it drove the home side more than the visitors. Canberra’s collective will was greater than Parramatta’s. It won them the game. And with their season effectively on the line, Parra produced a damp squib.
The Raiders made four line breaks, the Eels none. The Raiders made 42 tackle breaks, the Eels 24. And in defence – which like the eyes, is a window into a team’s soul – the locals threw themselves at the Eels’ attack agents in desperate, effective, multi-man tackles. Bateman was a rock; Joseph Tapine a factor, Joey “BJ” Leilua a bulky dominator.
Ironically, Parramatta’s passing game yielded 12 offloads to Canberra’s six. Yet there still remained little incisive second phase broken field play. Moses and Norman have to wear that. Apparently they’re not getting on (though Mount Kosciuszkos can be made of Brookie Hills in these matters). But they’re high-skilled and light on their feet, and didn’t capitalise on back-peddling pigs. Mind you Peter Sterling and Brett Kenny may have struggled behind a pack that provided so little momentum.
Meanwhile the Raiders D-men tackled ferociously, and for each other. And it was but one difference between the teams. Since Ricky Stuart justifiably publicly scorned his team as “soft” after Manly ran through them like a flood through a village, there was a desperate quality to the Raiders’ work. It looked like they wanted it. More than the Eels did, anyway. You can’t fake desire, either.
And now Parramatta are zero-and-six and their season gone by mid-April. To make the top eight on 30 points the Eels will have to win 15 of their next 18 games. On this form there’s more chance of Tony Montana – at the end of Scarface riddled with bullets by a revenge squad from Columbia – appearing in Scarface II.
