Dyldam Parramatta Eels forward David Gower says he’s keen to fulfil the potential Head Coach Brad Arthur saw in him when he brought him to the Blue and Gold this season.
Gower moved to the Eels from the Manly Sea Eagles in the 2014 pre-season fresh from a Grand Final appearance, taking up the offer from Arthur to join him in his first year at the club.
And as the season has crept on, Gower’s minutes for the Eels have increased, with Arthur naming the hard-working forward in the starting line-up for Saturday’s clash with the St George Illawarra Dragons.
“It’s good to be getting good minutes and contributing to the boys and our performances on the field,” Gower said.
“I’ve always felt I’ve had it in me, to be honest, and Brad’s seen that in me last year at Manly and brought me across [to the Eels].”
“There are areas of my game I need to improve and I’m trying to do that every week.”
This week against his former club, the Dragons, Gower says part of his mission will be containing the St George Illawarra attack, whether or not the new Dragons recruit Benji Marshall takes the field.
“If he plays it’s great for the game, great for rugby league, but we’re going to try and play our own game and stick to the structures we want to play with,” Gower said.
“We just looked at a bit of video and they’re offloading at will a little bit so we need to be tight in our wrestle and our contact early and just stop that second phase play.”
“If we do that hopefully we can limit Dugan out the back, and Gareth Widdop who’s obviously playing some great footy.”
“They’ve got a lot of strike and we need to limit that ability they have to strike us.”
The Eels’ Round 10 match against the Dragons will form part of a triple header at Parramatta’s Pirtek Stadium on Saturday, with NYC kicking off at 10.40 am, NSW Cup at 12.45pm and NRL kick off at 3pm. Click through to buy your tickets!
