Arthur: Tonight was a missed opportunity

Eels coach Brad Arthur addressed the media after his side’s loss to the Dragons  

Here’s what he had to say about the performance.

On the Eels’ Performance

“We didn’t deserve to win it anyway. They wanted it a bit more than us, I thought, tonight,” Arthur said.

On Eels’ current form

“Every team we are playing at the moment is coming with their best game. We have to be at our best game to do it. A couple of concentration errors tonight at critical times hurt us and we have got to work at that. They just did things a bit harder and with a bit more desire I thought,” Arthur said.

On the Dylan Brown stripping call

“Oh look he’s in the tackle, how does he get his hand out of there?  He keeps his hand in there, he gets penalised for keeping his hand on the ball or being there too long. Some calls are going to go for us and some calls are going to go against us,” Arthur said.

On Reed Mahoney’s no try

“I didn’t see it touch the line but they must have another angle. It went up as a try but obviously we didn’t deserve to win,” Arthur said.

On Junior Paulo’s ankle problem

“I think he just rolled it. It will be a bit sore tomorrow once it cools down but I don’t think it’s too bad,” Arthur said.

On next week’s clash with Melbourne

“Yeah it is a big game. Every game is a big game. Tonight is a lost opportunity for us. Next week is an opportunity for us to come with a bit more want and desire,” Arthur said.

Is the loss a wake up call?

“I don’t know if it’s a wake up call. There are things there we knew we had to get better at and there are still things moving forward we have to get better at. We are just disappointed in the concentration errors. If we make errors playing footy, I can live with that, but the concentrations ones, we need to be better there,” Arthur said.