Attitude, not Bunker, to blame for defeat: Arthur

St George Illawarra fullback Matt Dufty was awarded a penalty try in the 11th minute after Parramatta lock Nathan Brown pushed the speedster as he chased his own kick into the in-goal.

The other contentious decision resulted in Eels captain Clint Gutherson being denied a try that would have tightened the score to 20-12 with 13 minutes remaining. The Bunker penalised Junior Paulo for obstructing Tyrell Fuimaono as Dylan Brown made a break.

"I don't know what's right and what's wrong with [the calls], but we've got to worry about ourselves and our attitude. It shouldn't come down to decisions in the Bunker," Arthur said at Bankwest Stadium.

"[The Dragons] had a better attitude than us in the first half and it made it too hard for us in the second half.

"Because of their attitude and their intent and purpose, they managed in the second half to scramble and come up with some big tackles at big times. I'm disappointed that we came like that because we knew what the Dragons had been doing over the last month."

Parramatta dominated possession to begin the second term and scored their first try after St George Illawarra edge enforcer Tariq Sims was sin-binned for his team's repeated infringements.

But aside from Isaiah Papali'i crashing over, the Eels failed to capitalise on their extra man, twice giving up the ball after rash kicks from utility Bryce Cartwright and second-rower Shaun Lane.

"We scored a nice try by playing our power game through them and we went away from that straight away," Arthur said.

"We lost our heads and lost a little bit of patience with it. We didn't need to win it in that 10-minute block."

The coach didn't get any indication during the week that an off performance was coming up.

"We've trained well. I've stopped thinking or worrying about that in the sheds - are they on or are they off?" he said.

"We're professionals, they've got to be on all the time because if you're not that's what happens to you."