The Eels remain defiant and believe they can still make the finals, despite suffering a heavy 54-10 loss against the Broncos and losing star playmaker Mitchell Moses with a suspected facial fracture.
The 2022 grand finalists put in a strong fight in the opening 20 minutes at the Gabba to initially hold out the Broncos before falling away and conceding nine tries.
Fears that Moses will be sidelined for weeks with a facial fracture was an added blow.
“I think it was the third or fourth minute of the game where [the injury] happened, so extremely tough [of Moses] to play on until halftime," Eels coach Brad Arthur said.
"We had to make the decision that he didn't go back out in the second half, he wanted to go back on,”
“It just shows you a lot about the whole team; I know it wasn't a great night for us, but it's not like we didn't come here to try and our attitude was off, the attitude was on, you could see that in the first 20 minutes.
“We were just beaten by a team that was too good for us, as simple as that. We had some carnage and they were just too good.”
Match: Broncos v Eels
Round 24 -
home Team
Broncos
1st Position
away Team
Eels
10th Position
Venue: The Gabba, Brisbane
Despite having a bye up their sleeve, the loss leaves Parramatta’s finals hopes hanging by a thread, with tough matches to come against the Roosters and premiers the Panthers.
“[The loss] makes it tough, but we're not giving up,” Arthur said. “We're going to keep fighting.
“Until it's over, we're going to keep fighting. We've got two games and a bye and we'll just worry about next week and reassess when we get back and see.
“There's a bit of carnage here in terms of some injuries, but we get Reg (Reagan Campbell Gillard) back and Maika (Sivo) next week, and we're just going to fight on.
“This team has been fighting all year and we are going to continue to fight.”
Parramatta captain Clint Gutherson, who again put in a spirited performance for his side, echoed his coach’s sentiments and believed the Eels could bounce back.
“We've just got to keep fighting that’s what we've done," Gutherson said.
"We've got a really tight-knit group here and we're not going go into the next two games just playing them, we're going to go out to win and that's what we've done all year,”
“Obviously, tonight didn't go our way and we've lost Mitch and it looks like AD [Andrew Davey] as well, so we just have to keep fighting; whoever steps in will do a job and see what we can do in the last two weeks.”
