Parramatta playmaker Dylan Brown thinks the resignation of head coach Brad Arthur, who was fired last week after a spate of bad performances, was “unexpected” and “unfair”. Brown said it had been a challenging and depressing week for the club, culminated by a 42-26 loss to the Rabbitohs on Saturday night – the Eels’ seventh loss in eight games – and that the players felt responsibility for the outcomes that led to the end of Arthur’s 11-season tenure.
“We’re all adults and things happen that we don’t want to happen,” Brown said. “It was unexpected what happened – we’re talking about Brad here – and it’s disappointing to see him go because a lot of us are really close with Brad.
“For him to be gone just like that, especially at this time of the season, is disappointing. We are disappointed, but we’ve got to move on and get results because there are fans waiting for us to perform. Brad wasn’t going to perform on the field, it’s us players that have to.
“It’s disappointing that results were the reason that he did get sacked, and that’s up to us. A lot of us dwelled on that, and we think it was our fault, but the only thing that’s going to get us out of this is each other. There’s nothing we can do about it except to perform, and we’re not doing that at the moment.”
Brown said the players didn’t know the board’s reasons for sacking Arthur, but admitted the onus was on them to revive Parramatta’s season.
“The decision has come from above, and we don’t know the exact reasons as to why it was this timing, but we always knew there was pressure on him, and he knew that,” Brown said. “I felt like it was unfair, but there are reasons behind it that they’ve decided to do so.”
Junior Paulo, who captained the team on Saturday, said Arthur’s exit came as a surprise to the playing group.
“It was a bit of a shock. The reality is you can’t do anything about the decision that was made,” he said. “But for us, we just had to get on with our job and I think it was always going to be hard moving on from it.
“Everyone got around Brad. He was in good spirits after what had happened. For us, we’ve got to be able to move on. The quicker the week went on, we just had to move forward. We can’t change anything that’s happened now.”
South Sydney surged to a 22-point lead on Saturday night, but the Eels clawed their way back to within six at the start of the second half. However, as the game wore on, as has been the trend this season, Parramatta’s defence simply gave way.
“That’s been the story of our season,” Brown said. “It’s pretty embarrassing again, but we just need to find some momentum and stick with it. We’re having the same conversations behind the posts every time they score – ‘Win the set and get the ball back’ – but we’re not doing that. There’s a lot in defence that we need to work on because the points are there
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