Arthur unloads on 'part-time' Eels in scathing spray

Eels coach Brad Arthur has unloaded on his side following their 44-16 loss to the Dolphins on Friday night, labelling them “a part-time football team”.

The Eels dominated the opening 20 minutes of the match, shooting out to an 8-0 lead before the Dolphins went on a scoring rampage — racking up nine unanswered tries.

After the half-time break, the wheels well and truly fell off for the Parramatta side.

Brad Arthur labelled his team

Asked what exactly went wrong post-match, Arthur did not mince his words.

“We’re a part-time footy team at the moment,” he told media.

“We pick and choose when we want to play. We pick and choose in the 80 minutes when we want to make a tough choice or a soft choice because that second half wasn’t good enough.

“It just got too fast for us and too hard, and we gave up. Simple as that.

“There’s only a handful of players at this club at the moment that choose to come every week and play with the right mentality and toughness. [They] want to be a footballer for 80 and want to be an NRL player every week.”

Addressing how the Eels turn things around, Arthur said his players needed to “harden up”.

“I think we’re just making some soft choices, blokes aren’t taking the tough choice or the decision which is best for their teammates,” he said.

“The players have got to fix it. I can only talk about it so many times.

“The players have to fit it, don’t they? They’re the ones that come and play and enjoy playing the 80 minutes — the good parts of it and bad parts of it, and the hard parts of it.

“We enjoy everything else around it but we don’t enjoy the 80 minutes and that’s the bit we’re getting paid to do.”

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Eels captain Clint Gutherson agreed with his coach but acknowledged that it was “disappointing” to hear.

“There’s a handful that is doing the job every week and it’s not always the same player but you can’t not do your job in the NRL,” Gutherson said.

“You have to be on every single tackle [and] every single set, and in the NRL, games are hard to win and they [the Dolphins] showed us how to play footy up here.

“It’s the truth. You have to have tough conversations sometimes and we have to get it right. We didn’t get it right this week and we have to.”

With the results, the Eels’ record slumps to 3-4 this season.