Mitchell Moses has declared he “wants to win now” after a tight loss to the Storm, with his inexperienced side continuing to build as they learn on the run.
The Eels are in the midst of a rebuild, but still gave Craig Bellamy’s red-hot outfit a scare with the scores level at 10-10 for 69 minutes before a Xavier Coates try won the contest.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, the Parramatta captain was asked how pleased he was to see the improvements in an Eels side that begun the season with a 56-18 loss to Melbourne.
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“It’s definitely exciting, but I want to win now,” Moses said.
“I think it’s all good we are in a learning process and a growing process, but we have a footy team here ready to win games now and we should have won that one tonight.
“But we let that one get away, but we will take a lot of lessons out of tonight.”
The likes of Ryley Smith, Tallyn Da Silva, Sam Tuivaiti, Charlie Guymer and Luca Moretti have all proven to be crucial youngers for the Eels under Jason Ryles.
Moses was of the belief his team’s mentality has shifted, which began with a big upset victory over the Broncos in Round 21.
“They are getting a lot of confidence, Rylesy is showing them a lot of confidence and putting a lot of confidence in them to be able to go out there and perform,” Moses said.
“They are just going to have to learn on the run. At least they are learning lessons in the big games…. not just going out there and going ‘how much are we going to lose by today?’.
“We are going into games (thinking) we can compete with anyone at the moment and it’s good lessons for a young kid.”
Moses, however, did admit that this loss in particular “hurts” given it was against one of the competition heavyweights.
“There’s been a fair bit of change… but it’s taken us a bit to know what footy that we can play and the type of footy we can play,” he said.
“We probably worked that out the last few weeks. We’ve been in games against some really quality sides, been there ready to win the game.
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“But in big moments we just haven’t nailed them. It’s going to come with experience, the young kids are going to learn.
“The one tonight really hurts I guess, we just didn’t look after the ball when they gave us chances… there’s a footy team there, but a bit frustrated we aren’t coming up with points.”
Ryles, meanwhile, explained that a pair of errors led to one Storm try, while the other two came from kicks, highlighting the Eels shot themselves in the foot.
“We know ourselves how much we’ve improved as individuals and as a team, I think again that was just more proof,” the Eels coach said.
“Last week was real good, reaffirming that we are improving and then again tonight. The fight and the effort in the group is outstanding.
“Not for a second are they happy we’ve been beaten, and neither am I, but the improvement we have been showing week on week is there.
“I honestly think we lost that game tonight, they didn’t beat us so that’s a real good thing for us going forward.”
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