The Parramatta Eels have slumped to its fifth loss in eight games to start the 2024 NRL season after going down to the Manly Sea Eagles on Friday night.
After a string of disappointing performances, the Eels showed plenty of promise in the first half and held a lead for long portions of the game.
However, a recurring issue with discipline came back to bite Parramatta with two second-half sin bins giving Manly the perfect opportunity to seize the momentum and eventually the win.
The turning point in the game came in the 69th minute when Eels’ winger Maika Sivo was sent to the sin bin for unnecessary contact in a tackle, leaving the visitors with 12 men for the final ten minutes of the game.
In that period, Manly went onto the score two relatively easy tries, all of which came down the wing where the Eels were down a man.
Reflecting on the crucial error, Eels’ coach Brad Arthur didn’t hold back in his assessment of Sivo.
“It’s dumb, isn’t it,” Arthur said.
“There’s no point in saying too much tonight on emotion, we’ll just let it settle, he doesn’t need me to tell him how silly it was.
“We put him back in the team and he showed why ... he scored a couple of tries that probably no one else in our squad can score.
“I thought he’d done a really good job and he was playing good football. “I don’t think I need to say too much. I’m pretty sure that he’ll be disappointed.”
Parramatta legend Tim Mannah took a different view on Arthur’s comments, stating that there may be a lack of accountability at the club.
“Obviously I’m don’t want to be too critical of Brad,” Mannah told SEN 1170 Mower’s Club.
“But I just don’t like shifting the blame to Sivo.
“Imagine Sivo going home, he’s already got enough head noise as it as. “They got thrown under the bus last week the players and deservingly (so).
“But I just think there’s a lot of finger-pointing at the moment and not a lot of accountability.”
Listen to Tim Mannah’s full recap of the match below.