PARRAMATTA'S senior players and coaching staff will meet next week in an attempt to establish why the Eels went from premiership contenders last year to also-rans this season.
Tonight's game against the Warriors at Parramatta Stadium will bring down the curtain on the season for the Eels after their campaign to make the finals - which looked rocky from the start - finally breathed its last with last Saturday's thrashing at the hands of St George Illawarra.
Eels captain Nathan Cayless told the Herald the club had to work out the reasons for the huge disparity between the team's best and worst form this season.
"There are a lot of things we need to talk about," Cayless said yesterday. "It's hard to put your finger on exactly what went wrong, but we weren't nearly consistent enough. Some days we played well, but on other occasions we were really poor. You can handle getting beaten if you compete, but when you lose and you haven't really competed, it's hard to take.
"Last week, against the Dragons, after our first set of six we just weren't in the game. We've got a lot of work to do in the off-season, and we'll talk about what went wrong when the senior players and coaching staff meet next week. You have these sort of meetings every year, but sometimes there are more good things to talk about. We obviously need to improve for next season."
Before the season began, Parramatta were considered among the biggest threats to Melbourne's chances of winning back-to-back premierships, having given the Storm their toughest match of last year's finals series before losing 26-10. But the Eels have won only 11 games this season, losing 12, and are in 10th place.
Halfback Tim Smith left early in the season and there have been injury problems since, but the club has a strong roster, and Cayless admitted they should have done much better. "There are a few areas in which we need to improve," he said. "Defence is probably the main one. Our defence has been very poor this year, and a lot of that comes down to attitude."
Chief executive Denis Fitzgerald said in the Herald on Tuesday that coach Michael Hagan would be told before the start of next season whether his contract, which runs out at the end of 2009, would be renewed or whether it would be his last year in charge. Cayless said the players should be able to avoid being distracted by the speculation.
"I think that process was agreed upon with 'Hages' when he signed," Cayless said.
Cayless said it was critical that the Eels lifted for a big performance to close their season tonight, adding: "It's important to get in there and compete. Hopefully, we'll compete well enough to win. I think it will be a very long off-season if we don't compete."
Meanwhile, following the Wade McKinnon saga, the NRL board has issued a directive to ensure that future cases of serious dissent by players towards match officials are met with much longer suspensions than that handed to the Warriors fullback for spitting in the direction of a touch judge.
McKinnon was suspended for three matches after it had been recommended that he should be outed for up to 11.
The league released a statement detailing the board's move to ensure the McKinnon penalty could not be used as a precedent by the defence for any player who may be similarly charged in the future, saying suspensions for such offences should be counted in months, rather than weeks.
NRL chief executive David Gallop said it was important to ensure match officials continued to receive protection, adding: "These are far from common issues, but in the case of matters that will inevitably be referred charges, it is appropriate for the board to make a directive in terms of the standards it would expect. This directive operates to override any precedents that may or may not have been established in terms of previous penalties."
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