Eels legend Peter Sterling has called for the players to switch off the outside noise around contract speculation and earn back their credibility after they were torn to shreds by Melbourne on Saturday.
The 54-point defeat was the biggest losing margin in their history with Melbourne, conceding 11 tries to two in an abysmal defensive display.
The future of skipper Clint Gutherson and halfback Mitch Moses has dominated headlines with the club delaying their signatures with hesitance to fork out a large pay packet after last year's wooden spoon campaign.
Sterling supported Parramatta's patient strategies and suggested the players needed to turn their focus to their on-field performances.
“After last night it puts contracts in perspective,” Sterling told Channel Nine's Sunday Footy Show.
“Over the next month it is about Parramatta players trying to earn credibility not contracts.
“Once you cross that white line whatever has been happening during the week you forget about it and go to work.”
Blues coach Brad Fittler had no doubts the off-field attention had an impact on the players, insisting their managers should be handling the situation better.
“Those are distractions. They’re huge distractions, they’re always distractions now,” Fittler said.
“Gutho came out saying he was disappointed in Parramatta; you pay a manager. They all have managers, every one of them has a manager.
“Their manager should be doing this stuff, they should never comment about the club or about their contract or about the term of their contract or about how much money they should be getting. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Let your manager earn his money and get on and play footy.”
Sterling believes the shocking Magic Round loss highlighted the Eels' inconsistrency, but it could potentially be a light bulb moment for the club.
“You always knew that Melbourne Storm would [respond] and they gave Parramatta a footballing lesson last night,” Sterling said.
“Now, Parramatta are a better side than they were last year [having finished last], but this shows just how far they have to come. The last eight weeks has been win-loss all the way through, so no consistency.
“But this game to me shows that when you lose the ruck early in a game, you’re in all sorts of trouble. Parramatta have done that twice in recent weeks. Against Newcastle they lost the ruck early; Danny Levi carved them up. And I don’t know how often Cameron Smith at dummy-half with the play-the-ball looked up and saw three men trying to get to marker or get back; he just had a field day.
“Huge lesson for Parramatta in this game, and they played Melbourne back into form to some degree. When momentum’s against you, it’s hard to stop. [But] you’ve got to find a way, you’ve got to draw a line in the sand somewhere.''
