If Parramatta go on to do something special in their premiership campaign, the turning point came in Brad Arthur’s office after the loss to South Sydney.
The coach summoned Shaun Lane, one of the few players who aimed up in an otherwise flat team performance, to discuss the inconsistency of the side.
“He asked me into the office and felt like I’d been one of the more consistent players in the team over the second half of the year,” Lane said. “He just asked me how I’d been approaching my performances in that time frame.
“It’s a difficult job we do, it’s obviously high stakes and lots of pressure. You’re always sore and there might be lots of reasons why you don’t want to play sometimes. Unfortunately the nature of the game is you have to perform and we get paid accordingly.
“To be a good footballer you have to play at times when you might not want to or things may not be going right personally or you’re not feeling well.
“That’s what the good players are able to do. He agreed with me on all of that when I said that’s how I think things should be and he relayed that information to the team.
“It seemed like a pretty good response.”
The response was the desired one: a 42-6 demolition of Canterbury. There are stiffer challenges ahead, most notably Thursday’s away clash against Brisbane, to whom they lost just last month.
There were no punches pulled in the honesty session that preceded the win over the Bulldogs.
“It was a very honest discussion, we are very accountable to each other,” said Eels centre Will Penisini. We all know our roles.
“The last two games we can dictate where we end up on the ladder. It’s all up to us at this stage.”
Lane added: “[Arthur] just thought we were getting a bit ahead of ourselves and sometimes getting complacent, thinking we’re going better than what we are.
“He put us in our place and let us know that nothing is guaranteed for us, that now is the time we need to perform more than ever. We’re not kidding anyone if we’re thinking we’ve done the job yet.”
Parramatta forward Shaun Lane.Credit:Getty Images
Lane has become not only a consistent performer, but also a leader. This was not always the case. His NRL career began with promise at the Bulldogs in 2015, only to stagnate. If he had a fallback career option – he was only halfway through a health sciences degree – the towering back-rower may have walked away from the game altogether. Then came what Lane describes as an “epiphany”.
“I had to come to that realisation and have a slice of humble pie,” he recalled.
“I spent two years at Manly. My first year was pretty much my second consecutive season playing reserve grade after I started well at the Bulldogs with a year in first grade there.
“From there I’d been dropped by the Bulldogs, been sent over to New Zealand, come back, went to Manly. The whole time I was playing reserve grade thinking that I had been hard done by and all of these things.
“That was a real wake-up call for me, that off-season where I had to think to myself that the final year of my contract was the only thing that was guaranteed to me anymore in rugby league.
“If I didn’t pull my head in and start to achieve my potential it could have been just a career gone down the drain. I didn’t want that to happen. I saw the potential in myself, I knew what I was able to do and luckily I was able to make all the adjustments necessary in that pre-season and make my way back into the team.
“From there, everything has started to kick off and my career has been on the up ever since.”
Lane is now completing a graduate diploma of psychology at UNSW and believes the degree is providing him with the mental skills and fortitude to help fulfil his potential.
“On the field it was probably the main difference between me being a good player and one point playing reserve grade,” he said.
“Getting my headspace right, getting my own thoughts and mind out of my own way and being in the moment to perform how I can, that’s been massive for me.”
The 27 year old hopes to further share his skills in expertise once he finishes football, potentially transitioning into the coaching ranks.
“Yeah, for sure, it’s an avenue I’d like to explore,” he said.
“I’m not sure what opportunities would arise but I’m a pretty open-minded guy and if something came up I could see myself applying my skills pretty well in that area.
“Not just through the mental side but I think I understand footy pretty well, all the coaches seem to have good praise for my understanding of the game.
“I’m not a stressful guy, I’ve been in the spotlight myself in my own career. I like to just relax and I don’t pay attention to media scrutiny or anything like that. At the end of the day, you give it your best and that’s all you can do. The people in the room are the only ones I concern myself with the opinions of. That’s all a coach can do. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”
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