Eels coach Brad Arthur was frustrated with his side being reduced to 12 men for two sin-binnings in their 28-20 loss to the Roosters.
Will Penisini was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul after he failed to get back 10 metres, while Bailey Simonsson was sin-binned for a late high shot on James Tedesco.
However, Arthur wasn’t convinced either was deserving of a sin bin on first look.
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“I think with Will Penisini’s one he made the effort to get back,” Arthur said.
“I don’t know if he got the full 10 metres, but he didn’t actually engage with anyone and make a tackle.
“They ran into him and Mitchell made the tackle so that is what I saw at the time.
“And the second one Simo (Simonsson) I don’t know because I didn’t see any head contact.
“But I’m not going to say that’s what happened because I need to see it closely.
“Obviously there was something wrong with James so, I didn’t see any head contact, but obviously there was.”
Eels skipper Clint Gutherson conceded being reduced to 12 men twice took its toll on the Eels physically but refused to use it as an excuse.
“It is one of those things that is out of our control,” Gutherson said.
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“We have just got to play the game that comes and it makes it hard when you have got two people off for two extended periods and that’s the way it was.”
Despite the Eels losing four of their first five games, Arthur is happy with his side’s commitment and attitude.
“I’m very happy with the effort and the fight of the team all through the five games,” Arthur said.
“I know it doesn’t look great one win from the five games, but our effort and attitude towards our footy has been really good.
“There were some really costly periods there where we had to do a lot of defence obviously with 12 men for 20 minutes was costly.
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“Then in the second half that big block of try line defence hurt us.”
Arthur believes the Eels are not getting a lot of luck, but said his team are playing better at this time of the season than they were last year.
“Not a lot of luck is going our way at the moment, but we can change that,” Arthur said.
“But we are hanging in there and I was really happy with how they kept fighting. I thought our scramble was really good.
“But a couple of big moments, a bounce of the ball or a penalty against us is really hurting us at the moment.
“We just have to stay in it and keep fighting hard and it is going to turn and we have just got to make sure we are ready to go when it does.
“We have played some pretty good teams and I feel like our effort and attitude the first five rounds this year is better than last year.
“It’s where we finished last year with our effort and attitude that’s where we have picked up, but we just have to get on top of some football things and as soon as we do that we will be right.”
