Eels stars open up on 'embarrassing' 2023... and why they needed a ...

The Eels were the biggest disappointment of 2023, but there’s a silver lining to their failed season that should make rivals nervous.

After challenging the Panthers in the 2022 Grand Final there were expectations that the Eels would be in the premiership mix again last year.

But a shaky start to the season – one win from their first five games — mixed in with injuries and costly suspensions meant the Eels spent most of the year playing catch-up and ultimately finished 10th.

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It was the first time since claiming the wooden spoon in 2018 that the club had missed finals.

But a premature finish to the year meant an early start on preparations for 2024 with the squad now heading into Round 1 off the back of a solid four-month training block — the longest they’ve had together in five years.

Mitchell Moses’ body is “probably the best it’s felt in a long time,” while his halves partner Dylan Brown is feeling “healthy” physically and is in a “good space” mentally.

Foxsports.com.au sat down with the Eels’ two most important players — Moses and Brown — ahead of their Round 1 clash with the Bulldogs and noticed an intensity within the two that suggests they are set for their biggest year yet.

Moses had a steely look in his eye as he spoke about how “upsetting” it was to miss finals last season and his dream to win a premiership with the Eels.

Meanwhile, Brown took accountability for his “consistently inconsistent” form in 2023 and declared “there’s no excuses” this year.

Brad Arthur would’ve spent most of 2023 tearing his hair out, if he had any left, due to a mounting injury list and silly suspensions.

It all started when Ryan Matterson missed the opening rounds after he took the option of a three-game ban over paying a $4,000 fine for a crusher tackle. Not long after, Junior Paulo was suspended for two games due to a careless high tackle and late in the season Maika Sivo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard copped four-week bans for respective careless high tackle and dangerous contact charges.

Then there was Brown’s mid-year seven-game suspension after he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually touching a woman without consent.

Campbell-Gillard also spent time in the casualty ward with a groin injury, which cost him five games, while luckless second-rower Shaun Lane only managed 10 games due to jaw, hamstring and elbow injuries.

Lane was forced to watch on as his teammates started to drown in the chaos going on around them.

“It was a difficult season for everyone,” he admitted to foxsports.com.au.

“When I went off the field the left edge struggled a bit. Dylan missed a bunch of games, ‘Reg’ missed a bunch of games and ‘Matto’ was suspended for a bit.

“We didn’t have much luck on a whole bunch of different fronts so I think it’s left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouths.”

Moses also circled the disruptions as a big contributor to a “very disappointing” season but still believes the team should’ve simply finished higher.

“There were a lot of injuries and suspensions that affected us, we didn’t have our best players on the field for majority of the season,” he said.

“I feel like if we can have our good players on deck and firing and we don’t have any interruptions, we’ll be OK.

“But we still had the squad last year to do it and that’s probably what was more upsetting.

“I think to miss out the way that we did, there were things there that we could’ve controlled and a little bit of ill-discipline probably hurt us a lot last year.”

Brown agreed, saying the squad is “very aware” of how costly the suspensions were.

“Everyone knows the more you play together the better you’re going to be and we didn’t allow that,” he added.

“We had lots of chances but we didn’t get those moments right, so getting moments right in 2024 is a big one.”

It was a humbling season for the players, coach Brad Arthur and the club as a whole.

Moses admitted missing the eight after four straight years of playing finals “definitely does” bring everyone back down to earth, while Brown learnt for the first time in his NRL career what it’s like having September off.

“I started playing five years ago so I’ve always been in finals and always been in that winning culture so for us to go downward, it was a s**t feeling,” he conceded.

“We knew it wasn’t us. We haven’t gone and freaked out or anything, we know the reasons why and we’re going to eliminate them this year.”

When asked if it was embarrassing to go from a grand final to missing finals, Brown said: “Yeah… Losing is embarrassing, dropping the ball in games is embarrassing.

“When it effects other people — we’ve got one of the best fan bases, if not the best, in the competition — so seeing the support we had in the grand final we wanted to do great things again but it didn’t work out, so embarrassing is a good word.”

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As painful as last season was, the Eels have used it as a learning experience. There’s a new level of hunger within the players, who are out for redemption in 2024 after a pretty brutal “wake-up call.”

“We had so much success over a period of time there where we knew we were good but we failed to take that necessary next step,” Lane said.

“So I guess to instil that little bit of extra hunger in us and motivation, we needed that little bit of a wake-up call to let us know we’re not as good as what we actually thought we were and we’re capable of sliding out of the eight.

“It was a bit of a reality check so we’re desperate to not let that happen again.

“I think sometimes those periods or lulls are almost necessary to sit down and have a really hard review of what’s working and what’s not.

“We had quite a bit of success over the previous four years but we always failed to take the step to get where we needed to, to end the drought really.

“We definitely took those lessons over the off-season and everyone from Brad to the assistants, the captains, the leadership group and the young blokes — everyone has taken that experience on board and tried to learn from it to move forward.”

Lane can confidently say it’s collectively been “the best” pre-season he’s been a part of since joining the club in 2019 and that might have something to do with a mantra the squad is all-in on.

Brown opened up on the ‘EELS’ acronym the club introduced this season, which stands for effort, energy, legacy and selfless.

“It’s just something to think about all the time. I think it’s awesome, it encourages us just be always on whether you’re on the field or out in the community,” he said.

“The one that resonates with me the most is selfless. Thinking of others before yourself and doing what’s best for the team is going to be massive.

“I’ve said it before, I was consistently inconsistent so playing my best footy every week is a massive goal for me this year — I’ve just got to back it up.

“There were games that I did play well and Brad would be confused and frustrated. He’d say ‘why can’t you do this every week?’ and I wouldn’t have an answer so working on that is what I’ve been doing in pre-season — no excuses now.”

Arthur has never shied away from putting his players on notice, publicly. He even stated that Brown “let his teammates, his club and people down” after the 23-year-old’s off-field incident and that he “needs to repay his teammates” when he returned.

That didn’t worry Brown, who welcomes Arthur’s sometimes brutal honesty.

“It’s good, he’s honest. He’s not going to go and say that to the public without saying it to me first,” he said.

“He always talks about how everyone is different. He has to treat everyone differently and with me he’s figuring out that it’s more of a passive approach and that I just have to be happy off the field.”

When Brown is at his best he’s one of the most dangerous players in the competition. He’s got speed, skill, vision and is one of the Eels’ best defenders. So it’s absolutely in the club’s best interests that their star five-eighth is in a good place.

When asked if he is happy off the field Brown was quick to answer without a single microsecond of hesitation: “Yeah I am — hopefully that reflects in my game this year.”