Mitchell Moses act towards teammate that might not sit well with NSW coach Michael Maguire
The Parramatta halfback appeared to completely give up as Newcastle scored the winning try.
OPINION
Mitchell Moses is being praised for holding his Parramatta teammates to account and giving them a spray during and after their loss to the Newcastle Knights last weekend. But maybe the Eels and NSW halfback should be taking a looking in the mirror considering some questionable efforts in the dying stages of the game.
The Eels went down 34-26 to the Knights last Saturday, with Bradman Best scoring two runaway tries after Parramatta errors to seal the victory for Newcastle. With the game on a knife-edge at 28-26 with 90 seconds remaining, the Eels were a huge chance to score and win the game.
But Clint Gutherson threw a wayward pass that evaded Moses' reach, and Will Penisini fumbled it as he was trying to pick it up. Best then grabbed his opportunity, pouncing on the loose ball before running 80 metres to score. Best had done the same thing after a Blaize Talagi dropped ball just six minutes earlier.
On the second occasion, a clearly frustrated Moses turned and gave Gutherson an almighty spray - seething that his fullback hadn't provided a better pass. But replays of the incident appeared to show Moses completely giving up on the play.
The halfback didn't produce enough effort to try and catch the pass, and was only a metre away from Best when he picked up the ball. But rather than chase Best and try and prevent him scoring, Moses instead decided to berate his teammate.
Moses was one of the quickest players on the park, and could have chased down Best if he wanted to put in the effort. Best had run 90 metres to score just six minutes earlier, and was clearly fatiguing when he picked up the loose ball a second time.
Who knows what might have happened if Moses decided to chase Best? There's every chance the Knights could have dropped the ball and given the Eels one final chance to win the game, but because Moses gave up he effectively conceded Parramatta's defeat.
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The complete lack of effort was labelled 'pathetic' by some on social media and might not sit well with NSW coach Michael Maguire. Moses had an absolute blinder in State of Origin 2 and had the ball on a string. He had a hand in everything as NSW scored six first-half tries for a 34-0 lead.
But his effort in the dying stages against Newcastle wasn't anywhere near good enough for a State of Origin halfback. Moses also gave his teammates a foul-mouthed spray in the sheds after the loss to the Knights. He reportedly said: “No one outside this room is going to help us get out of this", with plenty of colourful language thrown in.
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Leading journalist Paul Crawley wrote on Thursday: "Moses has been known to carry on like a pork chop at times with the way he lambastes teammates when something goes wrong. But this time it was understandable given the incredibly disappointing year Parra has had through no fault of Moses."
But considering the way Moses gave up, maybe it wasn't that understandable. Things went from bad to worse for the Eels superstar on Thursday night after he was sin-binned and had a shocker in a 32-16 loss to South Sydney at home.
