NRL: Kearney facing tough ask to rescue Eels

Stephen Kearney the coach of the Eels looks on during his side's match against the Bulldogs. Photo / Getty Images

While the true cost of Friday night's capitulation to Canterbury won't be realised until after the NRL match review committee hands down its findings, Parramatta coach Stephen Kearney already knows he has plenty of work ahead of him.

Discipline. Defence. Composure.

The Eels were found lacking on all three fronts - and most worryingly for Kearney it was his two most experienced men in Jarryd Hayne and Nathan Hindmarsh who were the worst offenders.

The sin-binning of the pair in separate incidents three minutes apart - with Hayne put on report for a headbutt - highlighted Parramatta's shortcomings, the Eels letting slip a commanding 14-0 lead as the Bulldogs raced in 34 unanswered points to run out convincing winners.

While obviously livid at the actions of his two leaders, Kearney was critical of his side's inability to regroup as they went to the sheds locked at 14-all at the break.

Scores were still level when they had their full compliment restored, but still his troops couldn't regain control, with the Bulldogs going 20-blot over the second 40 minutes.

"That's fairly obvious," Kearney said of his disappointment at the result.

"Just the start of the second half where we found ourselves behind early in the contest there, and just our lack of resolve to be able to fight our way out of that.

"I've been given an awareness that it's going to be a fair journey in that sense, a couple of weeks ago we got behind three times against the Cowboys and we managed to claw our way back, but that's just something we're going to have to work on.

"For me tonight, given the points that were scored against us last week and given the points that were scored against us tonight, that's a real area of concern and real focus for improvement for us."

If you remove Hayne's brilliant opening salvo when he single-handedly engineered a 14-0 lead with a brace of tries, the Eels have now been outscored 72-0 over the past fortnight.

Kearney refused to comment on Hayne's conduct, but Hindmarsh admitted he and the Eels lost control once confronted with adversity.

"It was (a good start), we were feeling good," Hindmarsh said.

"And then something happens and we forget what we're doing.

"After getting sin binned I probably wasn't there, I wasn't in the right frame of mind really, I was thinking of other things so I was disappointed with how I reacted.

"But yeah it was frustrating, they just got a roll on in that second half, you could feel them getting over the top of us."

While Hayne is eyeing a suspension over his attack on Corey Payne - who is also likely to be charged over the swinging arm that provoked Hayne's reaction - it should not affect his representative chances with another three NRL rounds to go before the Test and City Origin sides are named.

- AAP