But the coach noticed something creeping into the playing group at the start of the following season. There was a blowout trial win over Newcastle in Maitland. Then there were players declaring in the media they could win the competition. Some even started to believe the hype and tried to squeeze the club for more money. It all went wrong from there, the Eels lost 11 of their first 13 games of the 2018 season and finished last. High-profile recruit Reagan Campbell-Gillard. Credit:Benjamin Cuevas Arthur has good reason to believe things will be different this time around. "There will be no excuses," he said. "It is up to us now. It will come down to our want and desire.

"I remember 2018: there was expectation and we simply didn't aim up. I'll bear the brunt of that. "As a coach of this team and club, we've shown when we face adversity, like the salary cap dramas [of 2016], we rise and find that extra motivation. But now the challenge for us is on the back of a good season last season we need to be better again." Fullback and captain Clint Gutherson had a season to remember in 2019. Credit:Benjamin Cuevas Arthur said he made the mistake in 2018 of giving his players only one trial match. The Eels ran out of steam against Penrith in round one, lost their first six games of the season and had their confidence shattered. Clint Gutherson and Mitchell Moses had outstanding seasons last year. Both will push for NSW and Kangaroos honours. Arthur knows if they fire the Eels will fire.

Campbell-Gillard has done nothing but impress since shifting up the M4 Motorway from Penrith, as has Matterson who was involved in a messy off-season split from the Wests Tigers. "Ryan has come home really," Arthur said. "He played his junior footy here. I'm sure that Tigers game will be built up when it comes around, but he's focused on training right now. "He has strong beliefs about how he wants to be as a person and how wants the team to be seen, and he's not afraid to express it." Andrew Johns could prove the Eels' trump card this campaign. The eighth Immortal was in Papua New Guinea this week, but returns next week and will continue to work with the halves and Eels players. Johns has also proven vital for Arthur – the coach who guided the Eels through their salary-cap scandal and put up with a board that warred for years, not to mention the high-profile defections to rival codes of Jarryd Hayne and Semi Radradra.