Ryan Matterson is having the last laugh on a former high school teacher who told him he didn’t have the goods to make it as a rugby league player.
The Parramatta back-rower will play his 100th NRL game when the Eels face Brisbane on Friday night, proving his maths teacher at St Paul’s College in Greystanes wrong.
“I don’t know whether he was trying to make me listen in class or what but he was adamant that he knew what quality rugby league players looked like and he said I wasn’t one of them,” Matterson said on Monday.
“I always said I wanted to play first grade like my old man (Paul) and my uncle (Terry Matterson) so to play just the one I was over the moon and since then I’ve played every game like it was my last.”
Against the Broncos the Eels are looking to regain the attacking potency that made them an early season premiership threat, only managing 10 tries since round 13 which is the lowest of any team.
In the wash-up from last round’s 20-2 loss to leaders Penrith, Matterson said Parramatta moved away from “what worked”.
“We’ve been speaking about that over the last 24 hours and we’re going to try and rectify that,” he said.
“We’re handing over too many possessions, I was guilty of that against Penrith when I tried to offload when it wasn’t needed.”
The 25-year-old Matterson said the Eels’ scrambling defence had kept them in games, although they were putting too much pressure on themselves with six-again sets.
“That’s what kills you. When you have to tackle and tackle and tackle it takes it out of your front-foot attack so we’ve got to fix that,” he said.
Matterson said they weren’t concerned by being written off despite holding down a position in the top four.
“We’re not worried about the outside noise and all the media talk, how we set about rectifying things has got to be within the playing group,” he said.
“Come this week or finals it’s only the 17 boys or coaching staff that can change that, it’s about actions on the field.”
Matterson said the Eels won’t rest players against the 15th-placed Broncos, planning to use the match to work on their combinations.
