Taylor gives departing duo confidence to spark Eels' revival

JEREMY Smith is on a roll now, with the Parramatta No.7 jumper on his back and a contract to play for South Sydney next year. But it took a few years to convince selectors that he was good enough to play first grade.

"I always had the belief," Smith said yesterday, as the Eels prepared to try to keep alive their finals hopes in tomorrow night's clash with St George Illawarra at Parramatta Stadium.

"It was getting someone else to believe in me."

Parramatta coach Jason Taylor believes in him. Taylor says that if players are performing well in the lower grades and doing the work asked of them at training, they will be rewarded, and it's not the hot air you get from some coaches.

"Jeremy's had a bit of a chequered past," Taylor said.

"He played lower grades at the Warriors, the Roosters, the Dragons and the Sharks before he came here. But we've found him great.

"I think he was probably a bit misunderstood at those previous clubs. He's always had the ability, but no one had ever given him the opportunity or drawn the right things out of him."
Smith, 25, played five-eighth in the Taylor-coached Eels team that won last year's premier league grand final. Now, at halfback, he has formed a first-grade partnership with five-eighth John Morris that is unusual, to say the least.

Here they are, two players who, because of the key nature of their positions, will have a huge influence on whether the team actually makes it to the finals - yet neither of them will be at the club after this season.

There wasn't a long-term deal on offer for Morris at the Eels, so he took one that was on the table from Wests Tigers. Smith could have stayed with Parramatta on minor money, but with regular half Tim Smith to eventually come back from injury there wasn't much point. Better to accept a contract with the Rabbitohs, where the halfback spot is up for grabs.

Both players admit that trying to sort out their futures mid-season was a distraction, but that since the deals were done they have been able to concentrate on football.

"I haven't had to adjust my game too much, to play with Jeremy," Morris said.

"He steers us around the park and I try not to get in his way. He's a crafty player. He can put players through holes and he's produced some nice tries through clever touches near the line."

Morris says that, after Parramatta looked gone mid-season, he would regard it as a tremendous opportunity to play finals footy for the club one last time, because of the awful way in which the Eels dipped out of contention last season. North Queensland whipped them 29-0 the week before the grand final.

"It took me a long while to get over that loss and I'm sure I wasn't the only one," Morris said.

"I think the disappointment contributed to us playing poorly in the early part of this season."

Parramatta have won six games straight, but the players have tried to ignore increased expectation coming from outside the club.

"There's still a bit of pressure, but it's not bringing us down," Smith said. "That game against Manly that we won with 12 men last weekend - we wouldn't have won that two months ago. Winning brings confidence and the confidence is high."