As coach Wayne Bennett and enforcer Beau Scott walked to the press conference after Sunday's impressive win over Parramatta, the pair were in complete agreeance over the hard fought victory.
"Beau said coming here, 'we probably wouldn’t have won that game two or three weeks ago'," Bennett revealed to a packed post match press conference.
"And he was right."
So what's changed?
Talk to coach Bennett and the answer is simple...
"I don’t think I’ve changed too much, but they are just starting to put it together for 80 minutes," he reasons.
"If you look at our performances over the last six or seven weeks, we’ve played some pretty fair football.
"We’ve been beating ourselves, but we didn’t beat ourselves here today that’s been the difference."
Scott credited a strong overall team performance as the key to beating Parramatta at home.
"I think we got a little bit of confidence out of last week (against the Cowboys)," Scott says.
"We executed here today, completed our sets and we got that through our heads.
"That’s how you win footy games.
"I thought we did well to hold on at the end there, because they were pretty fast finishing.
"So credit to the boys."
Newcastle held off a late surge from the Eels, but the final scoreline could have been bigger if winger Semi Radradra had his controversial second half try disallowed.
Centre Dane Gagai was clearly held back by Parramatta forward Kenny Edwards and denied the opportunity to make a tackle, but officials overlooked the incident to give Radradra's four-pointer the green light.
Bennett insists it was an incorrect call from the referees.
"That should have been no try," he says frankly.
"And the ridiculous statement was that he (Gagai) was holding onto them.
"Why would he be holding onto them?
"He did have a hand on him, but he was trying to pull away and he was getting held back.
"If that were happening between two blokes in open field play, they wouldn’t have awarded the try."
Bennett praised the entire team for their effort in the six-point win, including fullback Darius Boyd after his standout performance.
Boyd scored a scintillating solo try in the first half, while he also cleaned up plenty of dangerous situations when the Eels turned up the heat in attack.
"Darius is just back to enjoying his football," the veteran mentor explained.
"I think he is also enjoying how the other guys are playing as well.
"He is just such a professional that he gets a bit down sometimes when they are not playing well.
"He kind of goes out the back door with them, but they’ve all picked their act up.
"Gagai was outstanding again and there were lots of wonderful players out there.
"None better than the guy (Scott) besides me with his defence.
"We had to play well to win this game, because they threw plenty at us and they’ve got plenty of talent.”
Newcastle has the bye next weekend, before they tackle the Sharks at Cronulla on Sunday July 13.
