The Eels entered the second season of Jason Ryles' coaching tenure expected to be one of the NRL's big improvers, having won five of their last seven games in 2025 as well as both their trial matches this pre-season.
With talismanic halfback Moses fit for round one, Isaiah Iongi into his second season as a first-choice fullback and Jonah Pezet arriving as five-eighth, there was plenty of hope for the round one clash against Melbourne.
But the Eels were brought careening back to earth by the Storm, leaking nine unanswered tries in last Thursday's 52-4 loss.
The Eels completed at only 63 per cent, couldn't contain the Storm's middle forwards or outside backs and had two players sent to the sin bin in their biggest loss since 2019.
"I reckon maybe a few of us got ahead of ourselves. It's a bit of a reality check," Moses said on Tuesday.
"We set a high standard in the pre-season. We didn't follow that. We need to fix it up."
Even Ryles took coaching lessons out of the loss, admitting he mismanaged the new six-man bench rule.
The Storm bullied Parramatta's forwards but Ryles was unable to substitute prop Sam Tuivaiti into the game as he'd already activated four other interchange players, the maximum permitted.
"If you had your time again, you might've done some things differently but there's only one way to learn. We'll be better for it, that's for sure," Ryles said.
"We've obviously come in and reviewed very honestly and moved on quickly, and got into some work."
The Eels are set for another test travelling to Brisbane to face the reigning premiers, who will be smarting from a 26-0 round-one loss to Penrith.
"It'll be hostile, I can tell you that much," Moses said.
"If we give this team a lot of ball on our tryline, they're going to score points."
Test winger Josh Addo-Carr trained on Tuesday and will be monitored throughout the week as he pushes to return from his thumb injury two weeks earlier than expected.
"He's still not over the line yet but he'll be close. We'll just wait and see how he pulls up tomorrow," Ryles said.
Addo-Carr's return to the team sheet pushes Brian Kelly out of the 19 after a disappointing club debut, while Kelma Tuilagi joins the starting side following J'maine Hopgood's suspension.
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