Saga: Bulldogs boss Phil Gould has issued unsettling claims to bitter rivals Parramatta with brutal sledge as the Eels suffer Storm drubbing…. 

Bulldogs boss Phil Gould has issued a sledge to Paramatta after the Eels suffered a dismal 56-18 defeat by Melbourne on Sunday afternoon.

It was far from the performance and result that Eels boss Jason Ryles had hoped for in his first match in charge of the footy club – with Paramatta’s new boss claiming he was taking the lion’s share of responsibility for the defeat.

Storm outclassed their opponents and blew the Eels, who were without star man Mitch Moses for the match at AAMI Park.

Gould was quick to twist the knife in, taking note of how the Eels responded to a chase down a restart at the end of the first half.

‘We mightn’t have enough numbers on the scoreboard here to keep up … (Parramatta) have been completely blown away,’ he told Channel 9.

‘I watched them come up to kick off the last restart and they came up like brown’s cows.’

While there is a feeling that the side are currently transitioning under Ryles, Storm put 46 points past the visitors in the first half, the largest first-half score the club has ever produced.

Xavier Coates and Ryan Papenhuyzen were the standouts, with the duo both crossing the whitewash twice to seal the win.

Ryles, meanwhile, said he would take the blame for the defeat.

‘I take full responsibility in regards to the amount of change I have brought to the club, but at the same time it doesn’t happen overnight,’ the Eels boss said.

‘I’ve got no doubt over the course of time and the buy-in the players have given us is enormous. It’s one of those things, we got a tough lesson tonight.

‘We’ve had a lot of change and a lot of change in personnel. The program has changed and then I’ve changed a lot of things we’re doing on the field.

‘So it’s going to take time and a lot of that comes back onto me. There were periods of the game where we had really good periods, but then we just fell away.

‘Obviously come up against a quality opposition tonight against the Storm… they made us pay for our little errors.’