He is one of the off-contract stars affected by Parramatta's enforced freeze on player negotiations but Kris Keating says the NRL club's tough stance suits him just fine.

Eels chief executive Paul Osborne last week said the club would pause talks with their off-contract players until the team rectified their dismal start to the season.

It's a move intended to motivate the Eels' out-of-form stars but critics have suggested could have the opposite impact and result in the likes of Feleti Mateo, Eric Grothe, Krisnan Inu, Fuifui Moimoi and Keating looking elsewhere.

However, after missing most of last season with injury, Keating declared he was not worried by the breakdown in dialogue, saying he was pleased not to have contract talk as a distraction.

"I'm not too worried about that. I had a tough trot last year so I just want to play some footy first before I worry about that sort of stuff," Keating said ahead of Monday's vital clash with Canberra at Parramatta Stadium.

"I had a rough time last year, I was out from pretty much round 10 onwards so I'm still trying to find my feet still, and just improve every week and hopefully things will work out in the long run.

"If I can have a few good performances over the next couple of weeks, things will pan out for me, so I'm just concentrating on my footy and things will come.

"I haven't really thought about that (looking elsewhere) too much. When the time comes I'll think about what I've got to do."

There is plenty at stake in Monday night's match as Parramatta and Canberra both have just one win to show for their opening four games.

The Eels have been slow starters in most games while Canberra have generally started well before fading in the second half.

Keating said his side would have to be wary of a desperate Raiders team which will look to get off to a flyer and maintain the pressure.

"They're probably in a pretty similar situation to us, so they're going to come out firing as well," Keating said.

"They've started pretty hot in nearly every game and we've started pretty slow, so we've had a talk about that as well.

"We're going to try and get a decent start, get our completion rates up and get the first points on the board to get us rolling.

"We've been pretty much always coming from behind so if we get a decent start we should be right."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP