Hands up if you’ve been doing it tough as a Parra fan! I think we’re all feeling the same and tonight’s game didn’t make it any easier. It’s time to stop thinking about any equation. I don’t think it’s doing the team any good and I don’t think it’s the best mindset for the fans. Now with that out of the way, it’s time for an analysis of tonight’s match.
The Storm
This team are the epitome of the word “professional”. Their plays are executed with simple precision, they offer limited opportunities via a resolute defence and every player knows their role. You could package up the match tonight and title it, “This is the Storm” – such was their performance.
Cameron Smith is such a master of rugby league, Bellamy must feel like he has one of his assistant coaches on the field. Every option seems to be the right option, his wide passes find their mark and importantly the referees listen to his opinions. Plenty of people, myself included, regard him as a protected species in the NRL but being fair dinkum, who wouldn’t want him in their team?
Tonight, Cameron Smith was the conductor. His direction of the Storm’s attack was precise and the support he received from the hard working Storm pack seemed to take each play across the advantage line. Melbourne’s ability to exploit Parramatta’s compressed defence within the red zone was ultimately rewarded with three tries out wide.
Whenever the Storm execute as they did tonight, any match can be within their grasp.
Parramatta
I’m not certain whether my disappointment will cause me to judge them too harshly, but it was a tough match to watch from an Eels perspective. It’s a matter of deciding whether the opposition was just far too good or whether we just didn’t measure up. I think it was perhaps equal parts tonight, but ultimately I never felt that we were truly in the contest.
So, outside of acknowledging the defence and the execution of the Storm, what did the Eels need to do better?
Firstly, late in the tackle count errors meant that we were not able to sustain pressure, especially in the first half. This was compounded by some poor options from our halves in attack. From poorly executed kicks to taking the play in the wrong direction at crucial moments, Foran and Norman simply did not perform at their best tonight.
Furthermore, our ruck speed was at times the opposite of what the Storm was able to achieve. I’ll comment further on that when examining the officiating, but we certainly allowed fast play the balls, whilst rarely achieving any momentum ourselves.
I find it difficult to single out players for having a disappointing performance, but I was looking for more from our big prop, Junior Paulo. His physical presence should be making a greater impact through the middle and I’m wondering whether he is as focussed as he could be. The Eels need him at his best in order to impose themselves through the forwards.
The Officiating
Having already acknowledged the superiority of the Storm, I now have no qualms in unloading on a diabolical, almost shambolic refereeing performance by Klein and one sideline official whom I care not to name. To suggest that the Storm were given plenty of latitude in getting back onside would be a massive understatement. Whether this showed up on the television coverage I cannot say. However, I can assure every reader that the Storm defensive line was rarely back with the referee, and he knew it.
Furthermore, the work in the tackle ensured that the Storm slowed up virtually every play the ball. Now, this of course is good play by the Storm as they can only play to how the game is controlled. However, as a spectacle, the Eels attack was stifled by a defensive line that was in their faces way too quickly.
I must also mention the number of forward passes that went undetected throughout the match. Besides a shocker right next to the sideline official in the Storm’s first try, plenty of other less prominent plays still included dubious flat or blatantly forward passes. The same sideline official also tipped a couple of strange decisions to Klein. I won’t repeat my calls from the stand in this post.
All in all, I found it difficult to find anything positive to say about tonight’s on-field officials.
A Final Thought
My final thought is that we should cease our finals thoughts. The football staff aren’t making any excuses, but every circumstance thrown Parramatta’s way this year has continued to place pressure on the team. The spark was missing tonight and I find that understandable. The effort was there, but a winning team flying along with confidence exudes that something extra. That something extra has been stripped from the team and it was evident tonight.
I think that the club and the fans should remove this “mission impossible” Tagline from the team. One week at a time is all we need. I’ll be there.
Sixties
Yeah totally agree 60’s. Since everything has gone down and deep down we all knew the 12 from 15 was going to be a tall order. Plus who knows whats going to come down after the NRL deliver their final verdict anyway. The NRL dont even know yet.
I think the boys played well. Our defence was pretty good. The first try was blatantly forward. The second try, Gutherson just rushed in and got outsmarted by Cronk. The 3rd try, hmmm i didnt know momentum was sliding the ball over the line yourself. He was well short and even though he didnt lift then place the ball back down, he did promote the ball by sliding it over the line. 4th try ok that was fine.
With Beau being out after 25mins, Foran playing the game through needles after a nasty knock we did play well.
All in all, proud of the boys. They are showing some ticker.
But we do need to find something in attack. As said our last tackle options were poor. Silly unforced errors late in the count. Plus kicking game was a bit off as well.
Ill be doing the trip to Newcastle next week for sure. Ive only missed one game this year, in Townsville, and I will be sure as getting to as many games as I can.
Mitchy, the kick for the try on Guthersons wing was from Green not cronk.
The times we are going through are the times that should bind the team & make them stronger, just as it did with Storm, the one big difference pershaps, is that when the Storm copped their penalty, it was done in a guillotine manner, ours is by a completely different method, slow strangling of pain & life support.
Yes I agree with the sentiments here; thought we were tough and showed effort but some execution was not good. When we changed angles with the forwards we showed them up; and I was swearing at the TV when Jr ran sideways (like they do in junior league). The Refs have to be kidding; the touchie on that penalty? I dislike watching Melb play and its a reason why I do not watch many non-parra games these days. They win the play the ball; it is simple. They are allowed to do what they do because the officials allow it. They are boring; and work the tackled player over every play; hence this is why all the teams (maybe a couple) do not do this.
The poor crowd last night was always going to happen. With players making poor decisions off the field, on top of an incompetent board making us lose 12 points, how can they expect big crowds to show up? We will struggle to get much more than 10,000 each game for the rest of the season.
A standing Monday commitment meant that I only got to see the second half live and I doubt if I’ll have the desire to watch the replay of the first so my observations are limited.
Melbourne are always a frustrating team to play against at any time and against a lesser team maybe something would have sparked the eels but it was a lacklustre performance and I fear there is more of this to come. The officials certainly don’t help and seem to compliment
Melbourne’s style of play as when watching the match the questionable marker play, their line speed etc never gets pulled up, while the 50:50 calls never seem to go the way of the goodies.
I’d mentioned a couple of weeks ago along the lines that humans being just that that the reality of the situation would sink in at some point
and the eels play would be adversely impacted. It was obvious early in the Souths game that the eels were off and even though they were in a winning position early in the second half it is so easy on those occasions for thoughts to drift to what is ahead with the resultant loss of focus.
Again in the Souths game there were signs that team discipline was on the wane. I never like to single out a player but Junior has gone from wrecking ball to beach ball. His grubber against Souths although it did force a line dropout were alarm bells to me, as were the rushing out of the line and Hail Mary passes from others last night from a team discipline perspective.
BA does not deserve what he has been dealt and although he remains stoic some of his charges look to be back in 2015 mode.
60’s I think every thing you have said is a fair assessment of the night. I have said some things over on 1eyeed about my thoughts after last night, & I did not tune in until just before the crazy misguided kick on 3rd by Foran, which was a repeat of Norman’s effort of last week. Finally being able to live stream a game was also interesting but gee I would love those ground swooping drone cameras to be shot down.
What had me bemused with Klein was after the try down our right side, where there was absolutely no defence at all, as Gutherson was a good 20metres in from the side line, pathetic in itself. When Smith kicked the conversion attempt, he along with Klein walked back together to the kick off, it looked very chummy to say the least as it looked like he & Smith were having a very good confab all the way, Klein was often turning his head to respond, didn’t think that talking to the refs was permitted these days, especially in those situations, it looked not good from an outsiders perspective.
Storm were certainly allowed a huge amount of latitude in their defence, both in the speed in which they moved up after eels played the ball, & from where they were standing, the positive for them was how quick they could get to the attacking eels & stifle every move, they appeared to have a low angled v formation towards where the ball was going, the V point was directly at the player with the ball, the others dropped back slightly & became arc like to ensure they could turn & adjust quick to the direction of any ball movement.
The eels defence on the other hand, was rarely fast off the blocks, to take on the storm attack, in fact it appeared as if the storm got to the eels line almost at the same spot where their play the ball defence line had been set in the first place, 10 metres straight out of the gate for the storm, & they kept rolling it forward, that man mountain think he was 14 on the shirt was huge & hard to pull down.
The morning after, & my thoughts as to the game & our future. Yesterday on the game blog I mentioned that while I ticked the eels to win in my tip comps, & I do that based on heart feelings, my head said the storm would win, & I was not surprised (sadly) that ended up as the case. I too believe the year is gone for the eels in the NRL comp, sadly the Wenty side is not shaping up much better to put any form of pressure on the top squad, thankfully the NYC team is holding up the flag though, so the best the eels NRL side can do at this point is to use the remainder of the year & especially strategic games to blood some players in line for the future, especially those contracted beyond this year as well as those the coach has inked in his list as he wants to keep.
Based on last nights game, changes need to be made for the 2 games we have around SOO games especially next weeks game against Newcastle. In each of those games we will be missing Jennings how many games is an unknown but at least next weeks game anyway. That is a straight spot available. The players that I believe need to be lifted for games, includes Pritchard to run on. With King or Nelson on the bench both as utilities rather than just for the 9 spot.
Gordon needs to start lifting his game, he was brought here for 2 reasons, 1: goal kicking, generally that’s ok, & secondly to help French, well time I think is come to give French a run at 1:
Gutherson, is an enigma. but certainly he is no winger, but also has power running weaknesses, he has speed & that seems to be it, although in the one chance at goals he did well.
Norman & Foran have to get back working together, if Foran is ok next week then when he’s back the two have to train together & get that early combo working again.
Forwards. Anyone who puts Mannah down should now eat their words, especially those wanting to send him packing, we need him back & need him big time, problem is though how is his shoulder & then the match fitness aspect will be there as well but we need him.
Moroera is not a lock especialy in attack, he is simply being wasted compared to his runs of last year & breaking closer in rather than the edge. We also need Scott in the pack, especially when both sides forwards are fresh.
Terepo does not & never has impressed me has some occasional hard runs, but not much else, Wicks is nothing as he was last year either, Ma’u as hard as he was last night was contained as was Edwards.
Most missed I think was Peats, which brings me to De Gois, With Peats now gone, Isaac was handed the 9 spot on a plate it was his to take, & prove himself for another year at the club. Sadly I don’t think he has taken it & the plate is now empty for next year. This opens up the spot for young Pritchard, so far he’s been used with limited time on the field, & each time he has done well & provided some speed in his runs & some amounts of elusive running. He now needs to be the run on 9, with maybe Isaac in 14, or depends on how King & Nelson have been going they have the 14 spot for utility work. Last night Isaac was locking all the scrums that I saw him play in.
Lastly Junior, where is his head at the moment, well I read his words say he is committed here for this year, but I don’t think his heart is & he is basically a non contributor to the squad.
I hat doing in & out articles but I think out at least for next Mondays game should be Gutherson, De Gois, Terepo. In, French, Twal, Alvaro, Faimauno. If Mannah is ok to play then Wicks or even Paulo out.
With Jennings out with SOO, then a good opportunity to blood Faimuono on the bench with Gordon taking on the centre spot.
Lastly an observation of 3 ex eels players with the storm. On the performance last night Blake Green had it all over Norman, in defence choice of play options & spot kicks, Blair, played as well as our top players, & power try score as well. Morgan had a good steady game, in typical Storm style.
Green – what coin is he on compared to Norman? Based on last nights game, Norman played down his value rating rather than improve his value.
Colin I agree with your assessment of Tim Mannah. We miss the work that he does and the experience that he brings to the team. He is never going to win you a game with a crashing run thru the middle to score but he does have a quick play the ball and averges over a 100 metres a game. he also makes plenty of tackles. He is one of the most experienced players in the team. With Watmough missing all season and now gone, Mannah now having played only one game in the past 6, our experience in this team is way down.
However I do not agree with your assessment of Danny Wicks. I thought he was going well at half time ad when I looked he had run 100 metres. For the match he ran 162 metres and made 41 tackles for the match. On top of that he played 69 minutes which was more than any other Front Rower in the match. To be fair he did have 5 missed tackles but I can’t remember the circumstances of those misses. In my opinion he was the bet forward for the Eels behind Manu.
Since the punishment has been handed down by the NRL the team has dropped the intensity no doubt. The line speed is down and some players look to have lost a little interest. I can understand this but it does not make it any easier to watch. However I will still be there for every home game for the rest of the season. I was there for the first game at Pirtek in 86 and I intend to be there for the last.
JIm fair call. I admit to the aspect that I also mentioned that I tuned in late in the match, around 12minutes or something before half time, & then called it a day after Blair scored, so did miss much of what Wicks did & based my comments on the 40 or so minutes that I watched of the game.
Seems from what I have read elsewhere I have been quite unfair on Wicks so apologies for that, With BA sticking to the same team against the nights, I will be trying to watch the whole match on live stream & certainly am hopping for a win.
I am actually hoping also to go down to the last Pirtek game, & I am hopping that it will be an afternoon match, either Saturday or Sunday.
I have good friends who support the dragons, so will likely try to make it a couple of family outings.
Cheers
I have been agreeing with you too much lately thought I needed to come up with something. Must be the train driver in me. You did say you were a train driver.
I was not aware that the last game is against St George. That would make sense given that the first game at Parramatta Stadium in 1986 was against the Dragons. One of my memories of that game was Craig Young taking a cheap shot at Peter Sterling belting him behind the play. If my memory serves me correctly Ray Price went after him.
In an unrelated story I was listening to the radio one day and this was while Pricey was still playing. He was asked by the comentator what he would do if he seen one of the smaller players in the Eels team get belted, he immediately responded by saying that I would find the smallest player in the opposition team and seek my revenge.
I found it amusing. i guess today with political correctness and all it is not a laughing matter.
Train Driver, agreeing, depends on the depot mate. Started enfield 64, then WCK, Parkes, PTW (both on loan) back to Delec, ETR, PTK> WCK. medically retired end 89 as senior relief on XPT, & waiting to do road trials on DEBs.
Life member AFULE
My window as a driver was a short one. I was at Eveleigh, Enf and Central (ETR). Also went on loan to Narrabri West and Narrandera. I left NSW in 1990 to work in the Pilbara
If you are still there say hello to Proctor, if he is still there don’t know which company he’s with though.
I was not aware that Proctor was in the Pilbara. I did not come across him at all. Even though there are 4 companies running Railroads it is an incestuous industry and there are not many strangers up there. I left there in 2014 when I retired.
I spoke to john Currey last year, & asked of him, John said he tossed to Xploders in & went to the Pilbarra a couple of years prior, said he got bored with the same thing day in & out, & wanted something different. The WCK Diag was all day shift but all camp working as well, would have suited me to a T but that’s in the past now.
John didn’t say who he was with though.
There are a lot of Sydney boys at FMG. They are a good operation but not so easy to work for
Brave but beaten is how I see the Eels this season. The effort in last night’s game like most of the games this season was good but how anyone can expect the Eels or any team to thrive under these conditions is not realistic. Earlier in the season the boy’s looked to be in a really good head space, there was something about them I had not seen in a long time but over the last couple of weeks they just don’t look the same. BA & his crew have done an amazing job to keep their heads right for this long but it’s just too much now. I wonder if the NRL are considering the impact on the players lives ( Player welfare, Duty of Care ) or are they so hell bent on getting rid of the board members and have no real idea on how to do it, that the player’s & coaching staff are just seen a casualties of war. This whole situation has been played out in the media because of one reason, The NRL commission wanted to drive public opinion to remove the board members. Yes the board needs replacing but I’m sure if the NRL commission knew what they were doing this would of been done & dusted months ago.
Jim, I think the NRL is aware of the issue but really have no idea of how to handle it, as for them & as with any headquarter management levels of all organisations they see their duty of care is more targeted to the business rather than the employee. The NRL is the corporation while the clubs are the branch representatives of the Corp, clubs are answerable to the top but also to the employees, in this case the players, sitting in between the club & employees is the shop steward, foreman, & even union rep, who in this case I suggest is the coach.
His role is to ensure their welfare as an employee is where it should be, provide support etc. The Corp bosses just want it all to flow nice & smooth, the business overall keeps going its bringing in a return to the branches based on their performance levels & the like, & they get the benefits of financial & supporter returns.
In many areas of middle management which is at the branches, there is usually some form of issues that go around that are a bit suss, each level above likes to put it in a bottom draw, disguise &/or hide it, some things that are worse are tried to be hidden deeply with the hope from all that it wont be discovered, like everything that has happened here, the problem though rather than the old military buck stops with the private or the last man standing in the line, here the middle management at the branch level become accountable owing to their close links with the factory floor.
The aspect of the outside influences comes from those wonderful sales rep people who peddle in this case human goods, the players, looking so they say after their goods in the best light for them to get as much wage return as possible, of course under the award (Cap) but they look for bonuses to be paid, hopefully legally or not, as they have those hidden draws as well. Again if everything passes through x-ray machine in corporation HQ all runs smooth, until a cog breaks.
Of course corporation bosses meet with the branches over time & sometime boss will speak at & attend the branches to show their face, deliver any punishment usually by letter etc. In our case the new corp boss delivers the walk the plank decision to the workers & short of ID we are at the gloomy transit hall now. Corp bosses like to work in secret usually & become sort of faceless men like we have in politics, & after all the NRL is not political in any way is it? Why the need to be personal until elections or the like come around. Expect what you get, & nothing more.
Of interest though is in Sun Herald last, there was a bit of a story in a column of Weilders about the human side of Greenburg, that said how he flew to QLD to see how Keiran Foran was going, the visit was at the clinic. Does show a human side to the NRL CEO, & think it was well done & it helped Keiran & he is encouraged. Guess something of decency has come to him out of everything else that was/is going on.
HI Colin,
Thanks for the reply, I read through what you wrote & understand totally. I’m hurting this year mate & it’s bringing out emotions I would rather stayed locked away.
Jim, I think this year has been the toughest I can remember in all my years as an eels supporter, as for emotions, I don’t think that I ever realized the amount & difference of them that we have to deal with, but in the end I think we are better for them, both good & bad, need both for a balance, just like a battery, needs both negative & positive terminals for them to work.
Agree mate.
I’m going to the footy now simply to enjoy the football and support the team/club. No thoughts of points, semis, the ladder or the competition in general. Really just going for the love of the game and club.
The Parramatta club should just pull up stumps here and head to the English Super League instead. It’s so gut-wrenching having to wade through the season like ghostly navigators unable to make port even should one lie in the offing. It’s like there is an albatross around all our necks!
This is the best comment I have read in a long time “It’s time to stop thinking about any equation. I don’t think it’s doing the team any good and I don’t think it’s the best mindset for the fans”. Lets see what pans out and take things one week at a time without putting too much pressure on ourselves
What an absolute rabble of a season.
The highs…..the lows.
From having finally fielded a team with a winning culture and talent to burn for six weeks to..
Loss of 12 points.
Boardroom explosions and sackings.
Media smear campaign.
Our marquee player overdoses on prescription drugs.
Our other half caught with drugs and hanging out with convicted criminals.
Two losses in a row when we find out we need 12-15.
Headline after headline of bad news smeared across front pages.
Sheesh!
Next year, next year….
…from being as excited as a child on Christmas Day when the season finally arrived, watching every match of the NRL for the first six rounds, to barely being interested enough to watch my beloved, albeit basket case team.
Sheesh!