I’ve mentioned this a couple of times now, but I’ve never been more proud to be an Eels supporter.

You would think that given everything that’s transpired recently that this would be akin to publicly uttering the name ‘Voldemort’ in front of the Hogwarts student body. However, if there’s anything we’ve learnt about our team this season it’s that they’re not just survivors, they’re fighters.

For far too long the connotation of ‘soft’ has followed the Eels around like a bad smell, but no more does this word stigmatize our team. I referenced this in my last post about the siege mentality that we now have to adopt and as Sixties ascertained in his most recent post this is something of a defining season in the culture shift of our Club and it has been lead by Brad Arthur and the playing group.

However,  there’s one fundamental problem that takes place when you start improving – I’m sure many of the readers here can acknowledge this within their own lives, let alone our Eels – and that’s you’re never going to be short of a few arm chair critics.

For you see, people are very reluctant to change. They fear it.

Once you’re perceived as something, people don’t like to see you as being anything else. If you’re struggling, you’re a struggler. If you’re winning, you’re a winner. Your circumstances may change, but ‘they’ will just find a different way of framing and labeling you as what they perceive you to be.

The idea of raising your standards and becoming better is not only lost on people, but they don’t know how to handle it when they see it transpire.

So ingrained is what they have known and come to expect, the idea that you can improve is lost on them and moreover, they don’t want to see you improve because it makes those parties feel challenged and inadequate in their own endeavours. As such, many will only ever want to see you as they have always seen you and will (at least subconsciously) be desperate to keep you there.

As I reflect on the way our team has raised their standards in both play and mentality over the course of Brad Arthur’s tenure as Head Coach, I can’t help but also think of the unprecedented scrutiny our team has come under as they have worked on bettering themselves and the parties, intentional or not, whose actions challenge our potential and ability to move forward freely.

Whether it is media identities who thrive on every little ‘drama’ that emerges from the Club’s walls to fill their column space and subsequently pray on the naivety of their readers to generate emotional outrage and response for the sake of click-bait revenue-generating propaganda and gossip to control public opinion with carefully scripted speculative innuendo  at the expense of devoting energy to investigative journalism, with supportive evidence and direct quotes ; or the years of factional, power-hungry, egotistical politicos all desperate to be perceived as the Club’s face, voice and ‘white-knights’ who have cared more about gaining power, generating a profile and to creating and giving attention to noise, instead of quietly and humbly putting aside their differences and allowing for the potential establishment of stability and strong foundation that would allow the Club to grow beyond its current circumstances; it seems that there are plenty of parties, whether intentional or not, that are playing their role that culminates in circumstances that limit our potential.

Except of course for Brad Arthur, the coaching staff and the playing squad.

Because irrespective of all these distractions, there’s one thing these parties, whatever their intentions, cannot control – and that is the attitude and camaraderie of our team. They realize that is something they can control.

Belief: Brad Arthur believes in his players and they believe in him

For you see those with the stronger beliefs and certainty in themselves will always win out.

It’s why week after week in the NRL we see upsets take place; it’s why despite insurmountable odds, the near impossible happens in day-to-day life; and it’s why David beat Goliath.

It is this mentality that has us prepared for the weeks, months and even seasons ahead. We have a leader who knows and owns what he is. We have a playing group, who believe in his message and in themselves.

In rugby league or life, when you have the combination of a strong, honest and congruent leader combined with a group or community that believes in it, then nothing is impossible.

Whether it’s 12 from 15; the factional politics; or the barrage of negative media, there is no challenge that our team cannot overcome – and our football team truly believe this.

Never has this ideology rung more true then as we head into our clash with the proverbial rugby league robot, that is the Melbourne Storm.

Our Victorian counterparts are all too familiar with the events that have engulfed the Cumberland in recent weeks. However, not only have they come out the other side of it, their Club continues to be one of the strongest in the competition both on and off the field.

Sure, it can be easily debated they still weren’t subject to the public onslaught we’ve received, but nonetheless, they have shown that no matter the task, it is possible to remain strong whatever the circumstances.

To beat Melbourne tonight we will have to be strong, whatever the circumstances.

Sound Game Management: Corey Norman and Kieran Foran must keep Melbourne out of the game

The Storm, as we know are lead by a couple of the best in the business – Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk. They are supported by strong international forwards such as Jesse Bromwich, Kevin Proctor and Tohu Harris; as well as exciting outside backs like Cameron Munster and Marika Koroibete, who are very accustomed to completing attacking raids. Throw into the mix a bunch of strong, seasoned first graders who are all very strong defensively, it becomes easy to see why the word ‘clinical’ has been the often coined phrase when it comes to describing the Melbourne rugby league team over the course of the last decade.

Statistically, they are just a strong side that possess very few weaknesses. They are methodical and robotic en route to almost certain victory. Year-after-year, even when they appear to have dropped off the pace, there they are at the business end of season, positioned for yet another title tilt. They are the masters of the long game (both in individual fixtures and across the course of the season) and staying in the fight.

In fact Melbourne’s probably the one side you don’t want to play when you factor the circumstances of the past  few weeks. They’ve been in this situation themselves, they’ve had a siege mentality for years and they can shield out any potential damaging influences with consummate ease. All-in-all, they’re just plain hard to beat.

Their strength, is that like the Eels, they are a reflection of their leadership.

Their weakness however, is that they are a reflection of their leadership.

Fired Up: Storm Coach Craig Bellamy rides every play with competitiveness and emotion, much like his players

For years we’ve been entertained by the satirized impassioned emotional outbursts of Storm Head Coach, Craig Bellamy. He wears his heart on his sleeve and his investment in his team is something that I have nothing but admiration for. The way he rides the outcome of every play and referee decision only attests to his care and love for his team and his job. He lives in every moment of his teams play.

So too his players. They are ultra competitive and it is the reason many of them have reached the pinnacle of the game. However, what lies dormant or not regularly recognized within these qualities is their immense frustration at the prospect of losing and having their game plan disrupted.

It’s only happened a few times over the course of the last 10+ years, but this Melbourne team are not immune to being emotionally played out of a game.

When their process and game plan is interrupted, when they’re slightly out enthused and the little things don’t go their way, commentators alike have attributed it to ‘not getting the rub of the green’. However what they fail to recognize, or acknowledge, is that this is the chink in the Melbourne armour (but because winners are winners, they don’t have chinks do they? It’s bad luck/unfair as opposed to a weakness).

If you disrupt their process, their ‘clinical’, ‘robotic’ players gets caught up in the semantics of referee decisions, penalty counts and loud parochial crowds.

Suddenly the precision passing of Cameron Smith goes wayward; the pinpoint accurate kicks of Cooper Cronk go over the dead ball line; their forwards lay an extra second too long in the ruck and concede a penalty; and before you know it, the momentum has swung too far for them to keep pace and assert their presence on a match.

This climaxes in that inevitable strategic dialogue between the referee and the Storm Captain, in which the Melbourne hooker gas-lights the victim card. Now generally, the referee has been influenced (and even intimidated) by the smartly articulated words of the high-profile Melbourne leader and consequently the Storm have tactically found a way back into the game off the back of it. However, on those rare occasions where those words and ‘gamesmanship’ of their skipper have fallen on deaf ears, opposition teams have been able to finish over the top of the Melbourne side.

Competing or conditioning? The Storm’s influence of the referees has become a subject of debate in recent seasons

For you see, like their coach, they can be guilty of being too emotionally involved in every play and when this happens, you gain emotional leverage over the Storm.

This is how you control and beat the Melbourne juggernaut. You stick it to them emotionally and frustrate them out of the match, while not indulging or entertaining their ‘gamesmanship’ tactics. You control yourself while frustrating them, then suddenly that impenetrable defence leaks three, four or even five tries.

This is where the expected return of Foran tonight is most crucial. When he partners with Norman in the halves, the combined game management skills of these two is more than enough to control the match from a Parramatta perspective. Combine that with frustrating Melbourne out of the play, then we have more than enough strike power to take advantage of an agitated Storm side.

The biggest challenge will come in maintaining this throughout the course of the match and not getting caught up in the Melbourne ‘gamesmanship’. Once our boys start frustrating the Storm out of the game, they will try and bring us down with them. They’ll leverage recent events against both the Club and individual players for the sake of getting an emotional reaction and getting a ‘one-up’ on us.

Given the emotional situations which have taken place, this is a very easy thing for us to fall victim to and if we do, we’ll be cannon fodder for them. However, if we put this aside and continue to frustrate the Storm, then we can do just as much damage to them.

Tonight I back us to do as such. So long as we stay defensively sound in the ruck and maintain controlled line speed that prevents Cameron Smith or Cooper Cronk from developing any pressure, we can come away winners tonight. Similarly, if we indulge in the ‘gamesmanship’ of the Storm, then we expose ourselves and it will be just another two points Melbourne claim on the way to another finals series.

The middle third will have to be on alert all night, as will the inside men on cover defence duties.

What matters in the end though, is how we conduct ourselves. I have little doubt that victory/defeat will likely be linked to the ‘gamesmanship’ tactics of the Melbourne Storm tonight and how we manage that aspect of their game. The key for our team, is to keep doing what we have been doing and staying strong in the face of adversity.

And just as ‘soft’ is no longer a stigmatized word around the Cumberland, Eels fans should remember that neither is ‘Voldemort’.

Clint

All images courtesy of the Parramatta Eels, NRL.com and Getty Images.

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