Questions.
I’m probably not alone in having a swag of them swimming around in my head at the moment. After Monday afternoon, a few more were added to the list.
Why is Kenny starting instead of coming off the bench?
Why is Tepai (our most consistent player) on the bench and being shifted all over the field, each and every game, to fill holes?
Why are Norman and Moses refusing to kick long?
Why are Mannah, Alvaro and Brown all on the bench together leaving one prop on the field?
Why did they not come back on earlier, before the game was gone?
Why don’t we get penalties?
Why do the referees hate us?
Why is Will Smith not backing up anymore?
Why is this and that player still in the team?
Why did BA think Kaysa could play 80 minutes in his first NRL game this year?
Why should I go next week? The players obviously don’t care so why should I?
During Monday’s game, and on the drive home, I turned into the fan I despise. I asked all these questions and I can assure you I had all the answers. I was convinced that I really knew how to fix the problems.
It’s simple, drop this player, bring in that one- even if he is an 18 yr old kid he must be better. Go immediately to the prop making factory. Better still, buy Paul Vaughan or get Junior Paulo back, and while we are at it find another Semi before Sunday.
Simple, how hard can it be?
In short I was a frustrated and confused fan. I watched my team lose their fourth consecutive match and I could not make sense of it – so I filled in the gaps.
Then my son, Jack, gave me the biggest reality check.
BA and Tim Mannah at the presser.
Instead of watching cartoons before school, he was on his Ipad. I asked him what he was watching and he said he was looking at Brad Arthur’s interview.
Of course I asked why.
In my head I was thinking, “Wasn’t yesterday bad enough – why replay it?”
He quite innocently said, “Because, I want to go this week, they might win and you said last night that we’re not going.”
Bang, there it is. My son is the fan he has been taught to be. He is loyal, resilient and hopeful. Yesterday, during and after the game, I was the exact opposite.
I then watched the post match press conference and heard two things- BA said, “discipline”, and Tim Mannah said, “should be winning.”
Here is my perspective, my take, courtesy of my young and loyal son.
It involves a change in mindset, and I believe there’s something in it for supporters and the team alike:
I will be a disciplined fan.
I will turn up and cheer on the boys, boo the refs until they give us one penalty- I understand that we might do a lot of booing before we get a penalty but that’s okay.
I will leave either happy or more frustrated but turning my back on the club and players is simply not an option for my family or I. It never has been, and a couple of bad, even diabolically bad games won’t change that.
The coaches will require their own discipline.
Discipline means a controlled way of behaving or thinking.
So the coaches will need to work out , or possibly reinforce, what type of team we want to be known as on the field in 2018. They will need to pick the best 17 to carry out theIr game plan. No favourites. Just disciplined selections.
The players will also require discipline.
Disciplined play will mean more of these moments.
They will have to know and accept the game plan, and fulfil their role and purpose in the 17 man roster this week. If they’ve been honoured with selection to wear the Blue and Gold, then they will need to justify BA’s faith in them.
The only way to resurrect 2018, which is still totally possible, and stop it from crashing and burning, is for everyone to be on the same page. Everyone – fans and football staff alike.
The mentality must change from “should” to “will“.
The team will have to train hard and in the match they will have to be disciplined to give themselves the best opportunity to win. No excuses.
My family will be cheering for our Eels. No excuses.
Yes Gutho, we will stick solid.
Most Parra fans know no other way.
Shelley
Fortunately games are 5 or more days apart. It gives me time to reflect on why I go to the game (or watch on TV) and what I enjoy about it. I enjoy the company of friends and the companionship of fellow fans. That stuff never fades.
I still look forward to the day that my friends and companions can rejoice in our common interest of following the Eels all the way to winning the grand final. When the team is winning I’m as happy as the next guy to discuss it at length. When we lose, I’m still usually OK with having a chat about it. But when we lose consecutively, and all I have to cling to is that I know we can do better. Things are pretty dire.
Nevertheless, I have those friends and companions I can rely on to be there. The same way the team has us for better or worse.
My kids hate it when Parra loses. They are brain washed supporters but that isn’t the main reason.
I haven’t watched one game on replay (usually watch it at least 3 times) or any of the NRL shows on fox. All I can do is talk to them all week. Not happy.
Like you Chris I can not watch any of those shows on Foxtel. They annoy me to no end. The glee on the face of Paul Kent when Parra loose and the jumping on the bandwagon when we win to ensure ratings infuriates me. I am not without fault as a person, but I would hope that people who know me would say I am genuine and honest. Some of the journalists and commentators are so transparently bias and agenda driven.
Great article Shelley.
I sat up in the stands at ANZ on Monday hoping the Eels would bring it home for my 50th birthday. I seriously considered not going because I figured there was more than a good chance they were going to disappoint me again this year. I was cursing my decision at halftime but left the ground at the end feeling like better than I had 40 minutes earlier. I will be there again on Sunday. Hopeful.
Like you Susan if you want to really take joy from the success and be proud of our club you have to be there in the bad times as well. Just look at the crowd on Monday, Parra winless for the year but we had more supporters at the ground and most of us stayed to the very end.
I just hope on Sunday we see a game plan and play on the field that I can understand, even if we don’t win,I want to be able to see that we actually put in place and execute a game plan that gives us a chance to.
With every bomb from our own halve that was put up by Norman and Moses in the first 60 minutes I started to doubt on Monday if I actually knew anything at all about how to win a game.
Great article Shelley, your emotions sound exactly the same as mine after a losing game. We will be there on Sunday cheering them on. I went to every home game in the wooden spoon years so I’m not about to desert the team I’
ve been following for 54years.
Good on you. Not sure if we are loyal or mad, but we will be there.
Madly Loyal!?
Yes I had questions too but one question I didn’t have was will I go next week.
Win lose or draw I want to be there.
I want to be there for the team. I want to cheer them on. Regardless. Win lose or draw
I also want to be there with my mates. Like minded supporters. My family, my Footy family.
We are already working out details for Canberra.
I am an Eels supporter.
Perfectly said. Like you, we have footy friends that have become a footy family. Last year our team looked and acted like a family on the field. I hope we see this again soon.
You’re a trooper Penny. The last time I went to Canberra was in 1995 and or ’96 went both years we got flogged in the rain/snow very cold and in one of those games we got hammered by 60+. I went because my eldest daughter wanted me to take her, both times! she was only 13 or 14 years old and just loved Parra, still does just not quite as much.
I will be taking her youngest son with my wife and a few friends from Church.
Shelley, I enjoy your sincere genuine loyalty and the way you wear your heart on your sleeve. Thanks for the encouragement and give Jack a high five for me!
well said Whiskey Musings 2.0 .
Shelley, nothing can take away your hurt, and that of the other eels supporters, what a great post once again and thanks heaps.
The old saying of “Where there IS a Will, there IS a WAY” really has its full application to and for the players this week.
IF, and therein IF being the big word followed by the above saying could make a huge difference indeed. They all as a team have to come with the will to make any sort of way forward.
Those players that do not show up, to me should not be part of the future and the way this club wants to go.
I agree, effort and commitment have nothing to do with skill, fitness or talent. Effort and commitment, or lack of it, are really easy things to notice when you watch a game at the ground.
I can understand a player missing a tackle or not being able to get to a player to make a tackle because they are tired from having to do excessive tackling but I can not understand or accept a player not trying to get to a player because they are tired. Unfortunately on Sunday I saw the latter a few too many times for my liking.
Nice sentiments Shelley but unfortunately I am getting to the stage where I ask myself “why bother”.
I have followed this club fanatically for over 30yrs and the start to this year has me almost at breaking point. I am asking myself “what has this club done in the last 30yrs to make us fans proud?”
We have one of the best junior nurseries in the country, leagues club backing and a fanatical fan base and yet all the team has provided in that time is disappointment.
I’m expected to pay up my $300 a year for my season ticket and the two hours sitting in a car each week to get to the games to go and watch a rabble that look like they are on Valium.
After last season I have never looked forward to a new year like this one and after four weeks of football I have already had enough. We have a better team than last year but it’s obvious these primadonnas expected to just turn up and win games and it is pathetic to watch.
I feel for Brad Arthur because he is such a passionate Eels man but seriously he needs to wield the axe or his position is going to become untenable. He is too loyal to guys that are shitting on him every time they pull on the jumper.
I’d start this week by dropping Manu Ma’u and Beau Scott and bringing in David Gower and Marata Niukore. This at least shows the pretenders in first grade that there is consequences for not having a go.
Sorry for the rant but I have had a enough.
Clive, I hear you and like every eels supporter (I admit to an aversion of the word fan, as fans are more often than not throw aways that break easy) Supporters are those that stick through thick and thin, sadly there is a lot more thin these days that I care for.
I have been an eels Supporter for near on 50 years, and seen the good, the bad and now its the ugly once more, but it will not stop me from continue from supporting them and being a supporter.
I don’t disagree with you on the need for replacements, Beau is or seems to be a shadow of the player he has been, but I suspect his family/children’s health issues must be really playing on him. Ma’u, also is a player that is seriously down on his work, but I also put that down in part to the opposition teams really targeting him.
I look to a change this week with a win, but even if that happens any player not competing and working in a team aspect needs to seriously be looked at regarding his place in the team. Gower would be a player that will not let the team down, and Marata would love the chance to show his wares also.
BA needs to tread that fine line between being loyal, as all great coaches are loyal, but also demanding accountability and moving this team forward.
The question I have with players, amusing effort is a non negotiable prerequisite, surrounds who is out of form but is absolutely needed for this team to be successful and who is simply not part of the future.
I can not see this team turning the year around without Mau, his edge defence is too important, just like Moses defends better with Jennings outside him ,Norman defends better with Mau. An inform Mau on Sunday would go a long way towards us winning. As long as effort is there I would persist with Mau for a deal longer.
Beau Scott has been great for our club, we would not have been able to rebuild as we did without him, but even an inform Beau Scott on Sunday does not help us win. Nathan Brown plays the role in our team that Beau Scott once did, he is our aggression, enforcer, plays that tough role in the middle and as Scott has lost pace he offers nothing else to our first grade team as a bench player. In my mind unless he starts he can not be in the team and he is simply not a starter anymore. Starting Scott over Brown would cause a riot.
What he could do is be a great teacher for some of our younger forwards at Wenty. I am not being condescending by saying this, I genuinely believe that players like Stone and Niukore could learn a lot from playing with him each week. I think Scott’s role with Parra is know very much like of Jeff Robson last year. Be there just in case of injury to Brown or Tepai but his primary role should be to help educate the young forwards at Wenty and help them transition to first grade. He can still be Club captain, and in many ways he will be the leader we need- someone to help our young forwards make the transition as we do have some forwards who are on the wrong side of 30. If Scott does not want to do this role, then he has a choice, he can leave, but BA and Scott himself must surely see what everyone, even my non Parra friends can see, that the game at NRL level has passed him by.
I am loyal to BA but I know one thing for sure if he wants to be a successful long term coach in the NRL, like Bellamy and dare I say Bennett and turn this team around some tough decisions need to be made.
Shelley, good reply and thanks.
Scott at his best or even 75% was great and down to good, these days father time has caught up with him as far as an NRL Player, we cannot afford to have a player that is as far down as he is now.
As you say he could offer a lot to the younger forwards especially those that are potentials for the top squad, to put him back there as their mentor both on and off field could really help them and also be something that would be a rewarding experience for him.
It is just as sad to see Manu playing as he is these days, surely he would be aware of the situation. He is still basically young, turns 30 towards end of this season and plenty of players are in that age bracket and producing for clubs, and yes we need him hopefully at his best, who needs to rev up who, Ma’u to Norms or the opposite?
Interesting most of the comments are about how you feel and how gutted you are.
I am a bit different, I have followed them going on 60 years and have been through disappointments so often I can close my mind to the failure.
I have seen and celebrated premierships and so that is not a obsession for me like others who haven’t experienced same.
Well you might say “why” are you different, you can’t be a “true” supporter ?
You know what disappoints me, I will tell you a story and it may resonate deeply enough to say, actually that’s me too!
We as a club and a team lost respect in the past 15 years or so, we failed to address and live up to our potential.
In the past two years we wiped those memories away through Max Donnelly and then Bernie Gurr…….we became a club again and got our respect back.
Thats all I ever wanted to get that respect back, sure we will our share of Premierships, but mainly we will be a top 4 side for nearly always.
Those 4 games this year we gave that respect away and went back to something I thought we left behind…..those 12 points didn’t phase us we galloped into the valley and came out the otherside.
All of a sudden we are back with the cat catchers…….thats why it hurts me!
I don’t disagree. I want to leave a game knowing they played smart and with heart. I believe winning will come on the back of that. I don’t believe BA and Bernie will let us go back there. I agree that the first 4 games have us probably at that gate and just about going down the path but I do trust that if the players don’t respond and head back in the right direction then BA and Bernie will shift them on.
The only problem I have with that is I actually admire our players resilience, particularly 2016 and at times in 2017 when injuries hit and it would be a shame if they could not be part of the good days that I still believe are in front of us in the next couple of years.
Pops, a bit scary really, and I know where you are coming from. Since BA has been the coach, he has been what could be called a pillar for the club he’s in his 5th year, and how many screaming because we haven’t lifted the trophy up, won a 9’s but had the trophy and money taken from us, but the coach and players stood tall even a bit faltering at times as the back office was in turmoil, yet he and the players could stand aside from it, except when brown paper bags hit the headlines.
The last two years has seen a lift and the club, has come out of those dark years, a new back office set up as well. This year promised so much but, did we expect too much, I don’t believe so, expectations really were for the club and team to continue up the mountain, seems some sort of avalanche has hit and knocking everything back to the dark days. We are now the only club to have not won any points this season after Canberra’s win tonight.
Watching those players lift following their coaches public spray has done the trick, BA had some words to say publicly after the last game, which would have been followed at the training, he has stuck solid with the team that has failed, so I for one look to see the eels do the same against Penrith this Sunday, as Canberra did tonight.
The resilience as Shelley mentions that was there in the past two years is certainly what these basically same players/team needs to heartedly reflect on, and put their cases forward in the same manner as they have done before.
The balls in their hands on the paddock this Sunday.
Nd I think that’s where most of the pain from this year originates. We thought we were past these types of performances. We thought we had won back the respect. We thought we would build on last year. We thought we would improve and make the four again and with that improvement maybe push higher.
As BA has said, two wins in a row gets us to where we were last year, but honestly with Penrith and Canberra in our way those two wins seem unlikely.
I still think we can turn it around and make the bottom half of try eight but only if we can answer the quesation of why? Why are we were we are? Why are we performing so unlike we have in the last few years? Why? It has to be more than possession and statsistics, I don’t buy this internal issue crap, it is attitude for mine but why?