Parramatta Eels 20
Cronulla Sharks 22
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1- Clint Gutherson (c)Fullback, Parramatta Eels The Captain King cops his first loss of his reign, but his passion and pursuit of the unlikely victory never wavered. A massive 15 runs for 169 metres, 2 tackle breaks and a line break assist for Clinton tonight, and hopefully more of these individual stats to come in future weeks. |
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2- Bevan FrenchLeft Wing, Parramatta Eels Bevan went full circus mode in scoring our first try, juggling a pass, spinning through an attempted tackle and then somersaulting his way towards the tryline; good poise, 8.5. Overall I thought Bevan showed plenty of class, making 2 linebreaks, 61 metres, breaking through 3 tackles and getting across the line on 3 occasions (the first a try, the second a dubious forward pass call and the third millimetres from being a spectacular four pointer). The Bevan Comeback tour marches on. |
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3- Michael JenningsRight Centre, Parramatta Eels Jet chased the Corey grubber like a greyhound after a motorised rabbit, and his 8 runs for 83 metres, 2 tackle break attacking game was a solid contribution to the Eels’ collective close call in Cronulla. Still his defensive reads (normally such a strong point for Jenko) in the first half were pretty poor. |
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4- Brad TakairangiLeft Centre, Parramatta Eels In the modern game, ideally a centre has the quickness and agility to punish rushing defences, being able to put on a quick step either in or away from a charging defender. This is probably Taka’s greatest weakness, as his defence (13 tackles with only one miss) and running game (9 for 77 metres) still very much hold up. It’s not ideal, but he’s doing a job for us keeping Auva’a’s brain explosions out of first grade until Jarryd returns. |
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5- George JenningsRight Wing, Parramatta Eels Just forget his two errors for a minute. Gennings had 18 runs for 176 metres, 2 tackle breaks, 17 tackles (without a miss) in an almost Semi-like performance. Me want more George. |
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6- Corey NormanFive-Eighth, Parramatta Eels Even though we were poor, even though our game management and kicking was gutter-esque for the first 70 minutes, Corey actually managed to have a pretty good individual game with 7 runs, 64 metres, 3 tackle breaks, 19 tackles, 254 kicking metres and a try assist. Still, our recipe for victory involves possession and building pressure, and that was absent for basically the entire night.
I’m going to file this tweet under “Things we didn’t do for the first 70 minutes“. To be clear, this isn’t a Corey alone issue, I mean stat wise he did play pretty well. Still Normy is one of three guys (with Moses and Gutho) who have the greatest say in our game plan, and when it starts to fall apart, each need to be a bit keener to grab the wheel and right the ship. |
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7- Mitchell MosesHalfback, Parramatta Eels In the other 70 minutes, Mitch didn’t take the line on and played like cabbage. Not only were Moses’ defensive statistics damning (with 5 missed tackles and a further 2 ineffective), his attacking game read like a boring, spineless, B grade horror movie (1 run for 3 metres). To be clear, I did thoroughly enjoy his second run (for 13 metres) which ended up in an 80th minute try, but as I said above we need less chaos and more calm across 80.
Bonus point for the Moylan taunt, and I don’t blame him for missing the kick, we never should have been in that position. |
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8- Daniel AlvaroProp, Parramatta Eels Daniel Alvaro – Copy, paste. Although the tackle numbers are great (48 with only 1 miss!), the attacking stats (9 runs for 76 metres) are less than ideal. Seems to be the same story every week for Polar Bear, and it’s much easier to stomach when we win. Just put him in the middle and let him work. |
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9- Kaysa PritchardHooker, Parramatta Eels Kaysa’s game tonight felt like a bad second date – I just sat there wondering where the magic of last weekend went. |
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10- Suaia MatagiProp, Parramatta Eels Nope.
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11- Manu Ma’uBack Row, Parramatta Eels Not just his attack, but a couple of really great shots in defence tonight, too. With that said, he did miss 3 tackles. In other news, I don’t really know how else to say this, but I have reason to believe that Manu Ma’u is actually a cannibal. |
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12- Tepai MoroeaBack Row, Parramatta Eels YES TEPAI. The edge running maniac returns, racking up 118 metres from his 13 runs. Get him out of the middle BA, get him wider and watch him thrive. More or Less also threw his hat in the ring for 36 tackles without a miss and went very close to snatching the MVP off his edge back row partner. |
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13- Peni TerepoLock, Parramatta Eels Peni Terepo made 40 tackles tonight (missing only 2), and had zero errors; so that’s a pass mark in itself for the Butcher. Terepo’s attacking game (9 runs for 82 metres) screams “reliable back up”. |
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Interchange
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14- Will SmithInterchange, Parramatta Eels Oh, William; that 43rd minute dummy half mistake cut me up, and the ever so slightly forward pass to Bevan French 10 minutes later rubbed salt into the wound. Tonight’s game was more Wild Wild West than it was Bad Boys or I Am Legend. |
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15- Kenny EdwardsInterchange, Parramatta Eels I had my head down for a lot of the second half so I admittedly didn’t notice a lot of Kenny out there tonight. I know it took him a while before he made it onto the park, and didn’t actually play in the first 40. Nonetheless in his 35-ish minute stint, the stats tell me he ran for 82 metres from 8 attempts, only made 9 tackles (missing 2) and had a tackle break. Not a bad day’s work. |
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16- David GowerInterchange, Parramatta Eels Nice hustle for the last try David, but the penalty around the 60th minute mark was a bit of a back breaker. The good Dr Gower nonetheless posted some terrific running numbers, going 90 metres from only 8 runs, breaking 2 tackles and getting through 34 tackles of his own. He certainly doesn’t play like a 37 year old, which is great news as he’s only 32. |
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17- Tim Mannah (c)Interchange, Parramatta Eels Another vintage performance from Mannah II: Super Sub. Just the 11 runs, 115 metres, 35 tackles and a HIA for Bench Big Cheese. If you’re still blaming him for our losses and he’s blocked you on Twitter, you probably deserve it. |
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Team GradeParramatta Eels Round 9 was a disappointing collective performance, even if the individual statistics were more than solid and even with the score ending up so close. We can’t be a backs to the wall sort of team every week, particularly in regards to our discipline and defensive intensity. |
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Knowing what we all knew before kick off regarding the Sharks’ injury toll, I’m still a bit confused as to how we lost that game.
I’m sure I’m not alone in calling it for the Eels – if we don’t beat the Bulldogs next week you can put a line through us for Season 2018.
Let it not be so.
See you then, sports fans.
Go you Eels,
Mitch.
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Photos courtesy of the Parramatta Eels. Stats courtesy of Champion Data.
Stop reading this and go buy something from SportFirst – Nambucca, please and thank you.
Can’t argue with those marks the last 5 mins made me angrier then the 1st 70 why can’t we play like that all game.
I drove down from the central coast and back for that game and boy it was brutal to watch.
The season is on life support now and serious questions have to be asked on how we got into this position i won’t express my unpopular views on BAs future but a shift in the clubs culture and structures is needed or its another 10 years till we play finals footy.
I suspect the supporters of most teams say something similar, but I just don’t get how we can be so inconsistent from one week to the next. It’s very frustrating. If we give our all for 80 and still lose, I can definitely live with that.
Hi gang,
Didn’t post for 2 weeks while we were winning. Enjoyed it thoroughly while it lasted!
Really am at a loss as to how a performance like that can happen, I agree that the Sharks seemed to switch off – I thought that BA may have planned a late run with Keeping Kenny back and Kaysa off for awhile.
There was indeed a late run, but too little too late unfortunately.
Matagi should give way for Vave – He’s a bigger body and may be worthwhile as a metre eater if He can hold his own defensively. Although I’ve always preferred Matagi – it’s obvious we are carrying Him.
Mannah, Gennings, Gutho & French all stood out. With special mention to Tepai – He was awesome all game.
Disappointing drop off from Kaysa in form but what can you do?
Don’t blame Mitch for the missed kick – although He should’ve taken 2 before half time and always practice His kicks.
Do blame Him and Corey for poor last tackle options.
Having said that…..behind a largely beaten forward pack again so…
Hopefully we get the mix right next week because it’s the battle for the bottom at this stage and we must beat the Foran led bulldogs at all costs.
Here’s to another really aggro training session on Thursday!
Vave probably wont play this year hes on the outer and hasnt had a great season for wenty
To keep it simple I suspect (and hope) that Matagi gives way to Browny.
Only got to see the first 35mins before I had to rush to work, so I won’t Ruan Sims any gradings.. all I will say is if someone wants Matagi pre-June 30 i’d let him go.
I said earlier this week he is only good for 1 game decent game a month (manly), followed by a poor game (tigers) and then a terrible game (seems I am Nostradamus). I hope next week he won’t be picked, but if he does, he’ll be slightly better than terrible but still rubbish… that’ll build into his turn for a decent game, which i really hope comes in a Wenty jersey…
There are rumours that Manly is after him pre June 30. Question is, who do you play in his place tonight? Kevans and Brown both injured, Vave playing poorly too.
I read an article with Vave admitting he’d had a poor off-season. I had hoped he may have been playing abit more strongly in the lower grades now – that seems not to be the case.
While I’m not sure what we lose by swapping him for Matagi anyway ?
Assuming Vave is out of the mix….
Brown comes straight in for terepo at 13 and terepo starts in place of Matagi.
That’s what I think will happen.
Here’s something; I did notice on the Wenty team sheet Niukore seemed to be starting in the front row – perhaps BA is keen to try and use Him in that capacity as a stop gap moving forward? Perhaps he didn’t end up playing there but I saw Him listed as starting front row with Vave.
Slight chance for a debut I would suggest.
We Only go further backwards by including Scott unfortunately. Our back row are now doing fine and are certainly not the problem at the minute.
Raiders (big guys) sharks x2 (big guys) and panthers x 2 (big guys) have dominated us this year – that’s 5 of 7 losses to teams with massive forward packs.
Having said all of that; no team wins consistently or deservedly with poor discipline, low possession, incomplete sets.
Come on Parra at least play well and lose – that we can handle. These last 10 minute flurries are just heartbreaking & frustrating!
You’re spot on with Marata, BA is constantly toying with using him in the middle, and trained a large portion of the pre-season as a middle. Coaches love him, just hoping we can extend him as he’s off contract at the end of 2018.
If Marata does not get a chance soon he would surely be looking elsewhere. It’s time to look at him and maybe one other from ISP. I know we lost in wenty but surely its time…..
Milo, the old adage about change and what are the criteria’s is often the greatest vexed question in regard to when, and for what reason.
Sometimes the value of change just for the sake of it will often mean that its not a good thing. However, when things are not working as they are now, especially when you know that those who are involved are better than they are showing, then change for the sake of it is not the final option but, abjectly necessary.
To me, I believe that we have reached the necessary point of being abjectly needed, which only leaves the question of how much/many? And for me, its not a matter of just tinkering. But more so a minimum of 3 is needed.
Col i had to re-read your post as it was v thorough. To me we need some new blood into the team and not just change for the sake of it.
I thought when we played Manly we did too if that makes sense as Manly were not mentally in the game and wests seem to have hit a hurdle; having said that at times our team seems mentally to have an issue either discipline wise and or just rolling up the sleeves; also our directions from the halves needs to be looked into. Just my view from here on the coast and its a bit demoralising
I think that they have the game plan the problem is the lack of discipline to follow it.
I agree it is time to move some on. Problem is how do you replace them. I do not know the players to come and go but it needs to happen.
I do know one thing I have never been a fan of Matangi and never will. Having said that the problem is more than him
Spot on with all points, John.
Milo, The view from up here in the lower Hunter doesn’t look any better, probably more foggy.
Seems like a pea souper Col….
He HAS to be close. Surely.
With that said, who are you dropping out the weekend’s 17? Matagi and Terepo are easy answers, but I don’t think Marata is ready for the NRL middle, and I can’t find an edge spot for him (Tepai, Mau, Kenny, Gower (playing middle, but even if you consider him an edge) all playing well) and Brown will replace one of those.
Play an 80 min hooker……therefore Mitch 4 fwds on bench and one who can pass from DH.
Do you have a forward who can pass from DH in mind?
Besides Sixties, Kenny has a decent pass and could fill in IMO
In terms of scott i believe a decision on his future will be made in a few weeks leaning towards imminent retirement
Everything that is good, bad and frustrating about our team all wrapped up in one game. Yes our discipline was poor and attacking decisions very poor at times but I knew that game was over after the Sharks first two sets. For any team to work, especially our forward pack without Brown, the starting props need to go forward, be able to stop go forward by dominating some tackles and at least one needs to be that damaging runner. Alvaro and Mannah offer our team so much each week. I could go through every player and offer some criticism but for 16 players but I could also offer some praise, something they did that could have helped us win. Some that started bad at least tried to fix it or make up for mistakes.
But with Matagi nothing good to say at all, I would have struggled to give him a grade. I very rarely say this about any player in my team but it would have been helpful for us to play with 16 with Matagi out as he offered nothing but mistakes, misreads in defence, penalties late in the tackle count, missed tackles and utter laziness.
Defense atrocious, just like last week. When he actually made a tackle he got left on the ground, strolled back into the defensive line and most alarmingly when he did come back into the line it was with his back to the play. This was all in the first 5 minutes- that can not be fatigue. That’s effort, desire or lack there of it. When he ran, he ran soft and sideways- making sure he avoided Fafita. It was both obvious and not acceptable. Mistakes I get frustrated with but can accept, but lack of desire to get in and do the tough stuff is both very obvious and inexcusable for any fan.
BA needs to either find a hypnotist who can convince Matagi he is playing Manly and Marty Taupau each week or give someone else a go. Unfortunately with Matagi there is such a big difference between his best and worst and his best game only comes out very occasionally. As a fan I simply don’t trust him.
Gutho summed it up best when he said in the press conference post match, we let them run 70 metres straight down the middle of the park every set in the opening half. That’s on our middle forwards, in particular Matagi.
I agree with your assessment of Matagi Shelley. He definitely needs to go. But I also don’t think it’s fair to use him as the sole scapegoat. We have a field of Props in our squad and go forward (and stopping opposition go forward) has been an issue for us all season.
Both Mannah and Alvaro are typically solid players, but it’s still hard for me to justify the both of them. Looking at, say, the Dragons prop rotation, I’m honestly not sure if any of our props on the field the last few weeks would crack that side. Our prop recruitment and development seems to be an undeniable problem and I’m not even sure whether it’s a “one player / Junior Paulo” problem or whether we actually need to look to reshape our entire prop roster bar maybe one or two max.
I never like to speak for the coaching staff, but there’s plenty of suggestions they are responding to this line of thought through recruitment for 2018. Makes it possible with Matagi, Vave, Terepo each off contract, too.
Ha, but tell us what you really think Shelley. Jokes aside, I actually with you. Matagi’s grade was only improved by the fact that statistically his 6 for 68 metres (IIRC) was pretty solid. He did miss 2 tackles inside the first 10 minutes, which prompted the above tweet.
As above, who though do you bring in in his stead?
Poor discipline and poor kicking leading to no posession and gassed defence. It seems to be the script of the year for us. 2 months in and it’s still more of the same.
This was a side we beat if we just control the ball and finish sets. And we did neither.
Having Gutho on the field rallying the troops is a breath of fresh air but we need some others to step up and show this same attitude. The fact that we can do what we did in the last 10 (and yes I agree the Sharks clocked off) is double infuriating. That shows we had the ability to win but we chose to put in a losing effort.
I looked through the player stats last night and unfortunately I really can’t pinpoint a player to say “ah yes, here’s your problem”. It was across the board for the most part.
A few final points though:
1) Smith is not a hooker, that situation can’t continue. If Kaysa can’t do 80 then we need to think of another rotation option.
2) Moses needs to sort out his kicking game – goal kicking could’ve won us the game and our kick metres were atrocious.
3) Matagi has to go. Now.
4) Leave Tep on the edge. He’s night and day in the middle vs on the edge.
5) Time to take action on the lack of discipline. Those with the highest error and ill-discipline rates should be dropped. We’ve got to start holding ourselves to a much higher standard.
6) I’m still wondering whether BA is in desperate need of more coaching staff support. We seem to be coached out of quite a few games with the opposition having clear gameplans that immediately put us on the back foot. I know BA is our long term coach and am fine with that, but when our last wins have come from offloads and second phase play and you see none of that for the first 70 minutes of the game, it makes you wonder. And more concerningly, when you see multiple attacking sets per game where players receive the ball flat footed and then just stand there waiting to be tackled – when we got inside their 20 we seemed devoid of a plan or ideas. It’s almost like we’re bringing coached to “hopefully not lose” as opposed to being coached to win.
I realise it’s easy to be an armchair coach, I just wonder whether BA needs more support. This season he just doesn’t seem to have the answers.
Basically all games from here on in are season defining games. Unless we can find that 2017 Panthers Beastmode switch our season will be over before it started. Here’s hoping we can find a way to put 50 on the Dogs.
I’ll offer a very brief defence for a couple of points. Moses’ goal kicking yes, but the kicking metres on occasion were caused by a game plan of bombing to a back three known for dropping high balls.
I think Will Smith still has a role to play as a back up 9.
Your sentiment re game plans seems spot on, but I’d argue our team needs to have those weaknesses and allow their execution for opposition game plans to be effective. Flip side for our game plan’s execution.
I don’t disagree re Matagi and completely agree re Tep.
Mitch, what was the reason for Kaysa to come off? I have read some reports elsewhere and they indicated that he only got 20 minutes and Smith the remaining. Given you rate both as a C but you give Kaysa a + as well tells me that in a game of 20 minutes he outperformed his replacement for more than twice the game time. Did he succumb to that leg injury that had him limping end of last weeks match? A few questions, apologies.
So more questions, and that is the problem not seeing or listening to the game I can only rely on sensible reports such as yours. What gives with our halves? I hate to say it but the paying is not working, and why, are the off field rumours true after all? I cannot in all sincerity understand whats going on, and not just in the halves either.
When the first 2 players were dropped off the extended bench I was hopeful and called it elsewhere that I would have had Marata on in place of Smith, more to see how he went in the top squad, and with him then named at left prop at Wenty, then to me he has to come in, and if not at the expense of Smith then, I think as a forward to cover the prop and 2nd row spots.
I also tend to think that its time to bring someone else in, in the halves, perhaps Salmon if it can be done. Some fresh faces and young legs might make a huge difference.
The sad part to me was to read the ISP results, with 5 or 6 NRL players in the team, they get knocked out by the dogs who had similar numbers, but what real pressure is that on the firsts? The other areas we need to consider is Mahoney and Stone.
Beau really needs to hang up his boots as a player he should be able to help in the team areas somehow and more effect.
I would personally rather see new blood in the team than those who appear to not be putting in.
I watched todays seabirds/chicks match and the first half forwards like Napa and Tapou were great, Didn’t see anything of Napa in the 2nd half but Tapou kept his mongrel up. Give Matagi to Manly and get Tapou in place.
Not sure why Kaysa was subbed, but I don’t really take into account the minute allocation, but rather the output. It was as simple as Kaysa wasn’t great on Saturday, but Will Smith was worse. He didn’t succumb to an injury as he finished the game on the field. Some might say our spark started when Kaysa returned and argue he should have been left on; I instead would argue he was more effective when given a break.
I’m not sure how keen Manly would be on the Matagi/Taupau swap seeing Taupau is their most effective forward (despite the salary cap benefits)
Mahoney and Stone cannot play NRL this year without significant injuries, they are development players.
Captain i agree with most of this – but i look at Norman and someone who’s been with us for a while and i know this is not his fault – entirely. He has to show some leadership in the halves and while his game was ok, i expect him to be consistent each match, with Moses.
I also agree that Smith is not suited to hooker against big packs like Cronulla.
Our fwds seem to have not improved as a unit and do not seem to be consistent.
Errors / discipline and completions are inconsistent.
It’s very disappointing and frustrating.
It’s another tough week……gee i hate these Monday’s.
Agreed Milo.
*Parramatta were disgraceful for all but the last 8 minutes.
* Cronulla clocked off after 50 minutes and chose not to take risks.
* parra totally dominated in the forwards yet again.
* sharks without gallan bukuya lewis graham and dugan 5 guns.
We didn’t deserve to win
Season over.
Hope ba will promote his first ever exclusively coached junior ever..
Alvaro in 15 and French in 16 were the last forward & back promotions .
Not an easy watch. Pinged twice in the first few minutes, usually a bad sign for us, false hope from the Bevan French try, then errors, penalties and bad kicking game. Only 40% possession in first half when game slipped away.
Was I seeing things or did the Sharks score the same try 3 times?…by playing fast, deep and creating more attackers, we were lucky Wade Graham disappeared.
Yep, hard one to grade Mitch. Pritchard’s C+ probably a better one than Moses’ who just didn’t fire behind a pack struggling to compete with Cronulla’s second stringers.
The quality of the opposition (no disrespect to the Sharks players out there) made this loss particularly unsavoury. I think Moses’ score was significantly impact by the final 10; he was dreadful otherwise.
Terepo C – by my ratings.
His ill discipline cost the team dearly. It doesn’t matta how hard he runs the ball when he coughs up this stuff.
I was yelling at the tv, get off him ffs Peni! It left us on the back foot from the start of the game and led to Sharks first try and gave them all the momentum.
I’m not sure Timmy has the faith or backing of the playing group right now. We seemed to slide downwards when he came on.
Next year, next year…
That was 2 of us yelling..he lingered a second too long then Fifita scrambled him by fighting hard to get up. Peni, the pocket ref loves to get into the action. Next set penalty on own line, next set Sharks score. Story of our life.
The old adage that backs in footy hang out with real footballers ( forwards) certainly haunt our team. Add to that size does matter and we covered the first 70 minutes of the game.
To be honest we were bullied as Fifita dominated the ruck, as did his support act , Sharks backs then played off the front foot with space after quick play the balls. We lack the props that force the defence back to allow a decent back row of Tepai, Mau and Brown to push the edge. TRex was a massive loss, who would have thought that at the start of the year.
Hesitant to criticise recruitment and staff, but appears we were far too loyal to the roster that played through the cap crisis. The lack of real big bodies up front has impacted on a really decent back line.
To be realistic, we need a sharper, more intelligent 9, and a couple of rep level bodies up front, maybe that is delusional but so necessary.
Look at the Matts game, the more skilful, better structured team got beat up by a team of Westie monsters masquerading as Manly.
Comments are hard on grading can be emotional, but solid hard working props are worth Bs at best as they are effectively role players in today’s game.
Disappointed rant over, go the Eels
I class myself as an optimistic supporter. Not quite in the sixties class, but very positive about our team and our chances each year. On our TCT season prediction blog, I tipped us to be minor premiers and I thought we had a very easy draw. It was a serious prediction.
After 9 rounds, everyone would have to concede we are an average football team at best. Perhaps that is a stretch.
Many players have gone backwards this year which much be a tremendous frustration for them and the coaching staff. I am thankful there are a lot of one and two year contracts out there because this team needs a huge amount of help before 2019 if we want to challenge.
We have a whole host of players of similar ability and when you compare them to other staring sides as I have this week, you start to realise why we are where we are.
One more obvious statement – we can’t afford to stuff up the next recruitment phase or many more people will be looking for jobs.
I just wonder where we go with recruitment. It amazes me the team that the Dragons have assembled. They’ve newly bought a lot of great players while managing to retain a lot of great players. Just look at how ravaged they’re going to be by Origin. And they’re one of the clubs who don’t have the Roosters/Broncos salary cap magic.
Surely there were thoughts that having a pack of our size was throwing all eggs in one basket and yet Kane Evans was the recruitment answer. We lost Semi with his endless try scoring ability and the recruitment answer was Hayne.
I know we were Top 4 with our squad last year but surely the coaching team knew that we couldn’t just rinse and repeat. That every other team would change and step it up. They did. We didn’t. I hope some big recruitment lessons have been learned. I’m just not sure what kind of a squad we can assemble for next year. Time will tell I suppose.
I agree, our recruitment was poor. To be fair, I think Russell Packer was the only player off contract that would have been worth pursuing, and we instead took a punt on a tall, rangey Evans.
We offered Semi as much as you or I would have been comfortable with (I’m told it was in the vicinity of 550k). I don’t want to make excuses, just add to the conversation.
This season, however, the opportunity to recruit is (and must be) huge, with 13 of our Top 30 off contract.
With that said, if we screw the 2019 recruitment up, I’ll get my pitchfork out too.
If screw it up then heads will have to role.
I’m a HUGE fan of our coaching and recruitment staff, and I don’t necessarily mean BA himself, but I can’t see how a failure to fire in 2019 could mean anything else.
I dare say, without them ever saying it publicly of course, that the coaching staff would probably feel the same way. They’d know the reality of the situation.
A disappointing result. Although I agree with the sentiment that the Sharks fell asleep towards the end, it would be lovely if the team played with the same intensity as the last 10 mins for the whole game.
For me, Tepai and Gower were the best. Tepai seemed to break tackles frequently every time he ran the ball. I’d really like to see Moses throw the short ball to him more often close to the opposition’s goal line. I remember this being a great combination in the past, be we seldom see it now.
I would also not be against bringing King back be be our starting hooker and have Kaysa come from the bench. Our kicking metres were horrible tonight. Having a hooker that can kick is a great advantage to have. I feel King is a game management hooker, whereas Kaysa is an explosive bench hooker.
Overall, we need to maintain the same intent we showed in the last 10 across the entire 80 mins. Improving our game management and goal-kicking should also be a priority.
I pretty much agree with this entire comment.
Tyler, not a lot to disagree with but I would ask the question in the games that King has played this year, in the NRL and ISP, how many kicks has he produced in each game?
I don,t like an approach to penalise players poor performances–my preference is to mentor them into some acceptable form–I like an approach to reward good performances. I don,t know much about the calibre of our players in the lower grades but think it is time to look to rewarding some of those guys who are legit candidates for first grade.—- who knows —we may come across some players who may introduce something different and maybe a better fit.
Tad, I understand where you are coming from, but.
If we were back in older days when a fair proportion of players contracts had the win lose draw component in payments, then they have the incentive to win, you win you get more in your pocket.
Today players are paid pretty good money when all is said and done. What’s the minimum amount that an NRL player can get? Think its around $90k close to $1700.00 a week, how many general run of the mill jobs pay that much a week? When you then go to the higher paid players that can be over $300k a year or $5700 00 a week that’s not to be sniffled at.
They are playing a sport that keeps them fit and get an a heck of a lot of benefits when all is considered. They play in front of people of all ages, the children generally idolise them and its up to them to perform, that is part of the contract they sign. If the club dumps them then they get payouts, and can try elsewhere. Thing is if the high paid players are shirking their responsibilities to each other, the coach, club and moreso the fans, do they deserve that wage? In general industries today workers are on different types of contracts/workplace agreements and they are expected to perforn under those terms. Why not RL players?
Yes Colin some sportsman get well paid compared to other workers– In Europe soccer some players earn a million $ a game–same as USA—-crazy world. I think the way you treat players who have lost form or have lost the full commitment requires more of a tailor made response– Some may need some mentoring to get their mojo others may respond better to stronger response like relegation–What ever the way coaching staff manage players in this situation should have a motivation to find what triggers them to respond by empowering them to succeed . Sometimes the way you manage players can be a depowering exercise which serves no purpose at getting a better result.Coaches need to have that touch in reading how to get the most out of players and how to motivate them with smarts..Not an easy job –its not all about simply football coaching
Maybe there should be a change of tactics. Pick the slackers in the team and have all the others boot them in the butte with steel capped work boots with each one delivering the same number of kicks that the opposition scored overall, not the margin.
Of course it would have to be tactical kicks though.
You have to be joking right? How are they getting such high ratings when they were so poor over 70 mins of the game? You are pretty much judging them based on 10 mins of the game, when they didn’t go to sleep. Very biased opinion.
To be clear, you’re suggesting that I, a proud Eels fan, am biased? Of course I’m biased, of course I want the Eels to succeed. Why would you expect me to be impartial?
I think what you mean is erroneous; that you disagree with my assessment.
I did state above “Due to the weird to and fro nature of tonight’s game, this has been a weird one to grade. You should probably prepare yourself to strongly disagree with me as a result.”
It was an incredibly disappointing game (hence the team grade of C), however, statistically many of the players played quite well (hence their grades). It’s completely fine if you disagree with me, though
Mitch, I don’t watch replays of the games later, only judge on what I see first up so can get it totally wrong, but Cronulla’s tries looked like training tries to me, maybe the last one was a bit less perfect, but basically they were the same try. By the time the ball got out near M Jennings territory, you could see we were in trouble…pass, catch and score. Not trying to degrade the Sharks’ build up, but they also seemed to be created in less than half the field,in fact each one was in the bank within about a quarter of the field. Call that good attack, and good teams have a habit of doing it, but what about the defence? We were short on numbers each time, no one pushing across from the inside, no scramblers, from memory even Gutho was scarce. Ask the Jennings brothers if they felt a bit lonely out there. Watch the Roosters out near Latrell Mitchell territory and more often than not there’s regular back up in defence. Any thoughts?
I agree mate, our defence was pretty woeful. Other than the Edrick Lee try, I’m not sure the Sharks actually threw that much at us.
The scramble, the desperation, the commitment wasn’t there, nor were our completion rates or field position.
It’s a shame that we can tell whether or not we’re a chance inside the first ten minutes of a game based on player attitude. We should have that chance every week. At the moment it doesn’t feel like we do.
So, for 15 minutes which comprised of 10 at the beginning of the game and 5 at the end, we were ok as far as attack went, that’s less than a quarter of the game that any sort of attack worked, the last 5 being luck against a tired side. Wonderful stuff? Not.
Only consolation, if there is any that it seems that the defence while not being great was not too bad, well I have no other way to say it.
While the season is not totally shot, I don’t think there are many rounds left that we have ammunition that we can get to within close pistol range of the finals, and maybe the rounds that are in the pistol contain blanks. I hope not, anyone who considers themselves to have any idea about shooting, even in the RL sense should be able to tell the difference between real ammo and blanks. Thing is I see the likelihood of some being knocked by misfiring with live ammo while looking down the barrel rather than sighting the gun at the enemy – that being all the other teams in the comp.