EELS – 12 (Tries: C. Gutherson, B. French. Goals: M. Moses 2 from 2)

Defeated by

BULLDOGS – 20 (Tries: B. Morris, A. Elliott. Goals: M. Mbye 6 from 6)

ANZ Stadium

Crowd: 15,683

It’s been written and said many times already, but it was absolutely dumb footy all round from the Eels on Friday night. So many chances. So many bombed opportunities.

Again, we scored the same amount of tries as our opponent and again we lose a game on some of the dumbest penalties you can give. It doesn’t matter if the ref is right or wrong in awarding these penalties. The Eels continue to put themselves in a position to get penalised. It is just unfathomable that self destruction is the tale of the tape every week.

And what is wrong with taking the two points? We had 3 or 4 penalties in a row on the Dogs line in the first half. We couldn’t cross so just take the 2 and build scoreboard pressure.

Our games vs. Manly and the Tigers seem so far away now. I’m sure many of us are scratching our heads about what we are seeing on the field.

Full Time Stats

Our completions weren’t too bad, but it really means nothing when you don’t do anything with it.

1st Half Stats

The Dogs were perfect with their ball control in the first half. We were just lucky that the Dogs are so out of form that they didn’t do much damage in the first half on the score board. Come up against the Storm et all with those figures and they would rip you a new one and then some.

2^nd Half Stats

We completed a lot better in the second half and scored ZERO points. We just threw nothing at the Dogs in the second half.

The options against a Dogs team that looked out on their feet had Eels supporters screaming in frustration.

Attack:

What the hell happened to our attack? The Rhyse Martin, Kieran Foran combination on their right edge was diabolical. We hit it twice and got results. Then never went back to it? Why?? I just couldn’t understand that. Foran is playing busted. If he wants to still be there, exploit it. Then we had stupid offloads when in great attacking areas. We don’t need to score off every play. Or we make a break and don’t pass it or players pushing or breaking the line find themselves without support.

Run Metres:

Eels – 1443m from 153 runs (9.43m per run) – 5 Line Breaks

Bulldogs – 1670m from 168 runs (9.94m per run) – 3 Line Breaks

Defence:

Our right side was once again targeted. The Bulldogs ran a lot of their opening plays down our right flank which saw them score the first try of the game. As said previously, the Dogs are not in any great form and went away from this. The teams higher up the ladder would have just kept peppering our right side. The Jennings boys to their credit did fix up their defence but still with George continuing to rush up and in without taking anybody is opening up that right flank for the opposition to stroll through. Our defence is very compressed and requires trust in your inside man.

As is the 2018 tradition with the Eels, we gave our opponents an extra 12 sets for them to score on us. Those extra sets are killing Parramatta’s energy. We are just spending all our energy in defence and then have nothing in defence.

Tackles:

Eels – 378

Bulldogs – 303

Missed Tackles/Ineffective Tackles:

Eels – 26 missed / 13 ineffective

Bulldogs – 14 missed / 20 ineffective

Effective Contact:

Eels – 90.7%

Bulldogs – 89.9%

Penalties and Errors:

Penalties Conceded:

Eels – 9

Bulldogs – 7

Errors:

Eels – 8

Sharks – 7

Heat Maps:

Hit Ups

Just nothing of substance in the Bulldogs half. We played most of our attacking game in our own half and didn’t build pressure on the Bulldogs.

Set Starts

We had some decent set starts against the Dogs and just could capitalise. Our tries came from long range efforts. Although they did look great, we just didn’t dig in and grind when closer to the Bulldogs try line.

Penalties Conceded

This map shows what I was talking about earlier in where we are giving penalties away. 6 penalties right in front. So, gifting them potentially 12 points. The Dogs took 4 shots at goal. And there is the game lost once again.

With the season fast slipping away from the Eels, and we aren’t even half way through the season yet, what can be done about it?

As BA said in his press conference, the time for talk stops now. We need to show it on the field. I do like the fact that he isn’t blaming referees calls and such. It is our own fault. We control our destiny out there. We will get poor calls against us. That’s something we can’t control. We need to control what we can control and those other factors go away.

It is heartbreaking watching and seeing the guys devastated after another loss, cause really you cant deny their effort. All I can say to Clint Gutherson is this. Keep your head up and learn from your mistake. It happens. Its how you bounce back from it that counts.

So Blue and Gold Army, stick by the boys. I will be there again next week and the week after etc. Hope to see you there too.

My heart bleeds blue and gold. Always has always will.

Yours in Blue and Gold.

Colmac

Stats courtesy of Champion Data.

All these stats and more can be viewed on our match centre at http://mc.championdata.com/nrl/ including live game stats.

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