Remembering who you are, is how you take your power back. Lalah Delia
I never thought I would use a quote from a blogger, let alone a spiritual blogger. But in trying to describe the path that I believe the Eels must tread, I could find no words more perfect than these.
Every successful NRL team has its identity.
It’s created by the combination of its players, the coaches and in some instances the long term culture of the club.
The football played by the winning teams, or those in strong contention, might have a distinct or even a subtle difference from their opponents. However, what defines them is that when they find the key to success, they rarely stray from it.
Therein lies the current problem for the Eels.
In the first nine rounds of this season, Parra was playing the type of football which worked for the team. Their only loss was in a cracker of a game against the Roosters. And make no mistake, the Tri-Colours were at close to full strength and needed to produce some of their best footy to regain the ascendancy in the final twenty minutes of the match.
What defined the Eels team earlier this season?
Bruising, uncompromising defence ✔️
Strong kicking game and kick chase ✔️
Composure and discipline✔️
Patience in attack✔️
The Eels played a brand of football that left a physical imprint on their opponents. Their preparation for the year ahead had involved conditioning them to win a battle of attrition over their opponents. Points would be earned, and if it took till the 80th minute to score the winning points, so be it.
The Eels forwards punished their opponents in the collision – whether that was carrying the ball or defending against it. Opportunities came from the brutality of what occurred in the middle of the field. It tired opponents, creating space for second phase play and shifts. The Eels set the agenda from the opening whistle in the early season games and maintained their commitment throughout the match.
Such football suited the parts of the whole Eels team. Big, mobile, aggressive forwards with ball skills. Elusive halves. Athletic outside backs. A highly involved fullback.
At the end of Round 13, Parra boasted an 11 and 2 record, but a couple of narrow wins over less fancied opponents had started the outside noise.
Waqa Blake
There’s no denying that there was validity in questioning the right side defensive combination of Waqa Blake and Blake Ferguson. However, the media and supporters demanded more from the Eels attack.
The more that it was demanded, the worse the performances became.
Quite simply, the team started to look for the short-cut to points. Unfortunately, offloads and shifts against a fresh, advancing defence puts pressure on the offence. Hence the errors and incomplete sets.
There are no short cuts in rugby league.
Nor is this the identity that this Parramatta Eels team set about establishing earlier in the season.
Rugby league is a simple game.
When the players take the field, they have a responsibility to the coaches and to the fans.
Brad Arthur
Their responsibility to Brad Arthur and the coaches is to follow the match plan. In the first half of the season, the players’ adherence to the game plan was obvious.
Their responsibility to the fans is to put themselves in the best possible position of winning. This was being delivered.
But, the responsibility of the Parramatta team does not extend to delivering an “entertaining” brand of football – especially if it does not suit the team. The Panthers team boasts some of the most explosive attacking players in the competition. They can play that brand of footy because it suits their players.
Consider this quote from author Jim Watkins: –
“A river cuts through rock, not because of its strength, but because of its persistence.”
In sporting parlance, a river plays the long game.
For the Eels to fully impose themselves on this season, they too have to play the long game. They have to persist with what worked for them. I would argue that the outside noise has impacted their mindset. Instead of focusing on the type of football they needed to deliver, they have been responding to how the critics and the fans wanted them to play.
Impatience is a contagion. From the moment it entered the psyche of some players, it spread. It manifested in attack and, like rotting fruit, contaminated the other half of the game – defence. That was demonstrated in a significant number of players missing their defensive assignments last week. You don’t register around half a century of tackle failures if the fault lies with just a couple of individuals. The problems originated in the middle of the park on Thursday night and spread across the entire team.
The good news is definitely that there is no big fix needed for this team. Ignore the death riding critics and fans. Block or mute any negative Nancy looking for an audience. The Eels can put their recent funk behind them. This is a team which had only conceded a grand total of 176 points in their previous 15 matches.
That’s not to say that it won’t be a challenge for the coaches.
Back in September last year, I wrote this about the Eels mindset:
“Being pumped up for a big performance is not enough. It can lead to being overawed by the big occasion.
Being focussed on consistently producing your best, knowing your role, owning it and taking pride in it, removing the external noise – all of those things happen in the head. When you get the head space right, the difference between your best and your worst becomes minimal.
That’s the next step.”
I believe these words to be as true now as they were just after the end of the 2019 season. In the first half of this year’s premiership, I believed that Parramatta had turned the mental corner.
The last couple of losses have proven that the team is still about 30 degrees short of completing that turn.
However, the players have demonstrated that they are capable of producing football that’s worthy of a top four team. It’s up to them to return to what their identity should be, and to not let a couple of recent defeats define them or their season.
Forget the outside noise.
It’s time for Parra to take their power back.
Eels forever!
Sixties
Very good article Sixties. There are a number of games this season that demonstrate our best game plan. However the one that stands out for me is the game against the Panthers:
The 9 commentators made a huge gaff in that game saying the Eels were running out of ideas about 5 minutes before they piled on 16 points in about 10 minutes to win the game
Was that the last time that the Panthers were beaten?
That’s been the only time that the Roff were beaten this year John. And yes that exemplified the reward for patience.
You don’t moonlight as the Dalai Lama do you Sixties ? After reading that I feel like cutting all my hair off and wrapping a bed sheet around myself. Namaste.
🤣 🤣 🤣 I watched some of the Penrith and Roosters matches and the difference in our form was stark. So we know that the Eels can deliver in that manner, and the players are the same. We have to get back to what works.
Great read Sixties…We have been listening to the outside noise for way to long…Massive test for us this week. Make or break…You are bang on point in that the team needs to return of playing through the middle and being patient..We have not done this for weeks. We were suffocating teams in the first half of the season…even if it was tied up after 60 minutes I know the damage done in the first half meant we would run over the top of them….that just has not been the case recently. I just hope that our top performers Junior, RCG and Brown aren’t too burnt out from a massive first half of the season.
I hope the next 4 weeks without brown is the coming of age for Moses. He needs to take control of this team..none of this left side/rights side bullshit..He needs to run the entire field and show everyone that he can be a top of the crop half. Not just a flat track bully
Jack, I wish I had used the word that you used – suffocate. That’s a very apt way of describing how we beat the other teams. As for Moses, I’m a bit more forgiving. He doesn’t shirk the collisions. His effort isn’t lacking. I believe his calf is still hampering him. That said, he needs to play straighter and his attacking kicks need to hit their mark.
Well said sixties, I can run with that thought line. My only reservation is that even though we were best defensive record, we always looked thin as the ball got wider, our scramble improved..Moses, D & N Brown nearly always remain in play. OK, it has only unravelled badly once but it has concerned me. The Dogs, Sharks,Dragons all looked better out wide in their red zone than we did. A good spine, with an attacking plan, well executed was just waiting for us. These are NRL professionals, surely we can make the required adjustment or will we stick with a riskier structure with numbers in the middle unable to adjust to well executed spreads. In the final v Storm last year, they caught us short with an early tackle spread in THEIR 20 and you could see our inside defenders suddenly realise we needed numbers out wider…too late, Addo Carr gone,game gone, year gone. I’m not death riding this..just prefer it fixed.
Anonymous, I am concerned by the fluctuations in Waqa Blake’s defensive reads and tackles. When he’s on song he jams well and smashes in the collision. I don’t need to elaborate on the bad weeks, except to say that for some reason he also becomes a jersey grabber.
But earlier in the year, the opposition weren’t getting the opportunities to hit wide that often because of the pressure applied by the Eels work in the middle and the defensive adjustments and scramble. Against Souths the Eels produced no defensive pressure, not only missing tackles in the middle, but also not numbering up. The first Souths try was a basic training shift. No big play, they just outnumbered us.
We didn’t set the agenda for the match. We let Souths have all the running.
We didn’t do that earlier in the year.
When we beat Penrith we were clearly being outmuscled I recall thinking there was no way out of this but we hung in the contest and the tide started to turn.Scoring our first try we grew another leg and Penrith became frustrated they didn’t put us away and errors followed.Our confidence saw us spread the ball and go on and win the game.What I am getting at is from your strong defence comes confidence in your attack it has all been relevant since the manly game where they virtually walked through our D untouched and our season has unraveled since then.If we can Get our mojo back in defence and a strong kick chase the rest will take care of itself.
Great read Sixties.
Thanks mate. I don’t think our season has unravelled, but rather that Manly game was the point when we began to lose the Intimidation from our defence
Spot on Sixties, we were attacking with defence early in the season, and that’s leaked out of our game. If we can get our defensive mojo back, we’ve got the talent and ad lib players to take advantage late in the game. It may not be the ‘Parra-ball’ we all love, but a slippery Bankwest Stadium surface under lights isn’t the right conditions for it. And I’d rather see us win.
I can see a few things contributing. Moses doesn’t look like he’s fully comfortable with that calf, which is affecting his kicking game, and therefore our field position. The Dragons game it was really marked that they were out-kicking us, both in execution and tactics.
The last 6 weeks or so, it’s seemed the noise particularly around Ferguson’s lack of tries was affecting the decision-making in attack. We’ve been deliberately trying to create opportunities for him, instead of playing what’s in front of us. That’s fine if you’re up by 20 with 15 to go, but not early in the game.
They do seem to be trying too hard in attack, particularly in the weeks when we’ve heard about ‘a strong start’. Let’s make it a strong defensive start instead, and build from there.
And, for anyone up for another round of punishment/joy, I got tickets to the Warriors game on Ticketek today. I haven’t seen anything promoting that they’re open for Eels fans to purchase, and I wasn’t able to yesterday, but could today. If you haven’t been, Central Coast Stadium has a lovely backdrop out to the water, so it’s worth a quick drive up the freeway. Lucky me, it’s only ten minutes from home!
Cheers for this reply Wilhelmina. I agree with your statement about the strong start needing to be a strong defensive start. Defence is the best measurement of a team’s attitude. When the Eels beat the Storm the previous week, the Storm kept turning up in defence with last minute desperation that kept denying tries, even though the match was lost. I found it sad that the Eels couldn’t defend their line in the set in which Dylan Brown chased down a certain try.
Enjoy Central Coast Stadium this week.
Wonderful food for thought once again Sixties.
I just read an article quoting Mick Cronin extensively on the impact a massive loss at this time of the year can have. In fact a belting like the one we just suffered at the hand of souffs can actually be the catalyst for a return to the focus that got you where you are on the ladder at that point. Mick said Parra was belted by Saints 44 to 2 just before the semis in 1983 and we won the GF handsomely. In 2001 Parra belted Newcastle 40 – 10 and we know how bad that season turned out on GF day. There was another similar bad loss to the eventual premiers in Rd 18 in 2002. Mick said we should put that loss behind us and go back to doing what got us in 3rd position. We know we can, but it will have to be earned. I like that train of thought, after all isn’t that what we did for 11 rounds upto the ambush by Manly at Brooky? Go Parra.
Newcastle belted us earlier in the year and they didn’t have Andrew Johns playing for them when we belted them. Anyway knew they were the team to beat and so it turned out that way in the gf.
Back in 81 I never thought of us as the triple title winning team. It was the Roosters and Manly that I rated that year, and when Roosters beat us by something like 20 nil at the SCG at the end of the season I thought we were no chance. Same as when we played Manly and they thumped us in a semi before we turned the tables in the GF.
However, anything like a repeat performance would not be acceptable. The team needs to get back on our defence bandwagon.
That game in 1981 ended up 20-6 (4 tries to 2) in favour of the Roosters. Manly beat Parramatta 20-0 (3 tries to zip) in a semi-final in 1982, with the Eels bouncing back to thump the Roosters by 33-0 (7 tries to zip) on a muddy SCG the following week.
I started supporting league in 1981. After the third year I thought that the mighty Eels would win the competition forever. Oh to be young and hopeful again!
The period from 75 to 86 were a joy for someone like me who had been tormented by other kids in the 60s/early 70s for following by local team. To put perspective the Eels went from spoon 72, second last 73, equal last in 1974 to the memorable finals play off in 75 and grand final in 76.
What an era from there.
Sorry 60s but your statement ‘Instead of focusing on the type of football they needed to deliver, they have been responding to how the critics and the fans wanted them to play’ has little validity. Players might read what we say but coaches have their ear. A whole team doesn’t play busted because 1 or 2 of them read critical comments from fans or journalists.
One could say that Parra played last week because of the the long term culture of the club. Years of mediocrity and 3 wooden spoons in the last 10 years is testament of that.
Unfortunately my faith in BA has diminished over the years. In the past 7 years he has got us to the finals twice for 1 win. Every year the team gets flogged at least once and the team slumps to poor losses for at least 3 concessive games. This year the slump has lasted 2 months. And our team won the wooden spoon.
This year our roster is the best since 2001 and we are a genuine top 8 team, but have yet to look likely to make the gf. The common denominators for the last few years, besides BA, is the attack and defensive coaches. D has been problematical for years and the current problems with the Blakes yet to be sorted. Attack has been up and down over that time. Throughout that time BA has shown a reluctance to replace poor or under-performing players to the detriment of the team, and persist with tactics that are not working for significant lengths of time. Few players coming here greatly improve their performances. For every player that improves there are more that fail to improve or even regress. We still fail to produce quality juniors each year with Dylan Brown being the only one since probably Junior Paulo. Not qualities that make for a great coach.
After last weeks loss BA’s presser doesn’t give me any confidence things will improve. ‘For me it’s an easy fix. We go back to owning our effort areas and go back to being a team that is willing to build a game’. Unless he’s been completely blind, Parra has been playing poorly for the last 2 months, and has yet has to be fixed.
Comparing BA with Bellamy and Robinson, their teams are always competitive, slumps are for 1 game, they improve their players and they play finals each year. As BA keeps changing his conditioning staff, and the teams fitness has improved, its time for BA to change his attack and defensive coaches. They have not been working and fluctuate up and down. They need to improve for the sake of the team, and their long suffering supporters, but don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Terrific assessment Glenn. No good believing in fairies anymore. As I said before this next month will prove where this team and coaches are going. The future direction of our footy team will be determined.
Prometheus, I have addressed a number of Glenn’s points above. Please read. It’s not fairytales, it’s facts. But further to above, this year has not been lost, for crying out loud the team is still third, and will play finals regardless. The point of this post was too emphasise that it can be fixed if the headspace returns to focussing on what brings them success – defence.
The only reason we offer a critique 60’s is because we want our eels to win the bloody thing. I’m at an age that if they don’t do it soon I will be cheering them on with St Peter at the Pearly Gates.
Oh, I’m getting close too Prometheus. I completely understand the criticism. And I understand that supporters want the best for the team. If I come across as defensive on behalf of the team and coaches it’s because I see the work that is done to address problem areas in the team, and I am acutely aware therefore of the changes that have happened.
I’ve also been fortunate over the years to see the work that goes on with the pathways, and to sit in on how some of that is delivered. That said, there is always room for improvement and criticism there, but it needs to be logical and based on an understanding of current practices and limitations.
However, I agree 100% that change is necessary on our right and I can’t defend a lack of change. I know why we might not make changes, I just don’t agree with it.
Somebody just told me St Peter is a Manly supporter. That it be f—– g right.
I had it suggested to me a few days ago that I’m heading in the other direction.
Glenn, I need to respond to a number of your points.
The players haven’t been reading the critics, it has been pushed into their faces via repeated questions at media calls. You could see that we tried to play attacking footy from the outset in our last two weeks without earning shifts. BA rightly owned the performance but I have no doubt that the players focus was not there at all on Thursday. Now that happens with teams, but as you rightly point out, it rarely if ever happens with the Roosters and the Storm. Their players are mentally stronger. And that is the continued challenge for BA and the coaches.
But it’s not as if change hasn’t occurred. Look at the roster changes he’s implemented since 2017. Different wings, centre, 5/8, back row, front row, bench. Literally only Gutho, Moses, Jennings, Nathan Brown remain in first grade. You cannot begin to suggest that he hasn’t looked to change the team.
Nor can you say that performances haven’t improved. You need to be realistic about Parra in 2019/2020 and compare the differences. I’d also disagree about not improving players. Blokes like Gutho, Nathan Brown, RCG, Marata, have become much better players under BA. Jennings is in some of his best form this year. Moses is still improving and only a calf injury has slowed that up. Though I think Lane is slightly out of form right now, he has become more consistent at Parra than at any time in his career.
The pathways players continue to be a work in progress. That change has been a long time coming. It’s been covered numerous times on TCT so I don’t want to go over it again, but Brown was literally one of the first pathways players to start emerging. If you listen to our interview with Anthony Field, he details what needed to be done to overhaul them. Seriously, you need to be aware of that before making blanket statements. Change was needed and BA was literally at every junior rep match from the time he took over the top job. Brown, Parry, Dunster, Kaufusi, Utoikamanu were part of the first thoroughly revamped group. They are being followed by Hollis and Hughes, and a big group of juniors will be part of this next preseason.
If there is a criticism that I agree with, it’s that a change is needed at centre and if that isn’t forthcoming, then he’s being too loyal. I think change is less likely given Brown’s injury, but I still can’t agree with the Waqa and Fergo combination any more. It’s indefensible.
Great post sixties. While I am concerned regarding a couple of the players, overall I believe that we have the team that can take the comp out. In the end though its not all that much about the coach per say, but its whether the players as a team actually want to be premiers. If they do they need to show, the coach, & supporters that they still want to.
Why the last bit? Well from memory they showed that in the early part of the year, and are just as capable now as then.
Though I’m far from suggesting a title Colin, I agree 100% that the team is just as capable now as earlier in the year.
No reason why if they show that early form ongoing that all things are possible. Riff vses eels for GF?
Hows MM going with his calf issue? Hopefully Field may be able to take on some of the load in that area.