You might not think it looking at the scoreboard of 20-2 but the Parramatta Eels rediscovered their hunger in their loss to the Penrith Panthers last night. Besieged by injuries and a monumentally lop-sided possession rate the Eels hunkered down and went to war with the high flying Panthers.
Forty20 and Sixties reflect on the Herculean defensive effort, which resembled their efforts from the first half of the season. The boys are effusive in their praise of a number players – including Will Smith who made his season debut in as tough a set of conditions as you could ask of anyone.
Naturally there were negatives to discuss as well and Sixties and Forty have a bone to pick a piece with the wingers and a couple of forwards among some other things.
The boys wrap it all up with another guest feature as they continue their investigation into the under-appreciated speciality jobs within the NRL.
Great listen boys.It looks like Stoney may have picked up a hand injury .Extremely happy with the effort and loved what i saw of the team in a tight huddle post match with Browny doing the talk.Things are getting real business end of the season and i see signs of our boys starting to build into this.
I took plenty of positive out of that too mate. Thanks for listening.
We put little pressure on opposing kickers giving them free rein to position their kicks. Why don’t certain under performers get time on the sideline ?
I can only suggest that it’s a question of options. Nobody is getting the chance to show what they can do in lower grades.
The worrying aspect is we were completely dominated and we had no tactic, strategy or skill to alter the course of the game.
We were ordinary in our little time in their quarter in the first half, but apart from that we just didn’t get possession and when we did, it was so deep in our territory. It was like an endless stream of repeat possessions from the Riff in a variety of ways. I couldn’t call it off the TV coverage, and we all know it’s a different tale when you’re at the ground, but my mail is that there was a reason that Penrith were in our faces all night.
What I will say is that you need to be good enough to overcome adversity. We weren’t. I agree that we couldn’t turn the tide. But how much of a leg up does a virtually undefeated team need?
“Your Mail”, God Sixties don’t tell us the NRL has hired the bloke on the Grassy Knoll and we can’t trust anything ever again !
Tks men. We had a great deep kick off, 2 strong tackles inside their 10, then bang!!! 6 Again, Shaun Lane, a debatable one but he just should have made sure of a clean release. That was the turning point, in the first minute.
The problem I have is that whilst Lane fumbled the release, if you time the release, it wasn’t a prolonged one, then the Panthers should have been pinged in most sets via their pile ons, wrestle,and staggered peel offs. The time held is no different, it was just a nitpicking call,
100% mate. That was my issue too. From the moment of that first one, it signalled how it would go down. And when you look at it from then in, one team was displaying incredible line speed, the other caught on the back foot, but which one was getting the calls against them. One was blatantly, blatantly, locking in the arms of the tacklers, yet earning calls for it. And still there was no difference in average play the ball speed!
Absolute rubbish. Our defence was poor all night. We gave ourselves no chance because our midfield defence was awful. Panthers pulled through tackles far too easily all night. So yeah, we defended our own line stoutly, but that was as much a function of the conditions and the fact that the Panthers bombed at least 3 tries.
We’re deluded if we think we are a great defensive team, because we’re just not.
After 7 years of being an ardent BA supporter I’ve officially had enough, his time is up IMO.
It’s time
Absolute rubbish reply. There was no difference between the two teams in tackle efficiency despite the overwhelming possession rate. And tries weren’t bombed they were stopped by a defence that didn’t give up. But go ahead and be unsatisfied with having a finals team. Give up on the season in round 18. Seriously!
Give it to them sixties.
Considering penriff had 14 men out there Parra was magnificent in defence and defeat. Sutton had a shocker of a game.
Parra really really tried hard.
Tidal supporters are never happy.
They won’t beat us next time.
I want to play the Riff in the finals. Hopefully with a different ref and with a couple of extra players. It’s bad enough when there is no respect for our team from commentators. It’s worse when it comes from our own supporters.
I like the comment next one down.
Give Lane a rest and start either Kaufusi or Davey.
Lane makes too many mistakes when tired
He is playing well but looks tired.
BA has to open up our options.
Let the opposition start guessing
Whilst our defence is in reasonably good order it is time our attack started firing.
But, it wont if a lack of patience prevails.
We are in the top four and we did not get there with rubbish football. We got there because we were better than the other teams.
It is exciting to win by a big margin but the memories stay longer when we guts it out with close win. And that is what they were doing. The other teams are simply catching up.
The team has not given up.
The experts have.
Parra team supporters should hang in there with confidence because on the day anything can happen and it will.
Well said mate, and Andy Davey wouldn’t let anyone down.
Being a sincere Bible believing Christian. My thoughts about the dribble you just put in print was to check my thoughts and remember we are instructed by scripture “Do not even call someone racca racca when you don’t like what they say/write or do”
Suffice to say “I will hold the racca racca” and just say. Idiotic comment, Brett. Do yourself a favour and reread sixties reply. I will add though, it appeared that the Riff were at least 2 to 3mtrs offside at the ruck which made their line speed look better than it was.
That’s my mail Rowdy
I did, and he didn’t address any point I made, instead he got defensive. Our midfield was as soft as a marshmallow. Their middles just pulled through tackles with ease, our first contact was soft at best, numerous times they simply shrugged off tacklers. They marched down field with very little resistance. Granted they struggled to break down our goal line defence, but it is pretty well established now that the hardest place to attack from is inside the opposition 20, even with the huge weight of possession in their favour, expectation night.
But because we were always coming off our own line we couldn’t fire a shot at them. Great defence starts at the other end of the field and ours was sorely lacking in that area. No amount of goal line scrambling can rectify that.
Great defence is not just about the points scored. We could’ve restricted them to 3 points and still not won.
Our attention to detail is so poor under BA, and it hasn’t improved, that’s the problem. Our core group is no longer improving, individually or collectively. Some of them are going backwards. Players getting caught on the bottom of the ruck, I saw Shaun Lane stand behind the Panthers dummy half at one stage after making a tackle, zero desperation to get back into the line. What happened, they strolled down the middle unimpeded. I saw Jai Field at one stage after making a tackle run BEHIND the Panthers attacking line to get back onside. Literally did a 20m full circle instead of the direct straight route back into line.
It’s this lack of attention to detail that has not improved under BA. These simple things that add up over the course of 80 minutes that are not being addressed.
So 60’s, you’re at training, at least as close as you can get at the moment, have you seen the coaching staff attend to these details ? Have you ever seen BA attend to these details ?
Whilst we’re on the subject of BA, have you ever seen him develop Plan B in the event that Plan A is neutralised by the opposition ?
C’mon 60’s, answer those questions
Of course I have. That’s quite a simple answer.
And by the way, Parra had only 25 minutes in possession against the Riff, which says a lot about how the match was played.
But mate, feel free to be as negative as you want about about Parra. You support them in the way you want. I won’t change your mind no matter what I say. If you can’t be happy with another finals season, so be it.
I am happy with it 60’s, but what I’m not happy with is the fact we’re no longer improving, and we are still a long way behind the Top 3.
So, what specifically has BA done to address these ongoing issues in training ?
What is our Plan B when Plan A has been scouted so well ?
In training is Mitch still starting 20m from the ruck and then going further sideways ?
Because that’s working so well for us.
I’m not being negative, as I said at the very beginning I’ve been ardent supporter of BA since day one, but can you honestly say that we are in a state of improvement now ?
Really ?
Interesting to hear your thoughts so soon after the game.
There are just too many ‘why was that’ and ‘why wasn’t that’ involved in the 6 again calls. The policing of the ruck just wasn’t the same for both sides and Penrith seemed to get the rub of the green all night with knock backs and 6 again calls for passes contacting a defenders hand etc.
I didn’t expect a win and I am not that disappointed given effort and commitment shown by most. Evans was poor just like in his first game for the club at the same ground.
Not overly critical of Fergo as some errors by position just look that much worse but who wouldn’t have been fatigued in that game.
I thought Oregon was really solid and I’d like to see Davey start and Lane come off the bench.
Not enough credit is being given for that effort with key players missing and the ridiculous lopsided weight of possession.
Hopefully they’ll be fresh for the Broncos. Bit concerned that N Brown looked injured in his second half carries.
it was one of those games where so many little moments fell their way. Sometimes that happens. Like you i was disappointed in Kane’s performance.
Thanks for these debriefs TCT.
I love ref bashing as much as the next person but the refereeing wasnt the determining factor in the result last night. I’m pretty sure the 6 agains went strongly our way last time we played Penrith. We should have received 4-5 more calls on Friday but they were winning the collisions coming out of their own end so I didn’t have too many problems with most of their calls (but the first one was terrible in my opinion). Kane Evans gave away 2-3 dumb ones in a 5 minute period before halftime that probably signed our death warrant.
We are paying the price for not having an NRL standard specialist back up hooker on our books. The Panthers had done their homework on Ray Stone’s passing ability and condensed their defence accordingly, there was one wide camera angle early in the game where you could see space down either flank if we’d have any ability to get our runners wider off the play the ball and then played out the back. I actually thought the first 10 minutes of the second half we began to look better with Will Smith offering a slightly crisper service and running a few times too, but then Lane makes the dropped ball and Penrith score the next set and it took any wind out of our sails. Reed Mahoney can’t come back soon enough.
Sterlo did a pretty good job dissecting our attacking woes on Triple M. You can listen to it on their FB page. He said something I’d be thinking for the last month. We offer absolutely no attacking threat coming out of our 10-40m. We have simplified our game to (presumably) limit errors in the wet, dewy and windy Winter conditions but it’s taken a lot of the steam out of our attack. Gus Gould cryptically hinted at this in the pre game show on Friday night saying “there’s been a change in the Eels attacking mindset over the last few months and I don’t think it is serving them well”. Sterlo reckons we have lost our mojo by just sending our big bodies charging off the dummy half, he says the opposition are ready for it and it’s beginning to take its toll on some of our players. If we don’t start offering tip ons or running more from dummy half we will be dominated by any aggressive defensive team come finals time.
It’s impossible to know what we would have offered in attack had we had even a half dozen more chances but I suspect with makeshift dummy halves unable to provide consistently crisp service we would have struggled to break through the Panthers defence on a dewy night (much like they struggled to get through ours) Moses did look like he’s brought his kicking boots so I’d have loved to see what he could have conjured with a few more attacking kicks.
Now we essentially need to win both games to make the top 4. The Raiders have a better for and against. The Broncos have genuine game breakers but if we show the same commitment in defence from Friday we should be able to get back on track. The Tigers game could be far trickier than many people realise. They will likely be farewelling Benji and will almost certainly be up it.
The season isn’t lost. If we can find out groove in attack again, we can beat anyone on our day, especially with the desire and determination on display on Friday night in defence. The next fortnight will be telling. If we cook up two strong, aggressive, focused showings, I think we will enter the finals as a massive dark 🏇
Really appreciate the quality of your reply Adam. You’ve offered valid criticism with recognition of what the Eels can do. Keep it coming mate.
Ok. I get that we probably got a carve up by the referee but why and what are we doing about it ? If the Storm received that, would they receive it again after a Bellamy carve up ? If he feels that way BA sometimes has to stand up for the team otherwise we are going to be raped again and again… it’s just human nature for the refs to placate a scary coach and punish a timid one.
Ha, ha. BA’s not a timid coach. He just won’t give it to the refs in a presser. They go through the appropriate channels and I for one am glad he chooses that path. Others are a disgrace at pressers.