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Bernie Gurr joins The Tip Sheet for one last time in 2021 to recap the loss against Penrith and breakdown the entirety of Parramatta’s season. The boys put the heartbreaking loss to the Panthers under the microscope and analyse one of the most intense finals in recent history.
Gurr looks at who excelled, who exceeded expectations and where the Eels need to improve for the 2022 season. Before he signs off the boys canvas him for his winner of the prestigious Ken Thornett Medal as well as who will go on to glory among the remaining 4 premiership contenders.
Sixties and Forty20 allow themselves a moment of introspection once Bernie is gone to reflect on the 2021 journey and thank all the wonderful people who made it what is was – chief among those our readers and listeners. So thank you all sincerely for helping make TCT what it is. Look forward to a hectic offseason and preseason!
Bernie certainly nails most things as usual, how frustrating when he names the 5 young players that Manly can build around and expect to help them improve. All 5 are from our system, and not one of them went to Westfields Sports where Manly have the football staff on their staff, changes have been made at talent identification level and it would be good to see results from that area.
Certainly the team needs to retain its stability and then some tweaks to move into the top 4 on a regular basis. The foundation is certainly there, and this is where the recruitment and retention staff really earn their salary ( looking at the Storm as the benchmark). We can only hope that when Mark ONeil is interviewed prior to 2022 season, the roster has been improved. A hard but fair and needed judgement on them..
I’d say that Mark and Ben are busy with some contracts to get done before November. That’s probably a priority too. With Lussick returning to England, depth at dummy half again needs addressing.
Tks men, great chat. Bernie does a bit of research, supports opinion with fact.I thought his areas if improvement summary was pretty damn good, and he threw some data in to say ‘I’m just not pulling this out of nowhere’. He pointed to how we slipped in defence, and it would have probably shown up more (in the stats) last year but for a shortened program. I reckon this year we got trousered in at least 30% of our games( the wide shift weakness), nowhere near good enough to be both Top 4 and genuine contender. It was the elephant in the room, Bernie’s on to it. Our past 5 games have indicated the improvement has begun, it needs to be institutionalised.
I’d say it has begun, and that’s an eye test, because we had those mix of moments earlier. That said, our year stats certainly became very skewed in that run of losses.
Great stuff again lads.
Always good to hear Burnie’s insight, look forward to hearing him chat you guys guys again, as well as Mark O’Neil before the 2022 season proper
Cheers Mike. I always feel like I understand the game a little better after every conversation with him.
Thank you for making such a welcoming and inclusive site for us mad (there are no sane ones) Eels supporters with such great content. Looking forward to 2022.
Now for that chat with BA.
Thanks mate. Won’t be long till it’s preseason training.
Well done on a good season lads. Appreciate all the content.
The Maika and Lussick situations are going to be interesting.
I’m disappointed we didn’t have a better crack at Addo-Carr with the money he’s on at the Dogs. All 17 players are obviously crucial, you don’t want to be carrying passengers, but with our style of play as this podcast notes (i.e. through the middle and possession) having strong wingers to bring the ball back and getting sets started for middles is critical.
Having a solid back-up for Reed also critical because he’s a physical player that does a lot of tackling (vs. a Cam Smith who would let the other players take the impact), so I suspect he will spend time on the sidelines – by choice or necessity.
I’ve been trying to reflect on what to make of this season. I think my conclusion is that the mistakes the team made are ‘low-hanging fruit’ that should be reasonably easily remedied. Some of this BA has already alluded to (e.g. resting players ahead of finals prep) but others like more bench rotation across the full 17 during games, rest players intra-season (to build depth and freshen people up), cutting out the fancy forwards playing like backs stuff. The one persisting issue has been edge defence, but that looks like its heading the right direction now. If they learn from all this and add to the way we showed up for the ‘big games’, you’d think we’ve got a bright 2022 ahead.
For me, the KT medal is a 3 man race – Moses, RCG and Papalii. Other people were good in patches (long or short), but these 3 were stand-outs most of the season. Still can’t wrap my head around RCG not playing origin.
Cheers Mick. I now believe that with the departure of Lussick back to the UK, we must sign another dummy half. Also, whatever they decide to do with the wing spot, they are fully aware of Maika being out of action for at least half of 2022.
That run of losses didn’t even look like our brand of footy in either attack or defence. That development of Will Penisini on the right side and the improved form of Waqa on the left has changed our edges.
As for KTM, it’s surely Ice, with Moses the closest challenger. Rookie is likely Will, with Jake Arthur or Maka the closest rivals. Haze would be up there if he didn’t debut last year.