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South Sydney’s reign of dominance over the Eels extended into 2022 with a 30-12 belting of the Blue & Gold. The Rabbitohs were barely hampered by the extremely wet conditions and comprehensively outplayed the Eels in all aspects of the game.
Sixties and Forty20 discuss the battle for consistency ailing the team and how their core playmakers failed to step up tonight. The loss means that Parramatta missed the opportunity to open up a monster 3-win gap between 6th and 7th while their platform to push into the Top 4 becomes that much weaker.
I said it before the match and I’m not Nostradamus.
Every man and his dog said that they would tear our flanks apart and that Johnston, Walker and co would have a field day but it’s those same poor fans who say “no we have turned the corner- it will be different this time”
Why was so easy for us all to predict -?perhaps we should commit what some would say as the ultimate sin and place a blowtorch to the coaching staff ?
It’s ok for BA to lament that they didn’t turn up but our edges have been deficient for years ! When is it going to change ?
There is a reason why Souths continually beat us easily and it’s a deficiency in our game – fix it !
Or do we continually peddle the same
old worn lines of “ BA doesn’t drop the ball “ ??
It must have been so difficult for a professional coach like Shane Flanagan to sit there and realise that he can’t get a gig in the NRL yet BA can make the same mistakes for years without any accountability.
When do we come to a point when we decide being a good bloke isn’t just good enough and we aim higher ?
Make no mistake , THIS is our premiership window and it will close very quickly.
Until we fix the same problems, we will continue to muddle our way through the season as the engine who may have but just never ever got there.
As I write this, I envisage all the excuses, we are 6 th not 16 etc etc etc …people seriously, if you can’t see that we are just treading water, year after year then you need to get your eyes checked or do we just rinse and repeat until we next play Souths and predict the same results ?
100% Spark. It’s got me beat how the coaching staff don’t see what is going to happen, and does happen with our defence on our right. Papali’i went missing tonight in defence, lost count of the number of times he was defending in the middle, or closer to Lane. The only time I noticed him on the right was in attack. Any chance we can send Mahoney over to the dogs for the remainder of the season, the can give us JMK in return, at least JMK runs, engages the markers etc, Mahoney does SFA, just stands and delivers. Maybe it is time for BA to step down.
It’s astounding isn’t it that time and time again our defence is found out and nothing changes. It just seems so easy to get an overlap against our ‘structure’ and you don’t even have to run any kind of play just have a pass along your backline and we are always short. Sometimes it’s not just by one man but by two or more. Our defence is rubbish. Our attack when we don’t offload is rubbish and our window is closed. We were basically playing for a chance at the top four and produced rubbish yet again. Our coach has no ideas and I am guessing has lost the dressing room. You can always tell in the first ten minutes if we have turned up by our defensive line speed and yet again tonight it was non existent. We are actually becoming quite boring to watch. Hit up after hit up maybe turn a forward underneath. If we are In their half we might do a slow predictable backline play that never results in an overlap otherwise it is time for another hit up and then we kick. Yawn.
Please Brad if you do love this club do what’s best and leave, you have reached your ceiling.
None of you ever point finger in right direction , moses cannot run a game , time after time the team fails from his lack of patience and direction , most over rated half in comp , then theres dylan ( now and again ) brown , if your halves cant run a game your done ,million dollar-men , your kidding ,anyway you will be stuck with them for years ,so no trophy’s whilever that halves combo runs the show . Seriously do any of you get it !!! It all starts and ends with the halves , no patience or direction no chance !!!!!!!!
I agree but you can also throw the 9 in as well.
Mahoney is the problem, not Moses. Every time Moses kicked he was under pressure. Souths were penalised 2 or 3 times for moving up too quickly, and the only reason is because Mahoney won’t run the ball. Cook will step out of dummy half and keep our defence in check, Mahoney just stands and passes. At least he is the Bulldogs problem next year.
Definitely agree. Mahoney is a liability slow service, entrant passes, wrong choices, poor kicks, missed tackles and Zero running game. He and Moses are not in sync. Considering how important the 9 is to the 7 Mahoney is letting Moses and the team down. Not sure what Ennis is doing but maybe he’s helping the enemy…
Moses is hot n cold his whole career , cannot run a game and thats a definite , most overpaid over rated half in comp , nil composure !!!!
100% Spark. 9 years in the job and BA gets away with poor performances every year. How many times do we have to slump, play dumb as BA always says, not front load our efforts as BA says before he’s accountable? Why does he always lose allot of assistant coaches? His game plans are one dimensional, no plan b, no variation. If we fall behind early the team panics, plays catch up. He then picks opacic on the bench???? How was he going to work him into the game? To me he looks out of ideas. He’s played his role is rebuilding our club but that’s all he’s got, we have to move in. And if ciraldo really is holding out for the Parra job, then our board is not doing its duty if they don’t atleast have a chat to him
Agree with your comments guys and it was yet another diabolical game. Their defence, commitment and steel just aren’t of top 4 standard, Who do we have in that team who refuses to be beaten, someone, or better still a few, who can rally and lead the team when things aren’t going to plan? Lack of structure, poor decisions, ill discipline and panic plays are much too common. The coach doesn’t play but has to take a good whack of responsibility for how his side is so flat so often. It doesn’t matter if they beat the storm and the panthers every time they meet if they struggle into the 8. Too many ifs about this team. Tom O on the bench? Was a back under an injury cloud? I don’t get it. Gutho at the pressers reminds me of Tim Mannah in the dark old days. Sitting there showing no pain for the loss and parroting what the coach says. I hated it back then but I hate it so much more now.
Agreed Trapped; to me this seems a bit like déjà vu- we can’t get up each week and our defence seems worse than before.
Coaching staff need to be asked some questions along with the playing leadership group.
To say I am disappointed is an understatement- we deserve better as fans and to me there is an issue on field with leadership and execution and the coaching needs to be asked some questions. If you don’t win the middle you are going to struggle and we did again tonight. In some ways it’s a repeat of some games from 2021.
To me we are somewhat worse than last year in that our defence has not improved overall. Yes we have beat Melbourne, Penrith and Easts but we’ve been crap against other top 8 teams. Our leadership isn’t there each game.
Some games it appears as though the team isn’t playing for each other.
No – the seasons not over but like last year we are not a top four team. If we don’t make a dent in the finals the club need to make some calls going forward.
Tks men. That was like a ship with a one centimetre hole, slowly and surely it sunk. Different things will be discussed, but if I could throw in how Souths played with energy, focus and resolve for 80, they just copied the Panthers. Their line speed killed us, the formula is usually line speed and slow our ruck but their game plan concentrated on cutting down our space and time, laying all over us wasn’t needed. Get in our face, and in the first half they made only a couple of errors and set up the mood, while we made a p..s poor error in the first set and played right into their intent.I must say however a lot went Souths way just to rub it in while they were so on song, but winners make their own luck. Our response wasn’t limp but it wasn’t enough to stand up to the challenge, our field position was diabolical, and we made errors in our own half that probably kept the thinking at ‘play safe and ruck it out’, predictable and contained by line speed.Like the team, I’m out of ideas and exhausted.
Absolutely the one thing that stands out for the Eels is our lack of line speed.
Cody Walker would absolutely pray to meet the Eels in the semis because we give them so much time. The Rabbits second try was a case in point, how Jaxson Paulo got that kick away is absolutely rediculous and analysis showed a defensive line just jogging up in fractured line. That play should have been shut down by a professional defensive unit but we are all over the place.
We have the players ! We just need a professional defensive structure.
I thought you guys in the pod were spot on. 60s said it, the team lacks footy iq. When they need to execute a change in game plan, they either don’t recognise it or bottle it.
Come September all signs point to us just making up numbers. So frustrating.
Thanks for the reaction pod guy’s, always a little cathartic.
Just wondering why Nathan Brown not suggested as a possible inclusion next week or this week?
90% of us love BA me included but what on earth is gained by opacic on the bench? And JA as concussion sub?
We have Nathan Brown we could have really used his leg speed in behind the ruck and aggressive defence.
Cartwright who is a point of difference in attack.
Wiremu or Ogden who could at least soak up cheap minutes to rest Junez or RcG and instead we use Opacic on the bench….what?
Mitch Rein should start next week. Reed off the bench after 25 mins.
Same principle as matto coming off bench, only uses 1 change, sends a message and prepares us for life after reed.
Poor loss. Low standards of personal accountability and seemingly lack of game plan to blame.
No offloads, poor kicking choices (no torpedos, all to Johnston – why not kick to paulos wing?)
Sivo and Blake both could have looked for more carries. Papalii wasn’t great, but felt marata deserved some praise he didn’t stop trying. We will miss him in 23.
As a team we need to understand that winning the premiership is every game, every tackle, every pass, its week in week out football. Its not lets hope we get into the top 4/8 and then turn it on. We cant turn up week about and decide to have a go, defencively we are weak and get found out time and time again, with no fix in sight. Not good enough by half
The whole setup is so stale it’s almost stagnant. We need new voices and new ideas to unlock the potential. The Cowboys have shown how and reasonably quickly as well.
BA says the effort was there then he says people need to own their individual effort?Cook made Reed look amateurish.Our kicking game was atrocious not one torpedo in these conditions just so predictable.We looked like a B division side playing an A side.We also have too many players on elite money that are Average and don’t have any football intelligence seriously not one of our players should be anywhere near origin.A shakeup needs to happen Reed and Sivo need to go along with a couple of big names a statement needs to be made that this is not acceptable.
Couldnt agree more average players on big money but its going to get worse , moses re signing long term ,same dylan theres 2 million , gutho 3 years 800+ , same rcg ,junior , matto 600+ ,hodgson wouldnt be cheap , lane needs resigning and penisi ,so thats our lot till 2025 ,thats the boards fault , no footy nous whatsoever !!! The worse part about is its a terrible spine for at least 3 more seasons with no money for others , 2013 revisited , back to when the salary cap was in a similar place , good luck with that mess , looks like projector time again , the one thing you can be sure of the board will survive !!
Still keen to keep Reed 700 k anyone😂😂😂
We need some mongrel.We need players with footy smarts.We need a coach that isn’t a one trick pony.I am sick of our below par consistently bad performances.God help us supporters.
John seriously Sivo coming along nicely.You will be old and grey before he makes another line break.Since the injury at manly he’s regressed greatly.Gutho and Reed need a stint in Regies So does our Coach.
Parra seemed to be bogged down as per the conditions while Souths glided over the field. Other than that nothing more I can add to what has been said.
I hate to disagree, but the boys actually adjusted their defence on the edges and were successful and the the middle was strong. The trouble was always going to be keeping that up for 80 minutes.
Much of the damage was done in the first half when South’s were given every 50/50 bunker call. One was a push in Simmonson’s back by Johnson which was called ‘incidental’. This gave South’s another 6 tackle set on our goal line.
The other howler was tackling Gutho after he kicked in the in goal but wasn’t given a penalty try because he had already ‘committed to the tackle’. That’s just plain misinterpretation of the rules. Going into the half 12-14 up would of not have panicked Moses to attempt that tap on that Johnson intercepted for a try on half time.
This game was all about Latrell’s come back and his contention for Origin. That was all the commentary and the post game headlines are about. I’m sick of the NRL business destroying the game I grew up with for the sake of a narrative.
Totally disagree. Yes there were calls that were a little suspect but when Johnson went over in the 3rd minute you knew we were all over the place. It’s a
Bloody miracle that they didn’t score more tries in that first half such was our ineptitude.
We played like a cup side and were blown off the park. Souths have nothing and I am willing to bet that they will go nowhere this year because, well they can’t play the eels every week, much to their disappointment!
Exactly Dragons put 40 on south’s who have been average without Reynolds but they put 30 on us with ease.
Not sure what you’re disagreeing to. You’ve said that there were howlers in the bunker. You’ve said that Johnson should have scored more but didn’t.
The reason why Johnson didn’t score more tries after his first isn’t a miracle, it’s because Simonsson and Penisini did a much better job of containing him late in the second half.
The disallowed penalty try was when the match was lost.
It all stems from defence. That’s what has made the Broncos come from a last placed side to a contender. They did two things – they got fitter (despite massive grumbling from the players) and they reorganised their defence and made defence their bedrock. Which basically goes hand in hand.
I am very close to this organisation and know these two pillars are what this team are build on. The Eels have a fantastic list but this list won’t last forever. The mangagement need to get their collective heads out of their backsides and fix it up before it’s too late. Until they embrace both of these, they will continue this yo yo effect of great wins and disappointing losses. You can’t win a premiership on one out plays, a centre field bomb and effort. It doesn’t work but it seems that’s all BA has. There has to be an evolution.
I fear that by the time there is a mutual parting with BA and a realisation that he has taken them as far as he can, we just won’t have the personnel to compete and that will be so unfair to a new coach.
Look at Justin Holbrook. Now Justin is twice the coach that BA would ever be but has a list that couldn’t compete with a cup side. A straight swap between the two clubs would do wonders for both. BA would build the Titans team to a point and Holbrook would take us a long long way.
Instead, Holbrook will be sacked and BA, no doubt will be extended for another couple of years ….
The first offload error, that was the loss of attitude for the game.
It was so obvious watching Rabbitohs, they had numbers on the advantage line with short passes through the middle and then run out wide out flanking our edges or kick to corners and defend strongly. Whilst we were still using our dry weather expansive game. With Junior and Reg running onto the ball deep behind the advantage line and getting smashed at the advantage line. Just basic wet weather footy the Rabbits used to beat us. We were too stupid to adapt.
I thought second half surely the message would get out… nothing.
Our back five were mostly invisible or ineffective coming out of our end. I think they made some runs late in the game to make stats a bit better.
Our service out of dummy half is too slow and Reed doesn’t have a running game.
The ref not using as an excuse but he awarded a try to the winger Paulo when it was obvious he was out.. luckily it was overturned. And no action on the play the ball until end of second half. Latrell head shot on Sivo no action taken..did anyone else see it?
Another very disappointing Jekyll and Hyde performance by our team.
Sivo- not even shoulder/neck then up, bang on cheek/eye. Bunker calls them all year. Wasn’t with force but that hasn’t mattered in the new era.Other interesting stuff(curiosity not whingeing)- Papali’i’s push, Ilyias had caught the ball, feet still on the ground when contact made, perfect example of when a player could feint, run, pass. I’m sure the ‘must make a tackle’ thing is when the player is actually kicking, ruling out the Rambo Gibbs missiles and the like. Wingers regularly get pushed out near the corner post, so illegal from now on? The Penisini strip, he must have switched off as he was tackled, momentum 100% stopped, on his back on the ground, the refs don’t always call held when it is black and white, I think Cummins didn’t even know what happened. 50/50 to the Bunnies.
Its you guys who distance themselves from making the coaching staff accountable for the team’s failures.
Its you guys who give credit to the pathways system when its broken and we’re at the bottom in the 20s cup.
You people aren’t a true cross section of how the bulk of eels fans are feeling right now.
The club look at this and think everything is great.
When will you make this coach of 9 years of failures accountable ?
If we don’t win both of our next two games how about we do a tip-sheet episode on the future of BA. That’s the issue here. His poor tactics, his awful bench rotations and lack of coaching intellect to get the team up for every game.
💯 Avenger.