What to write about after the disappointment that was last Friday?
I am being disingenuous if I ignore it. It was not good enough. The team competed for twenty minutes but from there it was no contest.
Obviously the inherent reasons behind the defeat must be rectified. There’s no reason why the club can’t fix things, but it can only be done if the right people, the people with the foresight and skill, are in control.
Herbie in reverse gear scored a long range try
It’s time for the club to be pro-active. The Eels cannot afford to be in a holding pattern for another 12 months like this one. They have to make things happen.
We all remember the struggles of the 2018 season. It was tough to be positive back then, but strange as it may seem I had great confidence in the club turning things around. This was largely because Bernie Gurr was at the helm and following the review process he knew what had to happen and put the people and processes in place to fix it.
Do the Eels have the right people in place to fix it? If we don’t know the answer to that question now, we soon will!
The issues with the unbalanced squad must be addressed now, along with an honest reflection about how the club got into the current predicament. No excuses. Just do it. If these issues are not resolved then my sentiments, and those of tens of thousands of other supporters, will be even more direct.
Right now, there’s not too much that we as supporters can do about this season. We can’t fix the roster. I wondered whether boycotting the match would send a message to the Eels but the truth is that my family is passionate about rugby league and passionate about the Eels.
Rhys Walsh tore the Eels to pieces
When the season is over, we miss it.
We miss our drives up and back. We miss catching up with friends before the game. We miss cheering every brilliant try along with thousands of other supporters in the stands.
So come Friday night, we’ll be there because we want to be there. We’ll be cheering the team, giving every bit of encouragement to them in the last home match of the season.
Eels supporters are famous for getting behind our club through good and bad times and love being at the matches.
But I have an important message to those who hold the power to change our fortunes – where the club appears to be heading is not good enough. Don’t dare take supporters for granted.
Shelley
Well said Shelley as some have said we need to be proactive
As always,Shelley nailed it. Parra, fix it and fix it quick. Second chance card no longer in play.
To understand this year we have to go back to the decision of the NRL to advance the entry into the competition of The Dolphins from 2024 to 2023. We’d got ourselves into the difficult position of having all of our mjor players coming off contract over a two year period, most of them in the same year. We thought we had an extra year to sort that out before there was a new buyrr of rugby league talent, massivrely inflating the market. In the event we were able to hang onto most of last year’s grand final squad but couldn’t possibly retain them all. We lost some outstanding defensive players and replaced them with young men whose main strength was carrying the ball. The result was an improvement in points scored under Trent Barret’s contribution but a reversion to the days when we were very easy to score against out wide. I do regret our failure to retain two outstanding defensive players who wrre not among our highest earners, Ray Stone and Tom Opacic. It is players of that stamp tbat we need to recruit.
We should also note that the leading sides have now learned to live with a game with fewer penaltues and scrums. They attack from ecerywhere with a variety of passing and kicking types. The co-ordination looks like balllet at timrs. We need to be a lot faster and bolder.
I’m not defeatist. We have a lot of talent and courage in our playing group, some rare abil8ty in our coaching staff. Wd need to think very carefully about recruitment and the tweaking of playing style. Avoiding some infuriating suspensions woukdn’t hurt either.
Well said. Unfortunately I don’t believe we have the people we need to make the changes necessary.
You know, such in the ineptitude of our defence I reckon that we should replicate what my under 10 coach used to say to the wingers.
“Stay on your opposite winger and use the sideline. Don’t worry about what is happening inside you just stay on your wing EVERY SINGLE PLAY !!!
It sounds simple but I reckon that if our wingers followed this simple advice we would defend most of the tries we let in !
EVERY team knows the Eel wingers come in and leave their opposition winger free.
Sometimes the easy , most basic thing is forgotten by the professionals.
If certainly not taught or instructed by the coaching staff as it’s a deficiency replicated time and time and time again.
Perhaps we do have to go back to basics ?
The last line said it all really , “ don’t take supporters for granted “, there’s a sense that if we are a big club other than numbers, then the front office really has to start making changes.
Big clubs sign elite players and pay them accordingly, can’t continue to shop at Big W if competitors are shopping at Ralph Lauren, quality wins out
It seems this corrosive money ball strategy has been taken from the nrl team and adopted in nrlw aswell. There’s no doubt it can work well for particular positions (particularly back-rowers and wingers) and at particular moments but is unsustainable long term. Unfortunately the parra management people seemsto only now be realising it is unsustained long term
as much as I want parra to be accountable and proactive/agile in dealing with issues I have learnt to not get my hopes up. Everything from contract negotiations, tactical decisions re: style of play, and management decisions is slow, drawn out and reactionary. We came into into the year with limited nrl ready backline options, players injured, matto suspended, a top 30 not filled out and no one sought to fix those issues in off season. We knew we had a horrible draw re: playing teams off byes, no bye during origin and 5 day turnarounds etc but the parra management did nothing really about it. Instead, our ceo retrospectively complained in a letter to members about our unfair draw when he should have done more before the season to raise it to public and nrl attention) and avoid it. One or more of the head coach, ceo, recruitment manager and head of football need to take accountability
It seems parra management is content with just playing finals and getting to gf was a bonus notwithstanding we got spanked and later humiliated by Penrith players. I’ve heard from ba that he didn’t make the players re watch the grand final. I don’t know if that’s true or not or why not but accountability starts with not being content with making a gf and acknowledging that the style of play we had used over last few years got us spanked in finals as we still were fragile in defence and had no real strike in backline.
It’s not over yet. Agree 100% with the rebuild.
I’m not holding my breath in any meaningful introspection or change on the behalf of the club, nor am I expecting anyone to take responsibility.
I’m sure we’ll all get an email telling us that the season was disappointing, yada yada, followed by something like … Stay Blue & Gold … or some other meaningless platitude
We need out side backs big time
Thats the problem though, I feel for too long the club has taken the supporters and the money we put into the club has been taken for granted. Unfortunately I can’t see that changing
I think Friday’s game will tell us where the club will be next year. Let’s face it, this year is more or less gone, but as fans we want to see the passion in the players that will get them the comprehensive victory this week that they are capable of. Or will they fold because they are a confidence team without any confidence at the moment?
We need the team to be in a position where they have confidence every week no matter the opponent. Confidence that they know what they need to do and have the mental and physical skills to play to the game plan. Too often over the past couple of years we have seen erratic seasons because of this lack of mental toughness. This is something we need to get right for next season. It’s clear that the best teams have this – we certainly do not.