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Round 5 sees the Parramatta Eels on the road to Canberra with all three grades facing the Raiders. Sixties and Forty20 kick off the show with re-signing news for the NRLW with young backrower Boss Kapua inking a long term deal with the club.
The Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup are still looking for a breakthrough win as their winless start to 2024 continues into this week. It will be tough asks for both squads though with the Raiders in top form across both the Flegg and Cup. The boys look at how the underdog Eels can spring upsets this week – as unlikely as that may be.
Brad Arthur has made a string of changes to the team that fell to the Wests Tigers but were they the right calls? Is less more for the Moses-less Eels against the Raiders? With both teams looking to bounce back this week the one thing that is certain is that both the Eels and Raiders will be desperate to secure a win.
I hope BA goes back to the previous interchange approach. But I also wonder with Carty out whether Reg and Junior got the instruction that they’d play big minutes, and as a consequence had to play within themselves to conserve energy. Junior had a bit of a shocker, but Reg also had less sting in his workload.
I agree on Sivo needing to be dropped. I don’t think it’s a mental issue, I think he’s just being lazy and not putting in. Not seeking to make it personal, but Sivo is twice the size of Charlie Staines who is awful in defence at the best of times, yet Sivo just gave up in tackles.
Hoping Lane finds more of his groove. He was a lot busier last week, without doing anything special. But with Carty out, we need more than someone who just takes basic hit ups and is ok in defence.
I agree about Lane. I’d like him to find something more. But I don’t believe any forward would be asked to play within themselves. They simply didn’t produce last week.
It’s impossible to now win a game without a recognised half-back in the NRL. Brown is more of a run first player and Talagi played fullback and centre all last year. It’s no wonder we looked lost last week
Certainly not impossible – that just an excuse that the bad teams use. Brad said it himself in his recent media interview, if more people owed their jobs against tigers and push up with dyl we win that tigers game. Now that Moses it out players have to be extra disciplined at playing their role instead of trying to do too much cough junior cough to make up for Moses absence. If they play their role well, Gutho snd dyl can win enough games for us. It really is up to our defence to scratch and claw some wins. If our defence can’t do that we pretty know we weren’t up to much anyway this season.
Storm have two 6”s
John, that’s true and it’s why I just want Dylan and Blaize to be themselves.
I can’t disagree. Dyl’s errors last week came from him trying to be more like Moses and pushed passes and tip ons that were unwise. But he created chances with his running game and was let down with no support.
We just need both to be themselves this week. Dylan being something he’s not detracts from his natural advantages.
How frustrating is it for supporters, not the first year where the club has less than 30 players signed to the full time squad, and exacerbated by a distinct lack of strengthening the backline, which has been an obvious problem for 3/4 years. Simmonson has been decent but even he wasn’t a regular NRL player when signed, so few signings outside of Simmonson.
Again, if it’s been blatantly obvious what is needed, why wasn’t more done, is it the accountants running a strict value for positions, which doesn’t work when demand outstrips supply. No one from the club seems willing to provide answers to the problem, outside of BA they are almost silent
the fact it’s not just nrl tells me it’s unfortunately not just a money thing. There is something wrong with those in recruitment across the club because they haven’t been able to identify modern the outside back profile that almost every other club has (we instead signed cini, simonsson and Harper in last few years). we also haven’t aggressively attacked the juniors of other teams (eg warriors, panthers etc) that are chock a block with outside backs looking for opportunity and instead bandied about this vague notion of being a development club. Even if we sign lomax, We still have problems in the backs as TCT touched on. Ideally we move on sivo, don’t resign cini and bring in lomax + 2 other solid options (eg Schiller) and the a gun junior. Let them all compete and get better amongst eachother.
Here Comes another spoon we are awful.