Professional sport is all about winning.
Let’s take a cliche that we heard numerous times recently as the pressure mounted on both Jason Demetriou and Brad Arthur. “The NRL is a results driven business”.
The jobs of players, coaches and even administrators are on the line when the team isn’t successful. These days it only takes the loss of a few consecutive days for the media to apply the pressure and for supporters to jump on board.
Without question, we follow our team to watch them win. Being in the stands is so much sweeter when we can sing the team song after the final siren.
But there is a quality that I look for in the team and the individuals which is as critical as any other when it comes to winning. I’m talking about the drive and desire to win.
Which brings me to last week.
I obviously enjoyed the Eels victory over the Cowboys. Like every other supporter, my family has celebrated the good patches and endured the bad times. However, as long as I can see that my team really wants to win and will keep giving it their all, they will always have my support.
Like many last Saturday, I was initially confused as to how the boys won. But as time passed I realised they won because they wanted it more.
The desire to win
The Eels held their nerve better than they had over the last couple of weeks. They chased kicks that might have been allowed to go dead in those losses. They supported better so that there was someone there to take that extra offload each time. There would have been no try scored if either Will Penisini or Joey Lussick didn’t present themselves for the pass when Dylan Brown attacked the line in the first half.
And though the defence was far from perfect, even looking like it could be breached at any moment during the first half, the cover kept turning up. From there the players confidence in the person next to them grew. The Eels were winning ugly in that first half, which is what a good team does, and then they brought the advantage home in the second half.
When it came to the embodiment of a winning attitude, you need look no further than Clint Gutherson. The King played an incredible captain’s knock. Gutho did everything he normally does and to be fair, that list would be enough on its own to fill a “From The Stands” post. He literally competes hard for 80 minutes every week.
But as strange as it may seem, I’m going to suggest that his greatest contribution against the Cowboys was what he didn’t do.
No, thank you Gutho!
Since Mitch has been injured, it’s my belief that Gutherson desire to win has caused him to try to do too much. He’s been taking on some of the work of the halves, and in doing so the effectiveness of his own game has been impacted. Ironically, it also hasn’t helped the halves to function as they should.
Last Saturday, Gutho’s desire to win wasn’t any less. What we saw was a competitiveness that was focussed on his own role as fullback and captain.
Yes, the King still busted his gut, but he let Dylan lead the team around the park, and we witnessed Brown’s best performance as a game manager. Gutherson’s involvement was as high as it always is, and against the Cowboys it bore a greater resemblance to the type of game we see from him when Moses is controlling the play.
In short, Gutho was back to being the King that we all know and admire. His game appeared more natural and he played brilliantly.
From what I could see from the stands, the Eels don’t win that game without Gutherson. Or more precisely, they don’t win it without Gutho being Gutho.
Moving on to this week, the Eels have to start again and reload for the clash with the Dolphins.
As last week showed, any team, even those depleted by injury, can turn up and get the job done. Time and again, the lesson has been delivered about Darwin’s heat. It’s true in any game of football, but the consequences are harsher in the tropical north – if you make errors and play without the ball at your end of the field, you are on the fast track to defeat.
So please boys stop those unforced errors in our own half (or quarter). Control the ball and don’t place yourselves under pressure. You’ve just bagged the game that many didn’t expect you to win, now get the job done when you’re in the drivers seat.
Shelley
Brilliant, Shelley, brilliant!
Looking at the game Saturday night had the last Cowboy try scored by Drinkwater not been scored it would have been a truer indication of the result.
I claimed immediately in the stands after the try that it was a lucky try. The Eels supporter sitting in front of me disagreed deciding it a quality try. He is entitled to his view but in my eyes the last tackle broke down until Scott Drinkwater was involved and he finished it off.
Shelley Gutho was your MVP and the points you made were valid. However I thought Dylan playing out of position and making 27 tackles and lots of running and everything else he did just shaved him.
John, I couldn’t decide whether that Cowboys try was brilliant or pure arse. I said that in the podcast. I guess it was like other instances where the ball hitting the ground disrupts a defence. In this instance, it was a longer distance try than what we normally see in that situation.
Drinkwater is in fine touch. Could be a Smokey for SOO.
He has become a far better player than I gave him credit for.
Great read Shelley.
So pleased for the turn around. We need to be consistent.
Still very vulnerable with our paper thin depth. Something that has been identified by many. Hoping for the best, that we aren’t cruelled by injury and suspension again.
Tks Shelley. People can say we needed the Cowboys to drop their standard for us to win that game, it is true that both teams had their demons, but just looking at or own performance it is fair to say that we needed some really high level stuff to compensate for the poor stuff. Gutho and Dylan worked hard at compensating, but right across the team there were inputs of good quality. As you say Shelley, we’ve just got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot with poor discipline, much of it unforced. Like it or not, we are a team with some inherent weaknesses and need good discipline and our share of luck to be a winning chance week in, week out.
Absolutely agree about the need for discipline. And throw in the patience of following the game plan.
Nice article Shelley, where Gutho lacks in pace off the mark and tackle busting power, he more than delivers in grit, heart and footy smarts.
The Darwin game, i’d be blocked if I expressed how much I really hate this idea. Of all places to spread the word. It might make commercial sense on paper but any financial advantage is negated by the toll it takes on our players. Darwin is not a place to be playing rugby league, what is the real cost to our team having to travel to the arse end of nowhere to play in conditions lawn bowlers would struggle to keep dihitrated.
Australia is a big place, I could throw a dart at a map and find a place where it would be equally commercially viable without torturing our team.
Joseph, we might block your language about the Darwin game, but not your sentiment. I have written about my desire to end taking a game to the tropics where we are now being drawn Queensland teams and the locals support our opponents. The cost to the team in terms of potential losses, and the physical toll, far outweighs the financial advantages. Parra is in the business of football, not tourism.
I can’t imagine this game is doing much for tourism Sixties, humidity is not my friend, I’m uncomfortable watching this game, being there would be a punishment for me.
It’s not just tourism associated with the game itself, and it does attract those who travel to far flung games. It’s also about awareness of the top end as a destination via the media surrounding the visit by the Eels. Then there’s the community engagement by the Eels. I get the components of the sponsorship, I just think that the recent struggles of playing Queensland teams up there, including lack of local support, don’t justify taking a home game there every year.
We need to tell the NRL that we play there against the Storm or Raiders and that’s it. Otherwise there is no point. All my friends in Brisbane laugh when they realise who we play in Darwin.
Namrebo, if only it were that simple. The broadcasters have preferences, the sponsors have their preferences, the NRL have theirs. There’s pretty much only one way of no longer playing a Queensland team in Darwin
Fair point and I wouldn’t object to that either!