Parramatta Eels 16
Dolphins 44
For those looking for something else to do with the rest of the footy season, both the Swans and the Giants are looking like contenders this year.
Whatever narrative you want to run with after that one, it is probably right. The coach can’t get through to the team anymore; well Brad Arthur’s post-game bake was an unprecedented and perhaps desperate shot at his side, a last resort when nothing else has worked. Jack Gibson’s theory of winning starts at the front office; we’ve got a top 30 that contains 27 players, one of which is on the extended bench of the Wentworthville Ron Massey Cup team. Want to take a shot at bench management? Club depth? The recorded chant ruining fan engagement with the game? It’s all there. This club is a sad, desperate clown show that I am embarrassed to have devoted so much time and energy to supporting.
I was going to save a bit for the ungrateful Darwin fans, who would rather cheer a team that didn’t even exist two years ago than support the club that has taken games up there for ten years, but they look like the smart ones right now.
Pfft. Stuff it, let’s just get to giving out F grades.
Clint Gutherson
1 – Fullback
Poor old Gutho might be cooked, given it is round 7 and he is already having to restart his knee by whacking it like a 20-year old Victa with a dodgy choke. He deserves better from his body and his teammates.
Bailey Simonsson
2 – Left Wing
Aside from Gutho, probably the only bloke who I wouldn’t be making walk home from Darwin. He still gets an F, but it is a loving F.
Will Penisini
3 – Right Centre
Running all over Tesi Niu for 30 minutes is one thing, but then being marked up with even numbers and barely laying a hand on him makes me think we might have overrated his defensive prowess.
Morgan Harper
4 – Left Centre
Poor bloke must be thinking “if I’m going to slog it down the M4 every day for training, at least I could be doing it for Blacktown Workers who might win a game every now and then”.
Sean Russell
5 – Right Wing
Most first grade wingers can score a try with three quarters of their body in row G, ours can dive over from the field of play with a few metres to the sideline and still put a foot in touch.
Daejarn Asi
6 – Five Eighth
If you were going to get knocked senseless, this was the game to do it in.
Dylan Brown
7 – Halfback
Contracts at good clubs: a set number of years for a set dollar value. Contracts at pathetic clubs: whatever the heck Dylan Brown’s deal is. Let’s hope he doesn’t have a get-out clause in there for whatever adjective you want to use for the team on Friday night.
RCG
8 – Front Row
He’d been run hard for the start of the year, and didn’t have it in the tank when we needed him. Maybe a rough off-field year is catching up with him, maybe he’s busted but he needs a rest that our pathetic depth coverage can’t afford him.
Joey Lussick
9 – Hooker
Maybe you don’t need an elite hooker to win a competition, but you need one better than what Joey Lussick has been delivering.
Junior Paulo
10 – Interchange
I’d give him some credit for being the only Eels forward to make over 100 metres, but half of them came from returning kickoffs and in the bench battle he got outclassed by Josh Kerr and whatever an Oryn Keeley is.
Shaun Lane
11 – Second Row
Lane looked like a tree falling in the woods as he crashed over for his try, and doubled as a fair simile for the Parramatta performance for the rest of the night.
Bryce Cartwright
12 – Second Row
I wish I had paid more attention to the warning signs: when Bryce Cartwright takes two of your first three kicks maybe things aren’t running to plan tonight.
J’maine Hopgood
13 – Lock
If we’re lucky these kinds of floggings will play Hopgood out of a Queensland jersey, because we’re going to need all the help we can get this year.
Luca Moretti
14 – Interchange
Nothing fizzles a budding bromance faster than dropping the ball with your first touch two weeks in a row.
Ryan Matterson
13 – Interchange
I’m not saying it is all Ryan Matterson’s fault, but how much has gone right since he took the suspension over the fine?
Joe Ofahengaue
16 – Prop
Another invisible performance.
Blaize Talagi
17 – Interchange
Nobody is truly an Eel until they’ve been initiated with a gutless underperformance against an opposition they should have beaten by 20, so congratulations on joining the club, Blaize. Get out while you still can.
I’ve seen plenty of gutless football out of the Eels in my 40 years, but this game was right up there. In those conditions, with those players out, how do you hold a 70/30 possession advantage and still end up the team that wilts in the conditions? How do a guy I’ve never heard of and a guy I swore went to Super League come on and turn a match while our $1.5m of representative players on the bench make about as much impact as Warren Smith’s third gag in ten minutes about how much water Brad Arthur drinks? It’s shameful.
Just wallow in this one. There is no salvation here. Wayne Bennett is going to take one look at this club and the $1.6m+ we are spending on front-rowers, and decide it is more likely the Eels would kill him than deliver him a final premiership. Brad Arthur is so out of ideas he might give the referee a serve post game, that is if this side ever gets close enough to another opponent to justify a crack at the officials. Let’s hope Zac Lomax’s ten days of cooling off have already passed.
Whatever.
Gol
Stats and images provided by NRL / Eels media
Thanks Gol. I thought after that performance you would be given another reprieve but I think it’s very much warranted. The Darwin conditions might have been tough but that is no excuse for the performance they dished out.
Not sure when the team gave up on Arthur, what a deflating time. Manly game will be a sight.
Feel sorry for Hopgood , Arthur has brought him down to a bash and barge level where a lot of his skills have been negated. Matterson and Lane were appalling, they dogged it.
To pop up with grades is a tip of the hat to sir it was pathetic.
In days gone by my weekend would of been ruined thankfully I don’t care enough anymore.
I think after 30 years supporting 15 of those as a paying member I realise now what a silly thing it is to invest in this club we are the worst over 70 years 4 premierships but a record that won’t be beaten is our 14 spoons I feel the 15th will come with in the next 2-3years failure is in the Parramatta DNA I was blind to this or just chose not to see it my only regret is indoctrination of my son to these failure of a club.
Onto next week sadly I’m hoping we get the stuffing kicked out of us and force the inept Muppets that run this club to saying farewell to BA we might just win he might get an extension anything is possible
The problem stems from it being a boys club. Players picked not based on performance but their popularity. And it is affecting our depth because there’s no reward for having a good game when the likes of Matto, Lane, Lussick all getting picked week in week out for way below average games.
We are in it for the first 15-20 mins but crumble and lose confidence as soon as we give a penalty away. Moretti drops the ball most weeks and that’s when our momentum turns but we still have him on the team. Odd
Very generous with some of those grades Gol. An F implies a lousy, failure of an attempt. I’m not sure half of our team event attempted to play.
In the words of my 7th grade History teacher: “This report card brings joy to no one.”
On the positive side of things. It can’t get any worse? Right?
… Right??
Brilliant hahaha…..Yeah Right…I think LOL
Only two things that made me smile this week in Rugby Leauge:
1) Watching Zac Lomax’s performance before prior to the ‘hello darkness my old friend…’ game
2) Reading this
Although the media is drumming up a story about Lomax doing an about-face, at least the humour in the grades remains …
You didn’t miss Gol, brutal but fair assessment.
The Darwin crowd did deserve a special mention, the club should reward them with another agreement so we can keep taking their favourite Queensland teams to town.
The club should send a choreographer in the offseason so they can really nail the Mexican wave next year.
I use Eels shopping bags at Woolies, I was too embarrassed to use them yesterday, todays mission is to remove the Eels sticker from my ute. I will always be a Parra man but right now I don’t want to be known as one. There has been times in the past where I felt less pride in the blue and gold, I’m feeling disgust at the moment which I rarely feel.
It was less painful being a supporter in the dark days, the losses were expected and the rare wins felt an almighty achievement. Rival fans pitied us and I would wear my colours with pride win, lose,lose or lose.
The higher the expectional the more it hurts. Lowering our expectations is not an option for me anymore, not without a premiership, us fans have done our time in the dark, we need to keep demanding more from the club. The dark days serve as a reminder that if nothing is said then nothing is heard.
Thank you sharing your pain.
I agree with all your grades. I thought the player reviews were very succinct. Few words but completely on point.
I’ve followed the Eels since 1976. It was a real treat to watch them rise to power. Even other supporters admired Cronin, Price, Kenny, Ella, Sterling, Grothe….
I wish that I could point to the future with my 8 year old son and tell him that there will be something bright and great coming along. Eventually. So that he could go through what I went through, in those fantastic days of the 80’s.
But after that game in Darwin against a severely understrength Dolphins (which wound up being the most depressing game I’d witnessed in almost 50 years) I am beginning to think that there is really no hope.
Not unless we burn it to the ground and start again. A bit like Japan after WWII. There is something built-in currently that is reeking of failure. It got masked by intermittent brilliance. But sustained success….the current set-up is no good and that has been well documented.
Nothing against Brad Arthur but he has been coach for longer than Brian Smith. Smith was a proactive innovator and often gambled with leftfield ideas on the game. Smith left admitting he had no more to contribute at the Eels.
Brad Arthur may have now hit a brick wall. It is probably time to give someone else a go. Whoever that may be. I think Brad Arthur has achieved some great things here. But everybody has a finite lifespan at a club.
Every supporter wants to see groundhog day kicked to the curb for good.
For God’s sake Eels, give us poor supporters HOPE for once
Even allowing for the lunacy around playing in Darwin at that time of the year it was as a very poor effort from the entire 17, against a severely weakened opposition and 17 F’s are more than warranted. Like many I’ve been following the eels for years, near on 60 years in fact and that would have to be one of the worse capitulations ever. How they can dominate field position and possession without coming up with adequate points is much too regular an occurrence. They look absolutely clueless at times close to the line and yet the dolphins looked dangerous in their first attacking set. For BA to say that he only has 5 players consistently putting in the effort that they are being paid for week on week sounds as though he’s at his wits end. Given R&R can’t fill a squad of 30 they’re unlikely to be moving on a dozen or so players so it might well become a case of seeing if another head coach can squeeze the lemon a tad more.
Fair grades, Gol. Abject capitulation. Where are the Swans playing next? Now that is a well run club. Maybe we could send our admins there for some in-servicing.
Spot on with the Grades, can we assume from Arthurs heated press conference its Gutho, Brown, Junior, Reg, Moses, and maybe Simmo at the moment as the handful of players that are full timers?
All the bonding sessions during the pre-season did wonders, Central Coast, Wisemans Ferry and passionate speeches from our 80’s legends at Crows Gerringong pub on what it means to be an Eel is wasted on this current group, the 17 the coach selects will be spending a fair bit of the 80 minutes under the goal posts this season!
You forgot:
BA – F
Trent Barrett – F
Murphy – F
Cayless – F
Antonelli – F
MON – F
McElduff – F
Saratinos – F
Nice try Gol but, you tarred every player with the same brush Probably a little unfair. Maybe you should prepare a report card to the supremos at NRL headquarters and vent your spleen for their poor lack of planning and player welfare. This situation in Darwin at this time of the year might fall into the category of player danger. The NRL was in the preseason involved in a coronial inquiry concerning Titmuss who died from heat stroke. Was there no lesson learned form that tragic experience.
Reading the supporters response and venting how long they have supported a losing team and how they could spend their time better should think about the Boston Red Sock whose fans had to wait 86 years between premiership wins. Yes, 86 years! Their fans showed an unprecedented loyalty and hope that over the past twenty years have been rewarded. Penrith were for years referred to as the Chocolate Soldiers an expression coined by Bobby Fulton and their fans rewards were just as scarce as Parramatta but, are now being rewarded for their loyalty. Every team goes through hard times, North Sydney Bears two premierships in nearly a hundred years. We had our golden period and it will return. What the Eels need is limpet fans who cling to them regardless just as the fans did at Red Sox and North Sydney and yes the Riff.
I have been a fan since 1958, my family before that and we have seen the worst of Parra. Try living through the Saint George era at the SCG with a fifty point thrashing twice a season.
What’s my point? Either you are rusted on Parra fan or you are not. Rusted on means you accept the good with the bad. Sure, it upsets me when we lose but, it’s just a game, our life span does not depend on it. Football hope is an anchor to the team and just like the Riff and the Red Sox our time will come. I agree with some comments and certainly it’s time for a change. Who can do a better job than BA? Bennett! Our roster is short, our best player is missing and true some players are no where near the best. RCG looks so tired, Lane is not ready for 80 minutes neither is Joey Lussick. We bought the slowest centre in the league and our best winger is plainly out of form. And, you are correct Gutherson is busted and we don’t have a back up fullback. We are in serious trouble and the light is getting dimmer – we just have to hang in there and support the team with encouragement – not ridicule.
Well said mate
Zero58, I applaud your unconditional loyalty to the club.
We all have our own way of expressing disappointment, some can except it more than others.
We haven’t won a title in 38 years, most of us here witnessed the 90’s and some very dark seasons thereafter. We are still here expressing our views, that’s pretty rusted on I think.
I for one need to vent, it might be my Italian blood. But I do know I’ll go to my grave loving this club.
Way to Joseph. The Raiders last premiership was 1994. Do we hear any bleating from the media over this? Every one seems to hate the Eels which makes my loyalty even stronger.
Our time will return – the big question – will we be there to see it?
Cheers Joseph
Zero58, I ask myself the same question, I haven’t been accused of being young in a long time.
Thanks Gol.
Really appreciate your efforts preparing these grades.
Arguably one of our most embarrassing losses.
A game that was there for the taking. Dolphins running out a near park footy side.
Just, goes to show what a good coach does. He gets the best of the players he has. He designs a game plan for the conditions that suits his players.
We have one player missing and our defence turns into a straw man. And the same old tired game plan.
It’s not just BA. Because it goes across every grade. Even NRLW last year. The fish rots from the head. The way we treat our juniors is damaging the clubs reputation. Player agents and media don’t trust the club. That’s on the hierarchy. BA will be the one that pays the price. He’s been set up to fail.
I am a limpet. There you go. I wrote it. I’m out and proud.
I AM A LIMPET!
I saw every home game, a a young supporter when the Eels won one game for the whole season. My mates and me were always hopeful.
I was hopeful until just before halftime. After half time, they just looked totally gassed.
One on one missed tackles Indictate this.
I wouldn’t have given all the players an F grade but there were more than a few there.
As for following the Swans or the other mob, I would never, ever would I consider watching an AFL game.
If you want to follow another team along with the Eels, the Two Blues playing out of Merrylands is a.local club. The Sydney RU, changed the name when Penrith collapsed but it is the same Parra Two Blues that began in the 1870s.
It is a rebuilding club, totally amateur, that give their all, each and every game.
At least you could travell to Eric Tweedale stadium and yell out, ‘Go Parra’.
Am I hopeful about Friday against Manly?
Yes.
Will I watch the whole game until the final whistle?
Yes.
I am an Eels supporter.
I am a limpet.
You rock, limpet.
I also, will never watch AFL; aka fumble ball aka permanent knock on, aka aerial ping pong. AFL is anathema to NSW. It’s a game for Victoria and the fact there is nothing else to do there!
My support is running very thin this year. Everytime I think we can win we get flogged?
This week – I will only watch a replay if we win. I’m starting to divest my interest after this last game. I might just follow the two blues lol
Watching the Eels is punishment enough right now. ALF, not even if it was the last sport left on earth.
Lol mate, that’s the spirit.
You are indeed – welcome to the club.
You are indeed. Welcome to the club.
This!
Thankyou for the grades. It makes me feel better to know I’m not the only one who is disappointed in the time and effort I’ve put in to the club. A circuit breaker is needed and I know full well the board won’t have the balls to do it.
We will continue around in circles until the end of time.
Tks Gol, I know what the F really stands for, that’s the beauty of holding the pen, you can express yourself in all sorts of ways.
This week v Manly, we need to defend the early wide shifts, if the forwards defend well for say 50 minutes but continually have to engage at our end of the field due to leaking from our own half, I can see a repeat of the Raiders game. Darwin probably adds to this theory, but with a range of different factors. The Cowboys getting flogged adds a bit as well. We need a plan for this game.