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The Parramatta Eels had the Manly Sea Eagles on the ropes in Round 8 before a series of individual lapses from missed tackles to outright manic moments with Maika Sivo losing the plot. Sixties and Forty20 review an extremely frustrating loss in which the Eels had the game plan and had the momentum to spring the upset save for the above indiscretions and miscued goal-kicking.
Manly’s early shifts were nullified and their speedsters on the edges contained as the Eels executed the gameplan in the first half – so what went wrong in the second stanza? The boys call out the individuals who opened the door for Manly.
How did Ethan Sanders fare in his debut? Pretty damn well as it turns out. Sixties and Forty20 laud the young playermaker’s efforts at Brookvale – even if he got a welcome to the NRL moment care of Haumole Olakau’atu.
Hi Sixties, sorry if I have missed it, is Ethyn Martin injured at the moment?
Cheers,
Tony
He’s playing Ron Massey Cup for Wenty.
Very disappointed with that sivo brain fart. Really cost us. Unfortunately Lane too needs to be reprimanded. As a senior player he hurt the team by not lifting and not even attempting defensively. He’s been protected for way too long. Should have been dropped from round one.
Good recap of the loss. Parra seems to really show that rugba leeg is a game of two halves.
Sacking BA say in favour of a certain oft mentioned QLD based coach without fixing the systemic issues would, at best, paper over the issues. As I mentioned last week a extensive rebuild is sadly needed.
I went to the NSW cup game last week and didn’t think Sanders showed a lot. Then again, there always have been lower grade players whose games go up a notch when elevated to first grade. He was quite good. I know people will bemoan his leaving but I don’t see how the club can compete given lack of quality halves.
The decline of Sivo is actually sad. He played well in cup last week and watching him run over Turbo I thought “ He’s back!” and then that tackle. You could be right that there is no fixing his mental approach to the game.
At least some respite with the bye next week.
Wish I had known you were at Wenty Park mate. Would have been easy to say hello. Not too many there last week. It’s been suggested to me that Parra is playing a game strategy (forward dominant) that can’t compete with the faster, explosive teams like Brisbane – or any team with fast backs. My concern is that the roster doesn’t contain players of exceptional pace and the forwards aren’t performing as expected. I don’t believe that any coach would get better results without significant recruitment. And the prep for this week had been exceptional.
Bree, he needs time in NSW Cup. No argument from me.
Ethan Sanders is going to be as good as people have predicted. It does seem strange that we couldn’t find a way to map a future for him with us.
Agree Noel. Ethan’s debut and Matto 41 tackles No misses were highlights. It was just BAs stubbornness that Ethan wasn’t selected earlier.
But, again only 1 forward running over 100m, too many errors, missed tackles. Another capitulation.
Lane and Sivo must be dropped if BA is to salvage any credibility. Failure to act will be the final nail in his coffin.
I agree that both players should be dropped. I can see options for Lane. Who would you bring in for Sivo? Seriously?
Thanks guys, didn’t watch the game, was on a plane. Kinda glad I didn’t watch it to be honest.
Are we likely to see any further recruitment this year before the end of the season?
I wish I could answer that. We all know it’s needed. Upgrades don’t solve selection options
This team is full of BS! I will die for BA?
The off season team building was a sick joke. A sick joke played on the fans!
I’ll discipline after BA called them sheepish part time team.
We gave up two weeks in a row! Yes we were down 1 player 20 minutes But that’s just an excuse!
BA is on his last Legs.
BA cannot get a win when we are up two weeks in a row.
BA’s created a soft, comfortabke, unaccountable team. That clearly doesn’t respect him, don’t listen and don’t respond.
BA refuses to have tough conversations with poor performers
Lane, Sivo need to go back to Harold Mathews. They don’t respect their team mates and don’t deserve to play in cup or NRL.
BA you need to act!
BA is cooked
Sivo and Lane back to park football (not matt’s lol)
pete. It’s hard to imagine BA isn’t having tough conversations with poor performers.
Actions speak louder than words, what’s BA meant to do when the only action he can take is to drop an under performing talented player for a less talented under performing player.
Agree Joseph,
But I’m only going on what BA said. He said he wouldn’t talk with Sivo because “he knows” it was stupid.
He also said he didn’t speak to the players after last week’s capitulation. He said they were sheepish and he let it sit…
He also reportedly didn’t watch the ’22 GF replay with his players. BA wanted to treat the lead up to “just another game”
Dolphins thrashing BA allowed the players have a light warm up because of heat/humidity. Dolphins had a full warm-up and had all the running in the second half.
BA is too soft on the players. He lacks support of a decent HOF. So he has to be softly softly. That creates this mess we see on the field.
It’s frustrating for all of us pete, I’ve mentioned on this site recently, it’s impossible when players have leverage over a coach. And that leverage was created by those sitting behind desks.
Pete, do you honestly think that BA wants minimal selection options? Name your team for the next match.
Sixties I haven’t been head coach for 10 years. BA has! If BA cannot attract players (other than Lomax an outlier) for depth. Then he has to go and he can take HOF with him. We clearly lack the right people running this club.
I have supported BA for 10 years. Until what I saw I Darwin and what he’s said since.
We’ve all identified the problems with the roster for a few seasons.Yet, nothing has been done. Meanwhile, all other clubs signing players non stop? Surely alarm bells must be ringing?
Pete, I hadn’t been to training much since preseason. I can’t say what had been happening around those losses. But I made a point of getting there after the Darwin debacle. I wanted to see how BA and the players responded. As I stated in the pod, it was one of the best preps I had ever seen. The first half was the execution of that. Six line breaks to nil. Then individuals missed defensive assignments or in Sivo’s case had a couple of brain explosions. It was frustrating to watch how they prepared and to then watch that.
Eels training is too easy.
They need a shake up
BA gave them easy training at Darwin. Was that where he made them into a part time 40 minute football team?
Heads must roll
“You cannot win with dumb footballers” – Jack Gibson
Another failure off the field for HOF at Parra!
Bennett is going to Souths 2025?
Souths have just signed Lewis Dodd from St Helens. Dodd kicked the field goal to sink Panthers in world club cchampionship. A gun half.
Christian Woofe – Dolphins was looking into signing him. But, somehow signed with Souths out of the blue? Could he have been told the new coach is confirmed as Wayne Bennet.
Our discipline has been poor all year. We make errors or give away dumb penalties at the worst possible times, consistently relieving any pressure we’ve built on the opposition or handing them momentum.
Our focus across all teams should be on defence and discipline first – nothing else is relevant until we get both of those elements of our game to an elite level.
A very experienced player drops knees in a tackle and cops four weeks; a young talent gropes a woman in a bar a n d gets seven weeks; a highly paid player accepts a three week ban rather than pay a fine of a few thousand bucks; a very powerful player can’t stay on the field because of l azy, irritating fouls on opposition players. Are we the least disciplined club in The NRL? The offenders are not inexperienced players, finding their way. They are people who have been very well taken care of by the club.
Noel, I highlighted last year that individuals cost the team 22 weeks of suspension due to stupid acts. The team themselves gave away few penalties across the season.
BP, in 2023 we were near the top of the ladder in terms of conceding penalties or set restarts. In fact, BA and the coaches were constantly into the players about discipline. An example was conceding faster play the balls to the opposition because the messaging from the referees boss during the preseason leading into 2023 was that ruck infringements would be tightly policed. What a joke! It went out the window in round one when Klein allowed the Storm to slow up the play the ball to ridiculous proportions. So the trouble was, we conceded few penalties but received minimal calls in return. In other words, there were few penalties in any Eels game, indicating both teams were disciplined, but they weren’t! Fans called for BA to get the team to wrestle and slow up the ruck. As soon as they started competing with other teams in the back half of the year, they started getting nabbed.
However, no doubt individuals were guilty of offences that led to the Eels having the highest weeks of suspension in 2023 and it cost the team big time. No doubt.
The discipline wasn’t good against Manly but in retrospect there were tough calls against Parra, even more specifically, Penalties that should have come Parra’s way. Turbo offside in the Penisini binning. Holding down and leg lifting in the tackle all game. Joe O penalised for a shoulder charge when his arm was playing at the ball carrying arm, Dylan penalised for not being square in the lead up to Manly’s first try when he forced an error and the replay proved he was clearly locked in. Finally, the tackle on Lane was so bad that it should have been a send off. Two players suspended for two weeks is proof of that.
That said, the offence by Sivo is inexcusable and that lack of discipline from him was dumbfounding. I’m stunned he was only fined given his record.
Awesome gents, thank you.
The blow torch will be firmly on BA. If it was possible to roll Wayne Bennett, Craig Bellamy and Jack Gibson as one, they wouldn’t do any better than BA with this roster.
Find me one coach who doesn’t want the best available talent and depth in their roster. Some fans blame BA for our roster, what a load of crap, BA would have a wish list, the club instead signs projects for BA to complete.
We had a chance and still have a chance to build this team into a premiership winning side but instead, management takes soft options with recruitment. At some point, a club needs to go all in and stretch the living crap out of the salary cap. This club chose to find diamonds in the rough when we needed established players to finish the job.
I couldn’t care less if we miss the finals for five years if they came on the back of winning a premiership.
Listening to Sarantinos on 2KY telling the audiance that the clubs goal in 2024 is to play finals is a joke, no mate, the goal is to win a premiership. Just being competitive is wearing thin mate, it doesn’t cut it when the trophy cabinet lock is rusted solid.
TCT and fans have banged on about the lack of depth and quality of the depth since 2022. Making the GF in 2022 was a miracle, a very happy miracle but with the benifit of hindsight, the appearance band aided weaknesses that have been biting us in the arse since.
We still have the makings of a premiership winning roster, Lomax is a great start, just finish the job
I don’t want to see BA gone, I want to see BA with a complete roster that looks like a block of cheddar, not a block of Swiss.
As for this season, who knows, I’m not writing us off yet. The return of Moses and Cartwright make this team look formidable enough. With a crap load of luck on the injury front, we could make a late run.
So you don’t think Gibson, Bennett or Bellamy could do better with this roster ? That’s probably the dumbest comment I’ve seen about League in my time on the planet.
I actually don’t mate, the point I was trying to make is even great coaches need complete and talented rosters to win premierships. Bennett at Newcastle failed, as did Jack Gibson at the Sharks.
By no means am I trying to disrespect great coaches of our time but even great coaches need great squads to win premierships.
Sacking BA now is not going to change a thing, completing our roster or employing people who can complete our roster will have immediate results.
BA may or may not be able to take this club to ultimate glory but without a capable and complete roster, we will never know.
Agreed. You can’t turf ba and think this gets better. There’s people above him that need to go. There’s a squad that needs to 1) be filled out and 2 hopefully filled out with some talent not scraps. There’s a young hooker Matt Arthur that needs to be resigned asap. There’s a young player Talagi that needs to be resigned asap. There’s players that need to be moved on at end of this year (lane and sivo at minimum).
Ron, you’ll hear me scream from the moon if the club finds a way to lose Matt Arthur and Blaize.
Perhaps I’m too pessimistic atm but I have no faith in the current lot who do recruitment and retention. If there’s something to be stuffed up – they will stuff it up. Incompetent at every turn.
This is spot on. At some point BA won’t be the coach at Parra. But if anyone thinks that any coach can achieve success with an incomplete roster they are delusional.
Prometheus, think about your comment! You’ve drawn a long bow that is impossible to be proven correct because:
1 Gibbo didn’t coach in this era (and he did fail at clubs after leaving Parra so he was human). But on top of that you’ve picked a man recognised as being at the pinnacle of the coaching game – a generational coach who had generational players at both Easts and Parra. There are probably only a handful of coaches across the history of footy to compare with him
2 You’ve followed that up by selecting two of the modern coaches that do have comparable records to Bennett.
But finally, none of those coaches, as supreme as they are, have won titles with rosters similar to Parra’s. Joseph has made a hypothetical observation. Yours is no less hypothetical and you can’t argue otherwise.
Seriously I don’t a give a rat’s if my statement is hysterical let alone hypothetical. What I want are positive results not a list of excuses trotted out week after week. You have to be decisive and make change, not just continually say well BA and the boys trained well.
Prometheus, thats a narrow and unfair shot when myself and others on TCT cover and report on far more than training. I’m going to stand up for what we do here because that is just an insulting piece of crap to hurl at us. We attend and report on junior reps, lower grades, NRL, NRLW, training and not just NRL, meetings, and far more than is ever discussed here. To suggest that we offer nothing but excuses or “the boys trained well” is a garbage comment. To be honest I shouldn’t have wasted my time responding to it.
I’d like the folk at TCT to know that their efforts are much appreciated. They stimulate a feisty exchange which I, for one, very much enjoy and share insights not available to most of us. Following a prolonged upswing the club now appears to be on a slide caused by age and the accomplishment of the goals of individuals – Albert Maslow taught us “A motive only motivates until it’s satisfied.” This is scarcrly the fault of the folk st TCT.
“ I don’t want to see BA gone, I want to see BA with a complete roster that looks like a block of cheddar, not a block of Swiss.” yes Joseph.
The Sivo incident was minor contact. A penalty and”do that again and your off” was well and truly sufficient but the woke sensitive bunker feels a need to be relevant. The refereees destroyed a perfectly good game of rugba lleegue. Imagine if that got 10 in an origin!!
Go you eels!! Keep fighting!!
I agree with you Luke, it was soft. Sivo was not trying to inflict injury. That’s what makes Sivo’s actions bewildering. I don’t indorse violence or intentional injury but if you’re stupid enough to fire a gun, then aim at the head.
100% Luke! It was silly to give away a penalty late in the tackle count but what a massive overreaction to send him to the bin. Only getting a fine from it proves that was the case. I see the same thing ten times in every game that get let go or just a six again call. I’m
JWH does worse in every second tackle, and the commentators say it s an enforcer doing his thing. How that became a sin bin when it was nothing more than Sivo attempting to be more dominant was stupid not intentionally damaging as Garrick got up immediately to play the ball.The officiating seemed to defer to the noise of the crowd and the video ref was basically hopeless. Dylan Brown called not square, when every replay showed that he was. Turbos offside from the kick never looked at by Klein in the box.
Annesley may well find a way to excuse the officiating, but in reality it was very poor and reactive to crowd noise.
Luke, I just can’t wrap my head around a player putting himself and the team in a position to have such a call made against him. It wasn’t needed. It was the last tackle. Even if it was just penalised, he put the team under added pressure at a time when they least needed it. I can’t defend him in any way.
Tks guys, well handled. The blot on the first half was the Big O’s 10 minute holiday. Tuilagi dropped a decent pass cold first thing, we tended to then bumble through, when in hindsight Manly were probably vulnerable.Otherwise a good first half.
Moretti was dropped for dropping the ball, I reckon he was getting dud passes for his style of hard running. Our attention to detail is ordinary.
Good listen guys !
I’m one who thinks our systems and game plans aren’t up to scratch , and that includes things right down to the bench selection and how it’s used. I agree with you guys in saying a system is only as good as the players executing within it , but the individuals within our side don’t even feel connected like other teams. For example Blake Ferguson was part of one of the most statistically best defences of all time at the Roosters – here there were times he was completely lost and had no ability to work with those inside him. It’s happened to player after player.
Aside from that though we’re at a point where our discipline is going backwards , our intensity is cold most weeks but can fire up with backs against the war , our attention to detail is woeful , footy IQ missing across the park and the culture of our side is at the lowest it’s been in a long time . BA is the driver of these things , he sets the standard and culture and it’s deteriorating week to week. Unfortunately it may just be an issue of how long the same voice has been in charge of the club and change is needed to turn things around .
We have conceded the most like breaks in the NRL this year. Our defence has always been bad under BA’s tenure. Even in 2022 when we made the GF our defence was suspect and we were an inconsistent team.It’s simply time to go and BA can take a few players with him.
Thanks Fellas,
An interesting chat. A few points from it.
I missed the game due to another bloody family function so have only seen the Kayo 20 minute package. Even watching that highlighted what you said about Dylan Brown lacking support. In the highlight reel there was at least four/five instances shown where there was no support players. Last year I saw a highlights package on tv where they were showing Tedesco backing up during a game. The highlight was put on for the purpose of showing young fans the value of backing up. Tedesco was shown to have backed up half a dozen times and not get the ball during the game, the seventh time he got the ball and scored. Always should be someone following through just in case.
I’ve only seen baby Arthur once on tv but he seems like he is going to be a good un. I don’t understand all the nepotism chat. A coach is under pressure always to win. Picking a player who is not good enough but related is a career death warrant. A coach will only select who they think will best serve the team. It’s in the coaches own interests to do so I don’t care what anyone says.
I think Lane needs a break and we may have underestimated the impact of all last year’s injuries. He seems to be lacking confidence to me.
Sivo – I’m not sure what he is thinking, although I also think our players have copped worse this year without penalty. But at that stage of the game you just need to be cautious in approaching about those things. Although it would be karma for me if Garrick ended up with a cauliflower ear out of it.
But who replaces players as you noted. As much as I don’t like the bloke Phil Gould seemed to hit the nail on the head the other week when he said Parramatta’s problems are not the coach but the entire club/pathways set up. I’m not sure what has been done so far in response to the review that Nathan Brown did for us and no implement of recommendations take time.
Anyway, thanks again, a good time to have the bye and re evaluate we’re we are at and how to improve.
Cheers Namrebo. There are issues defensively with the team, especially individuals missing their assignments and tough conversations are required. I highlighted the lack of support for Brown because he is creating opportunities every week. There are criticisms about Parra’s attack and yet support for Brown would surely add the potential for more points. If the coaches aren’t addressing this basic, then it’s deserving of criticism.
Agreed. I didn’t go into defence too much. But I was surprised that when highlights package showed manly tries I’d be saying oh so and so missed the assignment there only to watch it again and go no it was the fella on the other sides fault.
If anyone is interested in whether the stats confirm how bad we are on the eyes, look no further than the rugby league eye test page. The recent article on parra is very bleak reading and very clearly not all brads fault. This club has kicked the can down the road on integrating juniors and rebuilding a squad to suit modern times for far too long. Now we are in dire straits with club officials silent and doing their best not to attract attention for their incompetence.
It’s very good to see the club refuse Lomax a clause that enables him to hold the club to ransom if the club changes the NRL coach mid term. This is a small step forward.
Now they need to work on getting rid of the Player Options to complete the clean up of contract options.
It is now up to the recruitment team to step up and fill the roster for 2023.
Pleasing results for Flegg and Cup on the weekend. A couple of wins doesn’t represent a turn around but it is a heartening improvement. One task for 2025 is to build a pair of teams at that level able to challenge for their tespective premierships, teams full of talent capable of pressing for NRL spots. An improvement in coaching talent and structures at those levels should be possible; I wonder if Luke Burt could be tempted back.