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Clinton Gutherson is out for 5 weeks but Mitchell Moses could be back for Magic Round. Mixed tidings dominate the headlines for the Blue & Gold this week as Sixties and Forty20 get to work on the bye week.
We all knew it was coming but the Eels have finally shutdown their courageous captain and fullback as ‘Gutho’ is put on ice to manage an unspecified knee injury. Parramatta is already struggling on the field with him so where to now without their talismanic fullback? Does Brad Arthur turn to Blaize Talagi or is there another option on the cards?
The Rugby League Eye Test has delivered a damning verdict on the state of the team – all backed by data. The boys discuss the findings, how the club arrived here and what can be done moving forwards.
Abbi Church has re-signed with the club as the NRLW continue to build with the preseason on the horizon. What is best position in 2024?
The NRL wrap covers a breakthrough win for the Titans amidst some massive blowouts across ANZAC round. South Sydney have fired Jason Demetriou effective immediately after months of headlines and drama. Wayne Bennett is firmly in their sights but the boys argue whether he is indeed the right man for them.
Lachlan Illias, Jackson Topine and the Wests Tigers round out the show with Sixties and Forty20 looking at the future of the Souths’ half, Topine’s law suit and the alledged new home for the Tigers.
The Bennet situation is interesting. Going back to Souths is an admission of failure by Souths to properly managed his succession. Even he does get the team firing, what happens when he leaves. As a legendary coach he is, it has been noted clubs decline after he leaves.
Of course he has been linked to Parramatta. I don’t think he will join the Eels. If he did as long as the current structural issues around pathways and recruitment/retention remain any success would be fleeting. If Bennett did come and the club bent over backwards to accommodate him with recruitment etc I’d question why BA wasn’t so accommodated (assuming this is the case).
As mentioned before, I do believe a rebuild is needed and it will require the club to examine not just the position of the coach.
Re Jackson Topine, the reactions to it a telling in regards to mental health and workplace bullying. If a similar incident happened in your workplace would be it be acceptable? We can’t accepted a “just toughen up” mentality as it is well established this does not help (which is different from resilience).
Thank your preferred diety for the bye this week. Gives us all a break from the interesting times that is being an Eels supporter.
Cheers Shaun. Reports today indicate that an Eels board meeting considered factors such as injuries impacting the season thus far. Without question there are players that are not 100%, which is common in NRL, but it’s been obvious that Gutho and others may have needed a break. However, the full situation of the roster needs to be taken care of. Sooner rather than later.
Yes. I’m sure a few other players have been playing busted. It does seem that some supporters are quite upset with the board declining to approach Bennett. I’m ok with that. My concern is the seemingly lack of awareness and action in fixing depth and recruitment (apart from Lomax). A new coach will be a sugar fix that once more masks the long term issues.
It’s funny, Shaun, for every Eels fan complaining about the Board – and somehow they blame BA in the same breath as well !!! there’s a Bunnies fan complaining about signing Wayne for 3 years. The Bunnies problems are their 1 and 6, not the coach. I feel so sorry for Cam Murray, an exceptional player that gives his all every game but has some lazy blokes around him that are the main issue there.
I think the Board need a rocket up them or a major shake up but the hatred for BA and those saying he should fall on his sword are comments of the demented. It’s one or the other, either the Board is culpable for re-signing a bloke that can’t do the job or the bloke doing the job is not being given enough support from the Board and I mean TPA’s, R&R, pathways etc. all those are not the responsibility of the coach.
The bunnies problem is not the 1 and 6 – that’s lazy analysis. The bunnies problem is one of recruitment and retention – like us. They have had a need for bigger/better middle forwards for a while and bennet got by on an industrious but undersized pack. When Bennett left, mark nicols left, sua left etc but south’s overestimated their junior fowards and now realise they get rolled at every ruck since burgess is in twighlight and not good laterally + tatola is never fit. Souths signed wighton for no real reason. They needed to get afb desperately but stuffed their recruitment/retention by going for a mere centre (even though wighton is a good player). They, like us, are full of older players in forwards/hooker who play a bit slower each year.
Sorry Ron, probably over simplifying things with the 1 and 6 comment, yes it goes far further than that but it is a big reason for their early season form. Your analogy comparing them to the Eels is very valid in respect to age/speed. Regardless, was JD the problem – again, very similar to the Eels current situation.
On the R&R which we’ve both touched on, I’d like to point out an analogy to those that are currently relentlessly asking for BA’s head – if you were trying to do your job and your boss supplied you with only half the equipment you needed, and you then had some of the equipment you had stolen and no spares (injuries and suspensions with no quality backups), would you be happy to be sacked from your job based on productivity (results)? Or rather would you prefer to see the business (and the NRL is a business) get new management that provided you with the right tools to try and match it with your competitors and see how you performed then? It’s pretty much an open and shut case of unfair dismissal, yet that’s what the people with blinkers on (read mis-placed hatred of BA) are asking to happen.
Yea I’m with you on the need to not take the easy option by firing brad. People including our own fans just want someone to blame and point at coach but this is a situation where we can actually invoke the adage – a fish rots from the head. We need changes at higher level and changes to the squad (current players such as lane and sivo being moved on, external players signed and a sprinkling of juniors promoted). We also need changes to pathways becomes the problems at nrl level flow through to almost every level below it. That simply cannot be brads fault.
Ironically us and south’s both signed a centre but only one team (us) needed a centre. We Still need better wing options of course
I’ve seen the rhetoric of disgruntled fans saying get Bennett and he’ll attract players. Clearly they missed the memo about all the talent that Wayne missed out on at the Dolphins – Munster, Ponga, Brandon Smith etc etc. and that was with an open cheque book.
There’s players out there – Fuller at the Dolphins, Armstrong at the Knights are just 2 fullbacks and then there’s other halves that have stepped in at clubs that have performed. It seems talent identification is a major issue at the Eels, now whether that’s due to pathways reviews identifying the club wants to build from within or what I don’t know, but you just have to have people out there scouting for you and I don’t know what the Eels situation is in this regard. I see the Dogs cut ties with the Western Clydesdales as their Qld affiliated club, so is that something the Eels should be looking at, get an affiliated Qld club and have people scouting young Qld talent as there’s plenty of them.
I’ve spoke about this on other forums. We need to target the blue chip juniors in backs at othe clubs. Knights have so many stuck behind kp that are guns. Votano would be my pick followed by Fletcher. Magpies have a few. Sharks have some good backs. Canberra as well. We can’t rely on our juniors for backs are they are mediocre at best (maybe Alameddine might develop)
It’s sad how quickly those in media are to protect their mates, whether it’s coaches (sticky, robbo) or the bulldogs club (James Graham, Anasta etc) or even manly with their dubious training practices te: Titmuss and perett. It’s also interesting that Robinson has come out to back the bulldogs trainer when Robinson tends to defer to legal/formal processes before commenting when it suits him for his players (leniu).these people are all so unbelievably conflicted (eg Gus talking about things on his show to advantage dogs or gal talking his usual rubbish cause he wants to keep his job) yet purport to be spreading “truths”. They also decide to focus on parra for clicks. They are trying to get the parra fans to point the finger at brad and then what they will do is, if brad is sacked, turn around and say actually brad was a good coach, the problem is actually with higher ups and repeat the cycle for clicks and attention. It’s up to parra to ignore the noise and sort out their mess so Brad is given best chance to succeed. It’s also up to fans to not engage with the rubbish that comes out from the media
It’s bit rich coming from Gould, babbling on about pathways. Look at the Bulldogs team, I can only see two juniors in their starting 13, their roster is built by a cheque book, not pathways.
It takes a lot of luck to have a crop of local juniors that transition into NRL quality players, blue chip players are even rarer. The best pathway systems are only as good as those who walk the path.
The odds increase with volume of course, Queensland have four teams competing for an entire state of juniors, Melbourne feed off Queensland juniors. Penrith are blessed by their demographic of irelander kids who all want to play NRL.
It easy to say we need to identify talent from anywhere and place them in our pathways, these kids are school age, they dream of playing for the team they have followed since they were in nappies.
Sydney based teams need to recruit well to be successful, you can’t rely on juniors, clubs may get lucky with one or two, or even a handful, clubs needs 30 NRL capable players with 17 being close to or are blue chip standard. Recruitment is where we have failed in recent years.
Indeed Joseph. Talent identification in juniors involves both locals and imports.
Well said Ron. No matter what the club decides to do, it must be done without the influence of the media, or social media for that matter.
It’s clear we need something drastic to happen. Otherwise we will be in the cellar for a long time.
We cannot afford to be so slow in everything on and off the field. We cannot expect our line speed to be fast if the front office is so slow.
We need some bold changes to the team against Broncos. We cannot just accept poor performances after poor performances.
Wiremu – going backwards in Cup
Keir
Gymer
Sanders
Tago/Leumeleume/Cini pick one
Talagi
Arthur
Not the right time? Then when?
ONeil is academically well qualified, basically had no experience in this role when appointed. As far as footy nous he is not in the same postcode as Ponnisi, Cameron, Parr or even O’Sullivan. He was obviously a safe choice at the time, but have heard he is not popular among player managers, and as for the number of player options he has orchestrated, they seem to give far more power to the players than the club. The lack of depth is alarming.
With a CEO that is not a football person, then they should both be looked critically as we head towards one of the poorest seasons for a long time. Most fans have become bored and apathetic, that’s not good for a big club like the Eels..
Another super episode gents, I could listen to a 3 hour episode and still want more.
Your comments regarding Paul Kent and the young Bulldogs player were fair and measured.
Thanks for the entertainment and information. As always, myself and my family look forward to the next episode. We find this podcast an adrelin hit when the Eels are travelling well and a pain killer we they don’t.
Thanks Joseph. We always take our footy talk seriously, but I look forward to Forty’s musical interlude every week. I never know what he’ll come up with.
lol Sixties, what a home goal that idea was. We love it, Forties has nailed it everytime. Our favourite is the parla piu piano rendition, that was gold.
Shout out to Clint, wishing the big man a speedy recovery.
My wife was in tears of laughter when Clint said “not as chirpy as you Sixties” on previous podcast. Clint made her day.
He’ll be pleased to read that! Yes, he’s recovering well. I’ll alert him to your reply. And Forty is a man of eclectic tastes.
I reckon Bennett approaching us is bullshit.
I find it odd everyone keeps saying BA has no part in recruitment and retention but at the same time a big fuss was made over Lomax having dinner at his house? You can’t have it both ways.
If the coach can’t influence recruitment and retention after 11 years then he has no business being the coach.