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The Parramatta Eels put together a spirited effort for Matt Arthur’s NRL debut but it wasn’t enough as they fell 34-26 to the Newcastle Knights. Sixties and Forty20 go in on a terrible effort from the match officials following a series of baffling calls that battered the struggling Eels.
That isn’t to say that Parramatta didn’t get in their own way as the Instant Reaction podcast look at some crucial moments where the Eels hurt themselves in the final exchanges. The boys discuss the positives from loss, including a strong debut from Matt Arthur and a wonderful effort from Mitchell Moses as he backed up from State of Origin.
The show wraps up with a look at the Flegg and Cup with the Under 21s falling to a strong Newcastle outfit while reserve grade bounced back from a Rd 16 loss magnificently to post a 30-8 victory.
Mark O’Neill is the next person who should be shown the door. He is more responsible than anyone else left for this mess. We are so slow out wide and the lack of foresight in signing players with speed is there for all to see.
The sooner our management hires the new coach the better because many players should be put on notice way before this miserable season ends.
Do you believe that him going whole change everything?
He obviously has the support of the higher ups or he would already be gone
The penny pinching and buying cheap Rejects is obviously something the board and CEO has approved on as the club’s strategy or he would of lost his job a long time ago
I agree he needs to go, but this issue like in all organisations begins at the top
And at the very least – if it is marks problem?
Then it’s up to our CEO & board to fire him
That’s their responsibility to protect our clubs best interests
If they fail to do that then it shows they are also involved in this poor decision making process
The tight fisted tactics & no 30 man roster is obviously being supported by our club or mark would not have a job this has gone on for ages
Do you believe him going will* change everything?
MON is as high as it gets from our football department side of things. The Board hire/fire the CEO, the CEO hire/fire the Head of Football. The Head of Football is accountable for our success on the field.
So whilst I agree with you Muz that it’s (at least on the surface) unacceptable that the CEO has let this situation go on for so long without action, I absolutely believe that a change in the Head of Football is all we need.
If we start churning through several HoFs without seeing any changes to our football operations, then we need to ask bigger questions of our Board and CEO. But right now all I’m holding them accountable for is their failure to act. I’m holding the HoF accountable for our terrible and avoidable decline.
The HoF needs to go. If we can’t attract a new, credentialed and talented HoF then the CEO and Board also need to look in the mirror.
Captain I understand what a head of footballs role is and how much influence & control they have.
What I’m saying is they employed him, and have kept him employed.
This isn’t an over night failure, this glaring issue has been happening for a long time.
The ceo & board have let them not sign a top 30 for how many years now?
In a organisation it’s not enough to simply blame one individual.
If they strongly didn’t believe in his decisions the last few years.
He would be gone already.
I do agree though that he needs to go.
I just don’t believe people understand how organisations are ran.
Our leaders are responsible.
Not just for who they employ in the front office.
But who they keep in power.
CEO’s & boards are responsible for who they hire & fire.
If they truly didn’t support his decisions.
He would have been gone a very long time ago.
He’s obviously doing the work that many his higher ups approve of.
The board and CEO of every organisation can quickly hire and fire people in any position.
Usually this happens when people inside of a organisation make decisions the leaders of a company disagree with.
This is yet to happen for us.
He is still there.
Apparently he is part of the decision making process for the next coach as well.
What I’m suggesting is that we have incompetent people in the club and HOF may only be the top of the ice berg.
I agree with you he should go tho mate, 100%.
But our club can do this and hasn’t yet.
You know nothing captain , its all down to mcelduff and sarantino , pair of know all know nothings , its their roster oniell is hamstrung and thats a fact !!!!
100% he should be the first to go
Brad arthur also put us in this spoon position. And people are banging on about how he left us in a great position 😆
Hi Avenger, you love bashing Ba. We all can have opinions
but you don’t honestly believe he was telling them not to sign a 30 man roster do you?
Surely ba wasn’t saying give me a paper thin roster of back up players and to never sign 30 men?
We have a 5 star rock god Halfback surrounded by a team of ill disciplined half arsed reserve graders.
You couldn’t blame Moses if he stormed into the CEOs office on Monday and asked for a release.
This is a player who has played two games in a week, one of them being a SOO game and he was far and away the best player on the field.
Yes, we can pick out individuals from Penisini inability to tackle to Lanes deciding that to bend down and pick up the ball whilst on attack is just too much work (a lack of effort that deserves him to be dropped immediately) but it comes down to the inescapable fact that every Eels player except for Moses just doesn’t concentrate for the full 80 minutes.
They just tune out and it is in that particular moment in time that the tackle is missed or the ball is dropped.
It’s not bad luck , bad defence is a lack of concentration and application.
55 MISSED TACKLES
THIS HAS TO BE ADDRESSED!!
Dylan Brown is the poster child for this team. A man who is blessed with abundant talent but has the attention span of a gnat.
Whoever is selected as the new coach, they need to sit players like Brown and Lane down and read the riot act to them and if they don’t want to put in , they just have to be let go.
Please let’s acknowledge that it’s all over this year and reward some excellent performances in the Cup grade.
Talagi is only in first grade because we are trying to entice him to sign but he’s not a winger.
Lane just has to go.
Matterson and Makatoa are just empty jerseys.
I feel that Matterson, maka, Russell, sivo, lane, Ogden, dunster, Harper, Lussick all need to be told to leave at end of the year. Ass to that the fact that Gutho is severely on decline, as is rcg and Paulo then it really is a team that needs to be blown up.
It’s a terrible shame that we have wasted Moses talent for 2 years now. He is so far ahead of everyone else that it’s embarrassing to watch the backs (especially penisni) routinely miss important tackles, the wingers botch simple put downs and the forwards get dominated at the ruck.
Spot on Spark
1. Some bunker calls are so obviously wrong as to be absurd. If that’s the best can be done you wonder what the point is of having a bunker. The refrreeing from the bunker is worse than the refering on the field.
2. We’ve worried about pace in the backline. That is not currenyly a our major problem. Give us Somonssen andomax and we’ll havs a backline competitive with mist in the competition. Our pack is no longer feared, maybe even respect ed. I saw one long serving, highly contributing forward take a look and stop. I believe he shook his own head unable to believe what he had done. At Toongabbie, back in the d ay, we had an ecpression for blokes who’d been around a while and knew where to be where the action was n’t – “too old and too rich.” That’s it for maybe three or four of our leading forwards. The p ack l acks mongrel. Players who once were impact players now are ‘worker’ players, if that. First man I’d sign would be Tavita Pangi Junior.
I was more surprised Sivos try was disallowed than Talagis. But I had the same reaction as you fellas – when we crossed the line it seemed to be seen instantly as a “no try” and the opposite for the Knights.
Ref’ing aside, i thought our defence was poor. The Knights seemed to constantly be playing their 5th tackle on our side of our 40m line. We were lucky their spine is so poor that they lacked the class to put 50 on us.
This year to me (unfortunately) is just the culmination of all the short falls we’ve had over the last 5+ years. A team that had enough talent, youth and desire to make the 1%ers and cover for gross inadequacies (like wafer thin edge defence) is now just old and uncompetitive on the whole.
For a club that has so many natural advantages, geez they seem to be able to make a complete mess of things. It’s hard to see how we win another game this season. We are far from the worst roster in the comp, but we are comfortably at the moment the worst team, and that absolutely sucks.
The downfall of Will Pensini needs to be studied.
This. Sometimes the most brief, simple comments say everything.
Heres another…
If Zac Cini made as many mistakes as Blaize Tagali, he would be called out by everyone as the the most useless player on the roster.
Hes a kid that the state of the roster meant he was thrown to the wolves , hes got talent but has become a victim of a badly mismanaged club so pull your empty head in .
A question for Sixties.. I notice that there are some contributors that do not allow a reply under their contributions as in ‘anon’ below. Why is that ?
Is this an editorial comment ?
I hope that there is some accountability forthcoming re: officiating. That was hard to believe. Sheer incompetence (I assume it wasn’t bias).
But, the Eels are last on the laddrer for a reason. Look no further than Sean Lane looking lost and confused when a ball goes astray. Where is the desperation. Where is the urgency. Where is the attention to detail and where the hell is the sheer will-to-win? That was hard to take. I had to rewind Kayo to see if I’d imagined it.
It has been downhill since the Grand Final in 2022. To me, it was very very telling that Matterson chose to take 3 weeks punishement instead of a fine. So, when and individual says that his need to make a point as a matter of principle is more important than the strength of his team at the start of a new season straight after a grand final loss, this act of thinking of the self over the team, how did the management and the coach and the leadership group not say “NO”.
That was the start, and here we are. Last on the ladder.
I suppose it is only upwards from here. Lomax is coming. That’s a good start
The decisions from ref and bunker was some of … the worst ever seen in nrl games? I can’t remember worst ?
The teams confidence is totally shot and i believe they are truly unhappy
There’s probably factions of the playing group who are angry at each other, divided on who’s fault it is, old and less motivated, or simply just there to collect a pay cheque now at this point in their careers
I’m not going to 100% blame baz because he didn’t sign this team
But they said we have had 20+ scored against us for 10 games straight 🤯
which is they said is the WORST in our eels history?
So we have officially the worst defensive eels team in history, and we can’t just blame baz because his only been coach a hand full of games and it’s not his roster he signed
I’m sad to say it but even gutherson seems a shadow of himself compared to last year
RCG & paulo don’t even look like players who have played rep games in their careers anymore
Sean lane is officially done ✔️ even though I know he’s a nice bloke, he would not get signed by any other team, his nrl playing days seem finished
Sivo has been on decline for a few years and it’s clear his time & confidence seems to be coming to a end for us
We look so unfit out there and slow especially on kick chase we leak full length trys or full length line breaks multiple times per game
The worst defensive team in Eels history over the last 10 games
My assumption is there’s plenty of players who’s nrl Careers are officially done after this year if they didn’t have contracts with us
Gutho is even seemingly not the same and may be unable to be a suitable fullback for a NRL team moving forward after this year if his knees are done or he can’t run anymore
P.s I watched a replay of a game from last year when we flogged the bulldogs to compared our teams performance to now…
Here’s what I discovered:
RCG & co absolutely demolished the opposition in the middle
Clint gutherson was everywhere, scoring trys, or getting involved in plays that lead to trys
We were a power team and charged down the field demanding meters every run, almost bullying the competition
Our players looked like COMPLETELY different players including our captain’s
I’m afraid folks BA & the eels may just of held on to just too many of our older players
They seemingly cannot sustain this level of playing anymore and are sadly not NRL quality players in 2024
It’s been a fall from grace and all I can say is i believe gutho, RCG, paulo’s sudden decline is associated with the giant work load they’ve had over the last few years
RCG & paulo played huge minutes to carry our team as forwards and we used hardly any bench for them used at time and placed huge minutes on them constantly
Gutho has been carrying the tram on his back so to speak and completely done himself over, and his body can’t carry our team anymore, it’s come at the cost of his legs being destroyed (or something?) I don’t know but he doesn’t look right and not fit like he has been every year
It’s going to be a sad year for us we just need to hope we don’t lose any of our quality young players
We just need to stay supporting blaize & Boods & hands, and hopefully Moses sticks with us
Because these folks are the future of our team over the next few years and we can’t afford to lose any of them
Moses is so far ahead of the rest of the playing group it almost makes me feel sad for him being at our club at the minute
The club desperately needs to announce a new coach asap and get positive news flowing
Because atm this is probably the most down in confidence and seemingly lost I have seen my Eels in so long that I am almost unable to believe what we are seeing
I won’t be shocked if some coaches or players refuse to sign up with us
Absolutely shocking fitness and our old players look like they’ve lost a lot of whatever they once had
Is it lack of fitness? Lack of care? Too old? Lost all confidence? Internal unrest even before BA left?
There has to be something else here more to it that we don’t completely understand
This is not a bottom of the table roster – this is why i believe there must be some other issues within the playing group or club we do not know about
While I agree ref calls particularly the bunker were terrible to say the effort was there is being in a state of disbelief.
Paulo is one of the highest paid players in the team and the captain and shows such poor efforts it is mind boggling. In defence he is always lagging behind the line, never moves up, would rarely be the first player into a tackle and mainly just comes in as third man and falls around their legs.
Lane is an absolute bludger in attack and defence when on an edge rarely coming in to take a run and just plants himself there waiting for the ball never coming in and looking for it. When he was moved to the middle at least he was forced to make some runs. His defence is though also lacking just watch his poor one one defence near the line to allow the ball carrier to offload and score.
Makatoa is just not first grade standard and all the talk about Blaize I just don’t see it. He is not a winger, his defensive reads are terrible always coming in when there is no need. His one on one defence has been ordinary in every position he plays and again we have seen he has trouble with the high ball. He runs the ball well but what position he should play I have no idea. What I do know is though he is not worth 400k or whatever is being quoted. No other club will be offering him much of any5ing due to these deficiencies. He is also not at all fast as we saw with Bradmen Best our pacing him.
This roster is an absolute mess and I feel sorry for Moses having to play with this rabble. Paulo on close to a million is the first to go, he is no leader and an absolute liability in defence. Certainly not a leader by example.
Gutho also looked like he wanted to come off towards end of the game because of his knees
He is playing damaged and his legs are not fine
Paulo was showing signs he was toast last year and this year even worst
The club needs a clean out and rebuild
That or we end up being the new Wests Tigers and stay stuck glued to the bottom of the ladder
The people running the show at our club have absolutely no idea
Even a struggling poor club like Newcastle have athleticism for days compared to the eels
It’s shameful the clubs CEO was on tv only a few weeks ago saying se have the roster to win the competition
This highlights how retarded the people are who run our club
It’s a 🤡 show
It should be renamed “parramatta circus” not eels, because this club administration has brought shame to our club
They’ve penny pinched us from grand final to looking like wooden spoon in just 24 months
If that happens it will be likely the worst fall from grace in NRL’s history
On the rare occasion a replay of a 10 mtr penalty occurred, I couldn’t see any glaring fudging of the 10, no more or less than the Knights throughout the second half when it looked like their coach mentioned line speed in the sheds after a sloppy first half. Greg Alexander agreed and mumbled something, then his co- commentator said something about Lane not getting his back foot to the 10….really!!
We made 14 errors, again too many for a team struggling with many aspects of a tough game.
The Sivo try decision was unbelievable, and Forty, did you say the Talagi one was covered by a rule change around grounding? Even though it rolled forward a few inches, there was no separation and it was all momentum. How can a knock on occur without separation? And the Sivo in-field pass being called a knock on was a joke..the decision stood after the absolute clearest of evidence to the opposite.And the Knights challenge well after 10 seconds was cited as a bunker call…last week we had a knock on call reversed against us by the bunker, it was just random and a very poor precedent, when the bunker could intervene numerous times in a game. Ithought the NRL said no more randoms?
Just to rabbit on a bit more, that officiating was so poor. In that 10 mtr incident which they replayed, the panoramic shot showed heaps of space between the teams, in fact it looked neat the way the 2 teams were formed, we had a bare no man’s land between our line and the play the ball,the Knights were in no way disadvantaged but the whistle found something, Shaun Lane with his back foot not 10mtrs(according to Kayo guy). Such poor decision making, the Knights got carted out of trouble.
Then the Knight’s fullback knock on which Saifiti picked up in an offside position 5 mtrs from their line, surely that’s disadvantaging our ability to grab that ball and threaten. Penalty should be awarded, no wrong again, scrum. The ref may have thought however that we don’t like picking up loose balls.
Mcelduff and sarantinos need to bo before theres any hope of bouncing back , lomax wont fix much because simply a replacement for one of our ageing greatest ever warriors in KING GUTHO not a bonus so where no better off and the salary caps a total mess , fix the TOP first ,it s the worst board and CEO in the clubs history , sarantinos wasnt even at newcastle for a debutants game , the clubs being ruined by the SUITS with no footy knowledge ,were stuffed and its at long way back.
I would be happy to see Lomax take guthos fullback role is gutho isn’t able to recover from his legs issues to full fitness
Lomax is light years above any of our backs we currently have on the roster
Him and Moses Will probably be our only 2 great players
Brown could be one of them but he doesn’t seem to stand up and win us games
I feel like brown has the potential but hasn’t reached it yet
I said at the end of this game “what have we got to do?”
Decent refereeing and we win.
The Newcastle defence was superhumanly quick. Easy to understand when you see the play the ball from a full field shot. They kept a good 8 metres all night.
I also agree with Sixties about the forward passes. Very poor.
The same defensive plague that always lets us down cost us the match – again.
Marzhew’s tries both saw Russell and Talagi run infield leaving Gutherson to be dragged over the tryline again.
A couple of times Newcastle worked their defence in to out stopping both Sivo and Talagi.
We must change the defence to do the same,
That one change would have won us more than 10 games in the last two seasons.
The forwards aren’t the problem, we are losing it in the backs.
Russell at centre forgets he’s not on the wing and although he had a solid game he could have put Sivo through a couple of times.
We need a replacement winger next week, not a replacement centre, assuming Sivo’s hamstring is shot. Time for some young blood.
Penisini can’t go unmentioned. I’ve never seen a more hot and cold player.
I guess he was up against the best centre in the competition (why Mitchell was picked over Best for Origin still baffles me) but that doesn’t explain his game.
The good?
Moses, of course and Cartwright.
Paulo’s try showed what these two are capable of.
Gutherson needs a break. I can’t imagine how he feels this morning.
We could lose him for a season if he doesn’t get right.
Talking about the backs… Bradman Best is a power centre. There is no way that he would ever be described as a speedster and yet there he was – running 90 metres, not once but twice and the second time he was basically on one leg and we didnt have a player who could pick him up.
Hey Spark, as we’ve all said to each other on here too many times
We actually don’t employ anyone who’s athlete or is known for speed
We have 1 fast backline player in our top 30
And he is out injured
How can our ceo talk to the media and say we have the roster to win a comp?
This is why I keep saying it’s a deeper Issue than people realise
We might be ran by a pack of idiots who have no idea about the game of football
I would sack HOF if we didn’t have a 29-30 man roster each year
No excuses
Our ceo & co have let this depth issue plague us for years
It’s not only been bad, they’ve allowed it to get worst
Who’s athletic* and known for speed.
Muz, I was talking to a mate today and we were trying to figure out the last time a parramatta player ran the length of the field and scored.
Not on the end of a team try but received the ball on our try line and ran the field like Bradman Best did last night.
Couldn’t think of one. Probably the last time was when Moses ran from the 20 on the restart when we opened Comm Bank a couple of years ago.
I would bet we would be the only club that could boast such a record.
How I would live to see a Semi Radradra or an out and out speedster on our flanks.
Spark now you have said It I also can’t remember us pulling length of field tries for years 😅
Other teams pull them against US every game
We might seriously get the wooden spoon the more I think about it
Not sure why we bother spending money for tickets to games when the people running the show obviously don’t care about us and our opinions enough
Old eels legends warned them about letting go of so many of our star players
They didn’t listen and now are on line for a possible wooden spoon
With tigers faster backs and youth in the team
I won’t be surprised if they end the year above our team unfortunately
You must be thinking of Semi’s length of the field try against South’s in 2016. I watch it when I’m feeling down after another loss – I’ve been watching it a lot lately.
Semi radrada
Yes, – but dud you see Blaze trying to pick him up twice. Best is 105 kgs, but he made Blaze look like a 70 year old man.
Heaven help the Eeks if ww sign Blaze on something like 599k lol.
He’s totally useless as an outside back or fullback
I don’t know what some people are watching, but Blaze is slower than Reg.
Blaize is slower than RCG ??
Lol
Spark, the reply is a quirk of the website software – it allows a certain number of replies and also limits replies to replies. There is nothing editorial on it. The only editorial applied is when comments stray into personal attacks on players/staff or when a certain banned person comes back under another name and IP address.
That’s fine.
Artificial intelligence ,It identifies stupidity .
Yeah, what do you say after that? The officiating was rubbish but the defence is woeful. It can be fixed. Just look at the Dogs this year. Those two tries to Best were so costly and should not have happened. It also made him to seem he has elite pace which is not the case.
I hope the new coach is sorted soon. 2025 was always going to be a rebuild season but the longer decision around coach is left hanging the worse 2025 will be.
I don’t understand why we’re in a hurry to sign Blaze on something like 450k. The kid is probably the slowest winger or centre in the competition.
He may be a five-eighth at best, but he isn’t quick.
Just wait, we haven’t stopped outbidding ourselves yet.
MON will push the contract up to $1Million soon without any other clubs interested.
It’s what we do.
I’m not going to pile onto the kid. He’s never ever played wing yet here we are throwing him on the wing in an NRL outfit !
The only reason we are playing him is to entice him to sign an extension with us.
Barrett just should have been honest and say to the kid that if we ever drop Brown ( and that should be looked at) we will look at you.
He should be plying his trade at 5/8 in cup but Barrett said early on that “he’s a good player and he will be playing somewhere in the team ”
That in itself is a rediculous statement which is just set up to fail the kid.
The fault doesn’t lie with Blaize but the coach who picks him out of position.
At the end of the day if Blaize doesn’t want to bid his time in the cup team waiting for the opportunity then the Eels should be grown up enough to say thanks for your service and let him go.
Blaize was gaining on Best in the first try until Russell came between them but he wouldn’t have got there. He also had to get around Hastings before he could start chasing.
In the second he didn’t even chase Best.
Look at the first 20 metres, he was jogging.
He needs to spend some time with Nathan Hindmarsh. I have no idea how many tries like that Hindy saved because he was 100% effort all game.
I can’t blame him for the beaten spirit but he needs to learn from this.
Apart from Penisini’s horror game, I thought we were mostly ok.
The difference is confidence and proper defensive structure out wide.
It’s a game of inches.
Take off the two tries we should have stopped and give us the two we scored that the bunker took away and we look great.
The difference is less than 30 seconds out of 80 minutes.
I have read dumb stuff on here, but you take the cake with Brown should be looked at being dropped.
My God man, what planet are you on.
Finally, in Blaize we have a kid who the coach says in an interview we don’t know the right position for him. You know what that says, it says this isn’t one right for him in FG.
He is basically a half, he will never be a fullback, and his defense is too poor for the centres…. wing is the only place for him at present as he can finish because he has the instincts of a good footballer, he doesn’t have this reputation for nothing but it cannot be argued, he does not have genuine speed and his defense is downright terrible. He has been put in an unenviable situation in our desperate attempt to harness a “superstar junior” this kid is not that! …….Yet anyway!
Actually, we have priced him out of the market, we can go and recruit an accomplished player now for what we are going to be paying him in this development phase, with the likelihood he will not get to that accomplished phase anyway.
Settle down Chief. The kid is being shifted around to positions, and he’s never been a winger. He’s made his NRL debut in a team running last. That’s the problem.
I totally agree with you, we need to give the kid a chance I can see he has a lot to offer
Maybe so 60’s but the amount of wind being blown up this kid’s arse is astonishing.
How for example can the club declare so foolishly that he is our future fullback when a player like Arthur Twidle has arguably been our best junior option at both fullback and 6 than Blaize?
Helps if you know there name.
Apa Twidle has been playing as much, if not more, 5/8 than fullback, and has shown greater potential in that position.
Average player at best , really wish him success but I’ve seen plenty of him and hes not NRL quality .
This was a hometown stitch up.
Moses was outstanding.
We have been training our attack I.e. Moses tries were designed to address our lack of speed on the edges by using our fastest player to burn the Knights on the outside. This was good coaching.
The huge issue remains Defence! 55 missed tackles is on us as a club!! Alarm bells must be ringing loud and clear!
Ignoring defence for last 10 years. If you want to see a manifestation of poor leadership and lack of accountability its shown up in our defence. This was a horror show and we persist with picking the same players that are clearly making up the numbers. This is bad coaching.
Further more, we just had two board appointments with ZERO football knowledge. There is NO Parramatta DNA on the board. We have a Chairman and CEO that never played the game. We have a HOF that was sacked or left his previous club in murky circumstances. Yet, we have these selecting the new coach??
“Ignoring defence for the last 10 years” that’s very revisionist. 2020 and 2021 we were top 4 defence for both years. Now the rules made from 2020-2022 have set in and made the game different to how we’ve structured our forward pack from 2018 onwards.
It’s going to be difficult but we need to focus our energy on promoting guys like: Guymer, Parker, Pryke and Brazel. These guys may not ever reach the individual heights of Paulo, Reg and Matto but right now that’s the style of forward needed in 2024 and for the foreseeable future. Smaller forwards who are able to shift laterally and use footwork in attack. We need to give these players the training and time on the field now, it will hurt, but in 2-3 years time sticking with them they’ll be solid first graders.
Same thing with Talagi. A lot of negative comments towards the young man but we have to stick with him. He’s got his errors sure but he’s willing with the ball and gets involved. He reminds me of Semi in 2011-2013. Lots of errors in attack and defence but you could see he was trying to get better. Imagine if we had shafted him in 2013 when he wasn’t in first grade?
Ham, this is spot on. The Eels reshaped the forward pack after the spoon season of 2018. That year we went in with the players all lighter and faster after it appeared that the game was heading that way. Then the rules were adjusted and big forwards were dominant. Over the last couple of years we’ve lost our more mobile forwards like Marata and Ray Stone, and younger props like Oregon and Stefano. We have young, mobile forwards in the club, so it’s time to introduce them. Supporters will need to have patience with that process – and be much more patient than some are with Blaize right now.
60’s ppl said we need youth nlw hlast blaize lol. Reality is there young kids need 1-3 years to become NRL standard
Sorry now they blast blaize*
Some good points.
I don’t have the stats with me. But does that mean 8 or 9 years we were not top 4 in defence. That would make those years outliers in the overall scheme of things. If we say 80% of the time we’re not top 4 defensively. Is that acceptable?
I think you are right we have no choice but to elevate the youth and drop those underperforming players. Anyone will do at this point.
I don’t think we can keep dining out on we made the GF or we beat Panthers twice in a season or we did this or that. That’s all well and good at the time. But it really doesn’t help the here and now.
If we asked people what what does our team stand for? They’d probably say offloads and attack. Nobody would say defence.
If we look at Bulldogs how they have concentrated on fitness and defence. They had several players leave because training was ‘too hard’.
We seem to be mainly focused on attack. Paulo, Matto, Cartwright, Hopgood all offloaders. Only Hopgood could be described as a worker.
If you stand still you are going backwards and the club is guilty of that
Hey Pete, mate obviously we all would love to see top 4 defence
My hunch is (and maybe 60’s can correct me if I’m wrong)
Once we built up to that quality of a team
Our players we built into high quality players got packed because we had a team consistently finishing in the finals & then a grand final
So just like Penrith we had players poached due to our success on the ladder (compared to many other clubs)
Now from my understanding BA worked us up until that point, developing, recruiting, and building out our core group of talented forwards & halves
Now where there seems to have been a strategic blunder
60’s may not correct me on this one but maybe someone else will of you Pete
We may of just simply made the wrong choices on who we kept and let go
We hadn’t been a successful club in so long that I don’t believe our club knew how to deal with it and manage the roster for future years
An example is Paulo was our gun prop, now co captain
Clubs managers who have more experience than us would not have signed him on that big of a contract for that long
And let you get forwards leave who had smaller contracts and a lot more playing years left in them
So we kind of prioritised who they thought was best
(At that moment)
Now this is where I believe the club wanted to win a comp and go in and k certain players they thought could help us win a possible premiership
The issue I believe is that BA & the decision makers obviously could not predict the game changing pace
Or the fact 22’ was Paulos last year as a truly elite prop at his peak of form
Now I’m not bashing paulo he is an amazing player
But no longer our regular starting prop, and has been let go of from the NSW blues
Now I believe the club pushed their chips forward and tried to retain only who was best at the time
They could not afford to keep them all
What was overlooked possibly is the fact all the players they locked in would not be the same players in 1-3 years time
So she plus changing of game speed
I believe they didn’t think long term enough but it wasn’t done out of stupidity
They probably honestly believed that was their best chance at success
But the reverse has happened
Those players are slower and older now and far less efficient as the game speed has sky rocketed
Plus we spent too much on forwards and our halves
Leaving us paper thin on cap for outside backs
I believe the eels bet big on those players but didn’t realise how far they would fall as they aged
And nobody could predict in 1-2 years the fast game style would make those types of players give your team a disadvantage in defence as they get tired
There’s also rumours and we can take it with a pinch of salt that the eels snr players is a bit of a Boys club
And that BA was too close to long term players associated with the club
people like jnr, gutho, lane, lussick, sivo
Too close actually move them on when the time comes, and has come for some of them
The evidence to support this claim one could argue is how Lane and lussick have had their positions cemented
When other players who are light years better than say lussick play one avg game and get blocked from playing nrl
Obviously each coach has their own choices
But I do believe BA did make us a solid team during those good years
Maybe the new change of pace in the game and a shift towards a faster Ruck didn’t suit his game style and roster as a few years ago
Regardless,
It doesn’t make up for our defence being the worst in the competition
We’ve always had weak defence on our edges
And we never invest heavily in backs
So maybe the game now requires more cap to be invested out wide
I don’t believe BA was a bad coach
I just believe it’s a mix of things
It’s the people in the club thinking not having a full roster every year is “ok”
The ceo and board could be all over the HOF’s ass
Pressuring him to make sure we have 29-30 players on the roster
Trust me if HOF’s job was pressured
He would come up with a 30 man roster
The club from the top down has let mediocrity happen and remained complacent
We would be fools to blame this all on say BA, or only HOF
We’ve got a board, a CEO, consultants, and dozed of other people in the administration who can see all of this and can have an opinion
There’s no organisations on earth that can watch people inside the organisation destroy it and do nothing about it
They appointed the HOF and can see clearly each year the roster issues and not having a proper 30 man squad
They didn’t do anything
And have actually stated in their own words recently;
“We have the roster to win a comp”
This indicates the ceo and others haven’t yet identified the real issue yet
Which is the roster and depth, e.g not having a 30 man roster
He may of been gas lighting or denying it to deflect any blame
But if they believe we don’t have any problems then it’s not HOF to blame
The leaders of the club are supposed to be competent enough to identify when employees of the club are falling short on their roles requirements
Either that or they actually are also involved in the low roster count decisions
To keep their balance sheets looking Healthier
So 60’s and others mentioned the roster numbers not being sufficient
But this could easily be changed by pressure from above
If the eels board & CEO got on HOF’s ass
He would magically fill it
To keep his job
It’s not his own money and to keep his job
You can bet he would find recruits to fill thr 30 within months
You put pressure on a person to execute
They will do it if they believe their high paying job is at risk
Now none of this has happened
It’s been years of paper thin rosters and no depth
This is a tell tale sign it’s a penny pinching strategy that the club is also involved in
They would not Sit back for years letting this happen if they didn’t approve of this taking place
We can all speculate or blame
But the CEO. & Boards job is to ensure the people they employ do their jobs
Instead they sacked BA and HOF is still in, and part of the decision makin process for our next coach
This is another strong indicator HOF is working on the CEO and co’s behalf
The penny pinching and not signing a 30 man roster you can bet is something they all supported up until now because it saves dollars
That’s the only explanation that possibly makes sense
We can’t all get mad and hate our head of football
He’s probably just doing his job in a way that his superiors have supported and maybe even encouraged him to do
Of course we cannot approve this idea
But he is still there – BA Is not
So it makes you wonder
The club may not see him as a problem yet if he is still there
Good points Muz
You said for 10 years defence has not been a focus. I’ve given you 2 recent years we were Top 4 in defence. 2017 we had the 6th best defence, 2016 we had the 4th best defence even accounting for the 107 points against that were deducted after round 7. 2014 we conceded 160 points less than the previous year. So yes, saying defence has been ignored for 10 years is revisionist history based on the past 2 years.
Our poor defence these past 2 years have come from a forward pack that is too big and too slow moving laterally. There’s also a problem with our hit and stick
and ability to get back to marker. These players were signed to long contracts when these rules weren’t in place or the end result wasn’t fully known. Unless we’re able to offload these players this year I don’t believe any coach will be able to have “their team” until the end of 2025 when most of our big names
forwards will be off-contract.
Who’s dining on making the 2022 GF or beating the panthers? I think you’re setting up a strawman there.
I think our club currently suffers from incompetence but also democracy. Being democratic and ticking the right boxes doesn’t work in the NRL environment, things move too quickly to be as bureaucratic as the club is. We need a central decision maker then a bunch of workers to make sure that happens.
Hamsammich, we did have a solid defence for a lot of years. We did often have weak defence on edges, but overall a lot of years BA had us solid in defence. I don’t think we realise how good of teams we have had most years since 2018. We maybe took it for granted.
Ham, I get what the stats say but I’m still thinking we were strong in the middle but dodgy out wide. I notice the word ‘edge’ is used for both, the edges of total play ie out wide, and the edge of the ruck, so I try to use middle and wide. We had seasons where we leaked very little through the middle, but that has definitely changed with loss of key players and rule changes. Micheal Jennings seemed to pull our wide defence together a bit better, and Opacic knew his trade as well, but our inconsistency to defend in the 20 and after errors/penalties is not an illusion. Souths made mauling us an art form in decoys, catch and pass and pace. We never seemed to have the right spacing and numbers. Games when our discipline was strong cut down the threats but even though we were a disciplined team we didn’t seem to be able to consistently be on the right side of stats. Moses and Brown are great scramblers as well.
That means nothing. We didn’t win a comp and we had some good years sprinkled amongst not so good.
As i said we are Not known as a defensive team and have always had blow out losses: 50 blow-outs in last 10 years was recently reported. That’s what I was referring.
On your strawman – People were saying we made the GF and we beat Penrith in the club and on social media especially last year… As I said it’s all well and good at the time but doesn’t help here and now. The club sat on its hands after ’22 and failed to recognise the changes that had already happened. We didn’t change in ’23 or ’24.
Now the CEO said we can win with this squad?
Does anyone know who our defence coach is now BA has left?
Also who is responsible for strength and conditioning?
Thanks
It’s still Steve Antonolli isn’t it ?
Whoever it is , it’s probably the last hurrah for Barrett, Murphy and Antonolli at the Eels as a new coach will bring their own staff in.
Unless I’m mistaken Trent Elkin still runs the strength and Conditioning Dept .. another one that needs the boot
Ok thanks Spark.
Stevie wonder is the coach atm maybe Pete. Lol 🙂
At least next year, lomax is a strong defender out wide.
Him plus Simmonson back should give our backs a significant boost.
Stevie wonder is defence coach* ha
Throwing another discussion points around…
Word is around town that Dylan Brown is not the disciplined fella that he said he would be.
Certainly, no one could say that he is justifying his price tag and there are reports (denied by Dylan) that he wants to return to NZ.
How about this. – we approach the Warriors about a swap…. Dylan Brown for Luke Metcalf ? Warriors take up his contract and we take over Metcalfs contract which is about 300k.
Metcalf is an absolute jet and would be superb outside Moses.
Not sure why there is the Dylan Brown hate. At all
Maybe you should go to ‘The Fiddler’ and see for yourself.
What’s he apparently been doing wrong off field?
Also I think he hasn’t played as good since that incident last year
This is the same player that publicly stated that he didn’t know we were coming last, yet is the first to display immature antics pregame on social media and when the cameras are on him.
This is also the same player that failed to direct the team whilst Moses was out. He was awful and failed when we needed him most. He is severely overrated by many. I almost see parallels to Corey Norman.
Avenger, I can’t imagine we can get anyone as good as brown
Good halves who can defend and fast runners, AND available, are rare as hens teeth
Isn’t metcalf always injured?
I really like Metcalf but he was just thrown up for discussion.
My personal opinion is that Brown is just not giving us enough.
He drifts in and out of games, he’s a catch and pass man without engaging his man. If he runs he’s dynamic but he just doesn’t do it enough.
He is a great defender.
That’s just my opinion and what do I know ?
As I said .. it was just thrown up for discussion.
The weaknesses in our roster are far to great to overcome, anything good is quickly nullified by players who are past their best or players who are not NRL standard.
The new franchise will make it tough to sign new talent beyond 2025.
The new coach will have some tough decisions.
Sixties was right, sadly our backs will be pretty much the same in 2025. the inclusion of Lomax alone drastically improves our backline.
Gutho is a warrior, nobody really wants to broach the subject but is he done? There is a difference between being injured and being busted.
Our halves and centres are set which leaves our back three. I’d prefer the club to start blooding Blaize at fullback now, let him make his mistakes this season and let him spend the offseason catching Moses bombs. We could carry Sivo with Lomax on his inside for one more season. Surely the club can find one winger who is better than Russell and Simonsson. I like Bailey, he’s all effort but he’s not the elite finisher we lack. I’d still like to see Bailey at the club
What’s happened to Lane? He started the season really bad and has progressed to just being bad.
Moretti, Guymer, Doorey and Arthur must play the rest of the season in first grade, these younger guys need to be ready for next season.
I had my doubts we could finish top 4, I was somewhat confident we would at least make the 8. If someone said we would be dead last this time of the year, I’d stand up and punch them out. I know how you feel now Pink.
Don’t forget there was all this talk about us still being in a premiership window and how winning the comp was still the realistic goal. The whole establishment has failed us. Besides Moses, and Ofahengaue I’d argue that the entire team has regressed.
Hi Avenger, Joe o, Moses, simmonson
That’s the 3 players who have played good + improved like you mentioned
Those guys have been solid players this season
Hopgood has been decent too
Billy slater would not have selected him if he were not a solid NRL player
Hey Jo, I reckon you are correct.
It’s time for them to give those younger players game time to build for 25-26’
The conflict of interest is Baz will prefer to try win as much as possible if he can short term to improve his coaching career post parra
This may lead him towards running our more experienced players
But I agree those younger guys gaining more experience now will pay off for us long term
If Matt Arthur, Blaize, Doorey, maybe Guymer can get more first grade experience this season
They will be much better next year
Hi 60’s or anybody who knows.
Are any of our forwards off contract after this season?
I’m wondering if they can do a roster mini clean out this season.
Or if they will need to wait until 25-26’ for most players?
Hey Muz, if you believe Zero tackle, the only forwards coming off contract are Ogden and Makatoa. I doubt either will be retained.
RGC and Lane come off in 2025.
Our big concerns are Matterson and Paulo. Matterson is listed at 600k in 2025 with a player option in his favour in 2026.
Paulos contract now seems like a disaster. He’s listed at 950k in 2025 and 2026. Greig is also contracted in 2025, we’ve spent so long developing him that the game has moved past his body shape and size.
The Dolphins entering the competition screwed us on three fronts, we missed out on outside backs, payed overs to retain players and lost players to other clubs because we paid overs.
Hopgood, Brown, Penisini, Cartwright, Doorey, Joe O, Tuilagi and Moretti all come off in 2025. Matt Arthur may also be in this list.
The only players we would want to keep who are signed beyond 2025 are Moses and Lomax.
A disastrous start to our 2025 season will almost certainly mean Eels fans won’t be needing finals tickets for a long while.
The next 10 months are crucial, I hope our new coach has the impact our club desperately needs. Our club needs a mental rebuild first and foremost, only then can we retain and recruit players.
It’s too early to know how much of a clean out we actually need. We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Some of our players could be past it, others could just be stale and in need of a reset. The new coach will have to work it out quickly.
No way the eels are stuck with this roster next year too?
Surely they can push them out?
Many of them are bad now
Imagine in another 12 months time even older
1 year can be a massive difference, I mean look at our beloved king gutho
Ps Paulo is meant to be on 950k
I love the big fellah but to be a competitive NRL club we can’t have him on that
The refereeing effort had me pining for Greg Hartley to make a comeback. Even the Kayo commentators, who aren’t our greatest fans, couldn’t comprehend a few of those decisions.
Our contact in defence was appalling last night, knights were bending the line with ease and winning the ruck every set (and I wouldn’t say they have an overly powerful side).
A lot of our current pack are finished – the game has moved past them and our lack of mobility is being shown up each week. Some uncomfortable conversations for the new coach once they enter the building because there are guys on big money that we need to move on from.
There is potential in our youth so it’s time to play them and see what we have.
Side note – Ryley Smith was good in cup yesterday, dare I say he reminded me a bit of Reed in his early years.
Apparently most of the forwards are still on contract for next year someone said in this comment section, if that’s the case then you could imagine next year may be diabolical. Imagine the forwards struggling now to keep up another 1 year older.
Interested to see if the new coach has any ideas on how to get any more out of our current players.
There’s no disagreement that its an aging forward roster but its a problem IMO that’s been magnified by the little that the back 5 contribute. Sixties (I think) mentioned that with the inclusion of Lomax we probably know our 2025 backline already, heaven help us if that is the case. Both areas need addressing but getting some genuine meter eaters in the backs is essential.
Yep no money left , botched salary cap till they can offload a few , anyway we run with a short 27 man roster anyway , promotion from within mostly i heard . Blaze will take up some coin , tuivati top 30 ,thats intelligent cant make ko cup yet . 2025 looking bleak for mine ,its funny the ones we want gone no one really wants and the keepers want out , what a debacle sean an jim have created ably abetted but a clueless bunch of suits.
Unfortunately the gap between the coaches and players v the board and recruitment is a chasm now, they hate the mcelduff and sarantinos to a man , theres no way back till this pair of no football knowledge dictators are gone but the other spineless board members deserve thier share of the blame to , anyway issac moses is a happy man hes now in complete control ,the troubles at the top people and thats a fact .
So are you saying that the issue never was Brad Arthur. Sounds like you are.
Board and recruitment lost , kafusi , reedy , opacic , papalili ,marata , stone , arthur 2023 and kept older players replaced them all with 1 decent player in 2 seasons , hopgood , just lost sanders now , bet arthur didnt want that im saying ! 27 man roster 2 seasons in a row thats down to those in charge john , look closer mate .
Cardinal I am aware of all of that and that is my point. BA was not the problem he was the scapegoat.
We are the West Tigers 2.0
Bennett went cold on coaching the Eels after talking to them. He initiated the first contact by a third party as I understand.
Guess he didn’t like what he heard at the meeting!
Misunderstood you sorry john 👍
Actually john thats the true story he knew they wanted to run the show and sensibly declined , TRUE !
Bennett allegedly contacted them initially and that was that.
He is not stupid and would have spoken to our board or CEO for example.
Realised they were difficult to work with and a basket case of a roster situation and not flexible in their approach.
South’s let Bennet do what he wants – because they know he is the one who knows what they are doing.
I originally predicted Bennet and Ryles probably won’t go to our club.
Because their demands (for us to succeed)
Would of been way too far outside the eel’s comfort zone
We don’t sack players who under perform, we don’t try offload them when their times up
We hold them until they are so far gone no other NRL team even wants them
I will be highly highly surprised if Jason Ryles would get or even consider the job
The clubs ran like a basket case atm
They are not serious about success with their actions
Bennet would of seen this and realised they will not do what it takes to succeed like south’s
As soon as he got announced with south’s they started adjusting the roster for him
Even with Cook the veteran leader & hooker in the team
Who’s still a good player
No time wasted – off loaded him for next year all inside of 1 month
Success loved speed and fast decision making
If that was our club they would wait until Cook was so poor jo club would buy him off us
Or they would sell him in his prime and replace him with Joey lussick
or replace him a old almost retired player like Hodgson
I’m holding on to the view point here we will need to fail this year and maybe even struggle next year
To “move forward” so to speak
1-2 more years of our club’s administration failing and moving as slow as a turtle
The ceo, HOF, Mcelduff etc, their jobs will come under serious pressure
Wests tigers 2.0 type of situation
Look at the dragons and bulldogs this year
Bulldogs just signed a roosters forward yesterday
They move FAST
We would of missed that opportunity if it was us after him
Dragons have gone from basket case to competitive team fast with flan no
with Gus & Ciro there – bulldogs also growing successfully
Moving FAST, and recruiting & legging go of dead weight fast
We are doing the complete opposite
I don’t think people realise the head of football is only the tip of the ice berg
The people who employed him and over view his performances have not only kept him as our HOF
They’ve got him in as part of the decision making process for the new coach
We eels fans need to stand strong and play the long game here in this situation
A new coach may lift us a bit and what not
But the actual leaders of the club are running us into the ground
They believe this and has said we have the roster to win a comp?
These are people who either are completely clueless or gaslighting as a way to make BA a scape goat
Things may need to get really bad for us before they get better
Because the people above the coaches, head of football
They are clearly incompetent
They run the club like a money hungry cost cutting profit machine
They seem clueless about how to make our NRL team truly successful
The fish rots from the top – the constant roster depth issues are a manifestation of their penny pinching practices
If they simply applied pressure to the HOF
He would come up with 30 men quick smart to avoid losing his job
This obviously isn’t happening
In fact apparently HOF gets bonuses for keeping our cap down for the top 30 for saving the club money
There’s financial incentives for them keeping our roster paper thin and under manned
Put all of this together and it’s not hard to understand why we never have a 30 man roster
And we only seem to sign Rejects 9/10
Fortunately mcelduffs time is up end 2025 ive heard but look at the damage and mess his reign has left , still it doesn’t matter another no footy knowledge suit from the current spineless bunch will step in and continue his legacy ,mcelduff and sarantinos have destroyed our club and now the main person responsible just walks away .
Is he apparently going next year?
What about HOF & the CEO?
They’ve been collecting their bonuses as a priority for spending as less as possible on our top 30 as well.
Running our roster & club like a cost cutting profit machine whose balance sheet is the #1 priority.
Our NRL teams roster is ran into the ground full of injured or old & washed up players no other clubs would seriously want for even 1/2 of their salary.
It’s a little too late – MANY us eels fans could see the writing on the wall even before last year.
We had a significantly weaker roster going into 2023 on paper with players we lost.
And in 2024 most educated eel’s supporters I spoke to also doubted we would even make the 8 this season.
If we could (mostly) all see this.
How couldn’t the club?
Grand final to equal last in two years indicates a huge failure from up in the front office.
And they aren’t even trying to move those players on in our team that are clearly past it.
They’ve got comfy jobs now collecting big salaries.
There’s no pressure from below – because the eels do not sign quality players for depth.
It’s an absolute disgrace for us life long eels fans.
I’m obviously upset – but the fact is most of us who saw the roster expected we would struggle this year.
The CEO reckons it’s a roster that can win a comp?
He told that to the media only a few weeks back.
Was he gaslighting the media to make BA scape goat?
Or is he actually that uneducated about the game of rugby league?! 🏉
Look to be fair I wouldn’t be leaving anyone out of the blame game and that includes BA, the coaches and the strength and conditioning dept – everyone.
Sometimes it’s very easy to blame those on the board and damn they certainly should be blamed to a point but to put it crudely – it’s a shit show from top to bottom.
Contrary to Sixties assertions that BA can part the red sea and heal the sick at a glance , BA himself would look back and recognise that along with the good, he made some mistakes.
One may be that he just decided to let the so called leadership group set the standards when those in the leadership group were the worst offenders. Alas like Demetriou, you lose control , well you lose control.
I thought it was so bloody ironic that the players were publically backing BA but it was the players that failed him and his loyalty to certain players was at times beyond comprehension.
At the end of the day it was just a perfect storm.
Inexperienced and probably inept board members, an aging roster, a coach that probably was on his last legs, a strength and conditioning group that wasn’t pulling its weight. Etc. It all added up to the mess we are in now.
Moving forward us there any chance that we can get someone with Hannays intelligence and Ryles intimidation ?
I really like Hannay but the VERY LAST thing we need is a coach that’s going to be best mates with the players.