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We feared a comprehensive defeat was coming and while the Roosters certainly won handedly…is it odd to say that the Eels still showed a bit of ticker? Sixties and Forty20 review the 38-14 loss in a game where Allianz Stadium almost flooded after a short downpour and the Eels spent 20min of the contest playing with 12 men.
The contest felt closer to water polo than footy at times with the expensive drainage systems at Allianz competely failing to effect the saturated field. The boys look at how the class of the Tri-colour won out against the depleted Eels on a night where both teams struggled defensively. Did anyone stand up? Sixties and Forty20 share their 3 Eels who stood tall on the soggy ground before wrapping up the Round 24 contest.
I’ve said it many times, if we had 13 Guthos we would be counting the premierships.
Sean Russell for all his faults at least had a red hot go, but has lost a ton of speed as he’s bulked up.
Talagi continued his shocking run of missed tackles, 9 this game.
Penisini has regressed to a park footballer, one of his worst games.
Sean also looks very hampered with his leg issues. This was a match where effort alone couldn’t keep us in the game. It was that simple.
I struggle to see why wiremu is a starting prop in the modern game, especially next to rcg who isn’t mobile either. Add to that a damp playing service and our middle was even more stuck in the mud than usual. I’m just god this season is almost over. I still think we will get the spoon if don’t get one more win and I don’t think I’ve experienced a worse season – too have the season written off from round 4 is really quite something
It definitely wasn’t good conditions for Woody. Mobility will be the key next season.
It seems the modern game calls for smaller, mobile forwards with huge motors and bigger, powerful, athletic outside backs. We are literally the opposite of what the current game requires, at least at the collective level.
Addin FB ring a bell
He Should not be here next season.
They knew they would be up against a 4 forward bench yet when they found out Matto wouldn’t be playing then add a winger. The dumbest selection when you have wiremu who hasn’t gone over the 16 min mark in a game this season.
To be fair, I looked at Sean Russell and wondered about whether he would last the game with his leg injury. But I understand your point. You know there will be longer minutes played by others if you select Woody.
Why Panthers have been so successful even with injuries is that they have this next man up mentality. All this team loves to do is bring up a player that isn’t even in the right position. You’ve lost a lock/prop forward, you’d expect the next lock/forward to come up. Now with wiremu out with suspension let’s debut a winger and change the whole team structure.
The Trent Barrett Effect.
Thanks for the comments on the game guys. A bit of perspective though and with how bad some of the team played, we had 20 min with 12 players and the chooks scored 22 points. The chooks had 10 min with 12 players and we scored 4 points.
13 on 13 and they scored 16 points and we scored 10. While we didn’t play as good as them there is still promising signs and the effort was there in totally crap conditions and with nothing to play for. I’m looking forward to next season like everyone else and fingers crossed we’re a more competitive team and some of the individuals mentioned in the comments improve significantly.
Excellent rap, Tks guys. Realistically , Matterson should be a keeper, and also an interesting pick between Junior and RCG. Non-football issues getting on the way. Joe O has had an unsettled 4 or 5 years since playing Origin but seems to have settled into a level of higher quality form while the world implodes around him. I thought for a fleeting moment we had improved in managing the wide shifts, but the final 10 minutes last week and the game this week cured me of that hope.
Edge defence is severely impacted by the amount of wrestle in the ruck, line speed and talk in defence – we must be near bottom in all the anterior metrics before we even get to the diabolical edge defence. Having no mobility in middle is just a huge problem at the moment. Trent Robinson even mentioned it in his post game presser where he says that roosters (esp Brandon smith and teddy) knew they’d have a lot of opportunities around the ruck
And then in post game, Munster was on fox and basically said parra are mentally weak and not gritty. He tried to then walk it back and say they try hard but have no polish. So in sum, he was saying we are weak under pressure and when we do turn up we are easier to defend than other teams cause we have no real polish to the attack. Also mentioned that storm have variations on defensive systems within the game to ensure their system doesn’t get predictable in the game. Said that came from ryles.
It’s quite illuminating to hear Munster talk about how storm have learnt multiple defensive systems and use different once’s depending on field position, time of game etc but we haven’t been able to nail a single defensive system for years…
That doesn’t mean storm are best defence (that’s still Penrith) but it’s illuminating nonetheless.
It is Ron, though all teams have different systems for field position etc. And there’s not much difference between teams. Look at how most tries are scored against the usual compressed defences. I guess that’s why we are seeing teams having to defend differently at these points on the field. The major defence system that’s operated for years has been broken down and exploited by more adventurous attacking play in epwhat is typically yardage play territory. Defence is also about attitude and individual ability in that aspect of the game – technique, positioning, reading or anticipating what’s happening. It’s why some players are targeted, and why others are highly regarded. I’ve watched so many different match preps where the decision making of individuals or their poor technique is identified by attack coaches in the match plans. Our left side contains three rookies beside each other, including Daejarn as he is a comparative rookie given he doesn’t own a regular top grade role. And on our right, Will has lost the capacity to hit and stick. Something has gone wrong with his technique as he’s bouncing off after contact. There are simply major individual fails all over the place with our defence out wide. However, I understand what you’re saying about teams like Penrith and the Storm doing something that sets them above others. The curious thing is that we have former Penrith people with us – Hands, Hopgood, even Barrett. They would have some familiarity with their systems or anything different that they have done. Plus the video of games would make it clear to any coaches if there is anything markedly different that another team employs.
To hear you and agree. That’s why I continually come back to the ruck and line speed. We can have all the systems we want but if we lose the ruck and have limited line speed it doesn’t matter who the system is – most teams get rolled. I guess what melrboune and Penrith do so well is 1) get up fast with inside pressure and/or 2) spoil the ruck (whether through driving eg people back in case of Penrith or melrboune just laying down for longer). Gives time for edges to make decisions.
And yes we must acknowledge the left edge is full of rookies but even the basic hit and stick seems too much for those on left edge + penisini
Blaize is doing well to keep his head above water in nrl cause he has major holes at the moment (understandably so) in his game that other teams exploit with ease
I’d like us to target iongi or Hopoate from manly and/or votano from newy. All good young players that could play fullbacks/wingers/centres
Which shows it’s not system problems, at least not exclusively. It comes to players making individual misses, which in turn stresses the rest of the defensive line.
What does Bellamy tell his players ?
“Just make your fucking tackles !!!”
It’s the most basic skill in our game.
Ron this has been the issue for years and it’s why I’m not against Ba, we had some good times, but this club needed to move on.
We just heard it from opposition teams we have nothing in attack, it’s predictable, and defensively have been C grade for many years on the edges near the try line.
The clicks desperately needed to move on and employ new experts, and playing staff (backs in particular), for many years. They waited until we hit absolute rock bottom before taking action.
Ba & the coaching staff never had the answers for defensive systems and polish to realistically compete against the top teams when it mattered. It’s nothing against them, it’s just fact.
Us parra eels fans have suffered waiting for premierships since the 80’s. It’s now 2024.
The idea & fight fans had to either retain all the old coaching staff and ideas that came with it guaranteed us never winning a premiership. Even if I felt comfortable with Ba at the ship, the stats show we never saw success in the finals, and we systematically got dismantled in the 1 GF we made because defensively we have had no answers near our try line when teams attack us out wide.
Munster just laid it out, the other teams like storm look at us as mentally weak. Unable to defend. No variation in defence so it’s easy to predict our defensive decisions.
I’m not suggesting Jason Ryles will be the messiah. But it’s an action and decision that’s intended to put us in the right direction. As fans we can’t get complacent again. In 10 years we put up with trash edge defence and kept most of the same staff in power.
I’m personally on the belief it will take Ryles 2-3 seasons to see how he works out. He might have more rookie luck in year 1, but years 2-3 will determine if it’s ideal to remain with him long term.
If the club’s defences and other issues are not resolved within a few seasons, I’m of the belief the Eels then need to change their coach hiring approach:
If Ryles experiment doesn’t work (a rookie coach)
The eels need to shift their strategy in 3 years not 4 (Imo)
And if it’s not working the eels need to stop hiring rookie coach’s from Melbourne.
To make a big play for an experienced coach who’s either won premierships or has a very strong record.
Because the last few coaches we have had more or less are rookie Melbourne assistant coaches.
None of them have been elite coaches.
I’m not suggesting Ryles will fail.
But we need to move fast or face the reality of a club heading for 50 years (possibly) without winning 1 premiership.
The clubs winning the competition are ran by experienced coaches who are not lucky, they have displayed significant success and talent, with years of experience.
My view is:
Give Ryles 3 years or max 4 as his contract suggests.
If that fails the eels needs to re-think their coach recruitment philosophy and go after an experienced elite coach and stop chasing rookies from the storm.
Just my 2 cents. And once again, we can’t get too loyal or delusional.
Our finals results were terrible the last few years, and our edge defence and we kept most of the same people employed who are responsible for those performances.. the eels need to move fast moving forward, if changes to happen. Don’t keep the same coaching staff in and expect for miracle changes, because it rarely happens.
This is the eels issue. We keep in players AND coaching staff for too long even after they display insufficient abilities to win us a premiership. The Eels cannot go on just “being competitive”, they’ll never actually win a title with that expectation of mediocrity.. This mediocrity mindset starts in the front office and seeps its way on to the field of almost every player who’s in the team, culture & leadership starts at the top and seeps it’s way into every part of an organisation.
I am faithful things to change under Ryles, just don’t want to see them persist for too long and waste years if it’s clearly not working.
We’ve seen the bulldogs change of direction under Gus & Ciraldo – it doesn’t take 10 years to make a team into a top 4 defensive side. We can’t let another decade pass us where we win nothing…
BDon, I think in all of those shifts you can point to poor individual execution rather than the system. Some of the misses were quite bad.
60’s some bad missed tackles I agree with what you mentioned..
Also the wet conditions probably doesn’t suit our heavier power type players. Those players with good footwork made it even harder for us to tackle.
I also believe the eels did ok considering the refereeing, injuries galore, and a team full of men who have experienced nothing but disappointment for most of the year.
We will have a completely new looking team in 2025.
Just the line up of Lomax, Simmonson, and Moses back in the squad will take tremendous pressure off the king.
At the moment it seems like the king is literally carrying the eels ship on how shoulders.
I’m optimistic about next season. Will P and Sean Russell will likely improve a lot with Ryles & co coaching them defensively giving them some fresh ideas and training.
The eels will look vastly improved in 2025 is my prediction, the only Achilles heel i see is the minimal depth if we get lots of injuries again, or if we get stuck with all of our 30 + year old forwards…
The roster is in desperate need of a refresh in and around the middle. That or with any luck Ryles can get our forwards fitter and get a little bit extra of them defensively.. 💙💛🤞
Thanks fellas. I think you summed it up pretty well. I see the Coffs Coast Advocate, or whatever it is, suggests we have snared the young Panther (although it was pay walled so I couldn’t read the whole article).
Enjoyed your comments around Gutho. There seems to be at least one journalist who just likes to throw names around willy nilly. I wish someone would ask him “and what evidence or proof do you have to support this”. I imagine the answer would be “ just my opinion, but reading the tea leaves ….”. This sort of journalism is frustrating and somewhat demeaning to the profession.
All this talk around the young fullback from Penrith should be viewed with a large degree of skepticism.
In my view the club is just throwing out these names so it looks like they are being proactive. Until they start landing some of these potential recruits it’s just propaganda which unfortunately is what this board is renowned for.
We are in an awful position for next year in that if we lose every game from here on it will make it very difficult to attract players and to keep players. If we won every game from here on in the dopes running the joint would see it as proof BA was the issue and that we would likely see minimum changes to the roster.
Clive,
Fair point. Although, the heading made it read as if the signing was done. Again, as I mentioned it was pay walled so I couldn’t read the article. It could be, as you say, all froth and bubble but I couldn’t read it to find out.
That said, I’ve never seen this chap and no nothing about him so I have nothing to go on if it is even worth exploring.
It’s all but confirmed, three year deal
I’m absolutely stoked if this is true.
He’s a lot better player than Blaize Tagali.
What a get !
Very happy.
It all comes down to fitness, both physical and mental.
Munster also stated that he was talking to an Eels player and said words to the effect of ” get ready to be smashed in the pre season”
My advice to any of the Eels players is to continue training in the off season because they are going to be anilated.
I don’t believe Ryles has announced his strength and conditioning team yet and it’s going to be his key appointment.
Spot on Spark,
This fading in/out of games. Crucial errors, poor defence, intestinal fortitude all leads back to fitness. Attitude is also a big part of this defensive mindset.
Fatigue makes cowards of us all! Men in Condition dont tire!
We tire early or just too slow in the first place.
I would say only Dylan, Gutho and Moses are fit. They are constantly mopping up defensively. Because of the lack of mobility in the forwards. This often leads to not much in the tank when it comes time to attack.
The ball in play longer has found out our big slow pack. 2021 and 2022 we were at our peak. We need stop start games that we just don’t get anymore.
Look at our off season camp we focused on connecting. Touchy feely stuff and bonding. Which is fine. Yes we did some fitness work. But Bulldogs had an intensive military training camp with gps trackers and fitness metrics all data used to track individual performance. Imho Our camp was a wasted opportunity!
Fitness = defence and all elite clubs realise this. Munster alluded to the fact Ryles recognises that and the players should get smashed physically in the off season.
Definitely didn’t adapt with the times Pete but also might be a blessing in disguise Imo. Even with the players fitter and us winning more games, we still had poor defence on our edges especially close to the try line for many many years for the most part. We would never have won a comp like that anyway. We got destroyed in every finals more or less when it counted, we could not defend like the top teams. I would rather see the club chance their hand and go after somebody who’s got new ideas and a former rep player, and a defensive specialist. We weren’t likely going to win a comp before with constant poor edge defence for years anyway. So I’d rather the club take a new direction and see if Jason and co can get our team better defensively on our try line – so if we make it to finals we might actually be good enough to compete enough to win. Fitness and defence has been poor for a long time, it’s not saying BA can’t coach… it’s the actual roster too. The big bopper power players and top heavy roster, the heavier players are the less fit & mobile. Plus we have stacks of high paid forwards and fringe first grader backs for honestly years. You cannot win a premiership with barely NRL level backs defending on your flanks for years on years. Already Ryles is signing probably the best fullback at nsw cup level from panthers who’s coming to parra. BA didn’t ever get 1 proper legit back up fullback to cover gutherson, he would of panicked and probably bought another two forwards before he would of signed a specialist stat young fullback with minimal NRL experience for us like Jason has just done. The kids smaller and fast, agile, not big tall and powerful and very young. That’s the type of player BA and old parra ways of thinking would avoid like the plague. If we want to even get close to winning a comp. We needed to flip a coin. BA did good for a long time, but his undoing was too many damn forwards on good money, too much power not enough speed & fitness. He didn’t value buying rep level backs like he did forwards. Any former player will tell you that you cannot have a solid defensive team if you do not have good centres and wingers. Look At SOO games, it’s often decided by how good your wingers and centres can stop trys close to the try line. We’ve had minimal money invested in backs for so many years and wonder why our defence was a farce each time teams like Bunnies or roosters gets close to our try line. I do believe speed makes a huge impact for scrambling defence efforts too. We see that with brown & moses or Simmonson. They are actually fast and save tries. The team in my view has MASSIVE potential. We just didn’t adapt or innovate our squad with the times. The club did the right think sacking BA when they did even if i wasn’t sure at the time. Why? Because it’s given Ryles a head start to begging recruiting and tapping players on the shoulder. This year was a write off anyway. Speed and fitness is massively needed and Jason is making things happen already. Asi is apparently going to super league, Ryles is talking to halves who are faster with more potential who are playing NSW & QLD cup for other clubs.. he’s not sitting still. This is a very strong indication Jason is going to do a great job for us. That’s my belief. He is making the right moves so far it sounds like. Moves we’ve all wished had taken place already in the years past. For too long we have had no legit back up full back or back up halfbacks who can play nrl seriously. Ryles hasn’t even taken over yet, and we’ve seen more action on this front than we had seen or heard about over many years. Good signs so far for the eels.
Good points Muz.
I dont want to bash BA either. Although, BA had reached his ceiling and so had the players under his coaching. His 50th blow out loss was the straw…according to the board.
MON hasn’t helped. He is clearly limited and is either corrupt or incompetent or over worked or mixture of some. If it’s not a competence issue. Then give him better resources to do his job. Maybe have Head of Junior League and Head of Senior League split the role so that we could see a greater focus on developing our junior base.
Surely there must be a thorough review of the football department. The board should be extremely disappointed with the performance of the football department.
On Baz, he’s very likeable. But the feedback from Dogs was his preseason was way too easy. This could be a strategy to get players on side. But that strategy won’t win football games. It will give the coach the players support. Given the performance of our team we probably were not far from that. Spare the rod (training) spoil the players. Every bye our guys were given time off. That lead to Dylbags at the Sheaf…The captains run is the best day of the week? Not game day? Having time off has to be earned not just expected.
I think Ryles although a rookie is a step-up in quality. He seems to have a finger on the pulse and is very well regarded. He’s got a big job. But he has a good work ethic.
Yeah true mate… and I think nsw harder off season, and some new ideas will go far with them.
Also we have never seen the eels this active under BA in the player market.
Ryles is chasing the best NSW cup fullback from Penrith and got him.
He is openly chasing the back up halves from titans and bunnies.
Everyone blames mon, but Jason is more actively chasing backs & back up spine players more so then BA did collectively over 4 years combined. And he isn’t even active coach yet.
I get the feeling the blame totally on MON we all have felt at times might not be the full picture, Ba had apparently the most pull on player signings.
He only signed forwards and never bothered with going after backs as aggressively.
We have not had a proper back up fullback basically ever who’s NRL quality.
Neither have we had proper nrl level back up halves.
Jason’s not even coach yet and he’s already signed a proper legit talent back up fullback who’s undoubtedly going to be a NRL player and full of potential.
He’s also fixing the back up halves problem as we speak. People blamed mon but ba was never active after these players like Ryles already is.
It’s obvious mon isn’t good at his job seemingly.. but at least Jason isn’t hiding behind them. He’s been meeting up with star talent. Selling his vision to them.
It’s a very good indicator jason is going to be very active and not hide behind excuses. He doesn’t seem like he will hide behind excuses of MON failings or anything, he’s out there making more shit happen with players who aren’t forwards than we have seen at the Eels in literally years.
It’s very exciting times to see. Look at bulldogs. Moving fast. That’s what Jason seems to be doing so far, taking massive action.
The coach obviously doesn’t have a lot more power over roster than eels fans were lead to believe.
Sorry I meant to say a new* harder off season should help them. 👍
God it’s easy to think the sky is falling in.
Sure, we defended like shit in the first half.
Sure, we had enough ball in their 20m to score another 2-4 tries if we’d had more “polish”.
Sure, BA/MON didn’t recruit enough depth in the backs and it’s coming home to roost. But it wasn’t through lack of trying. He was overruled on Harley Smith Shields and has Blake Wilson almost over the line before the Dogs guilted him in to back flipping. Both/either of those players would have been walk up starts over Tago/Muitalo/Russell.
And sure, our edge defence has been vulnerable for years…
But:
1) We had 8 players out, including 5 current or former SOO representatives against an almost full strength Roosters
2) Atkins hammered us for every 50/50 and missed two glaring errors leading in to 2 of the Roosters first half tries.
3) The conditions couldn’t have suited us less
4) Isiah Longi does not have more potential than Blaize Talagi and will almost certainly not be a better player than him in 5 years time, but he is a much better suited player to what we need right now
Adam I reckon the NRL is now a speed dominated game and it’s getting faster every year.
If Blaize is wanting to stay in the backline he is going to have to find some speed especially off the mark.
I doubt he will get any faster.
Jake Arthur is quicker off the mark than Blaize Tagali is and if Jake had that speed , he would be a serious footballer.
Blaize obviously has an abundance of talent but I think he will end up a lock after he has bulked up a bit.
He’s definitely not a centre, winger or fullback.
Who knows the ceiling of both players, it’s certainly hit and miss.
Brodie Croft and Isiah Tass were once the most converted junior players in the NRL lower grades.
I personally reckon we got the better of the deal.
Absolutely over the moon if we get it over the line.
Blaize is a 5/8 and he has the skills to be a good one at that. If we get iongi (I won’t presume unless an announcement is made) then that is better suited to what we need as he is more polished at fullback play at the moment. But iongi is unlikely to be the answer long term. So even if we do sign him, we need to find/buy a proper gun/blue chip junior and groom him to be ready to at least challenge iongi or take fullback from him at the end of any 3 year deal.
I mean look at titans – one of kini, Jayden Campbell or aj Brimson must be available.
Connor voltano from newy.
Lego Hopoate from manly.
Wests have some good young fullbacks.
Etc etc etc
Cyrus Bloomfield is 16 and shone against the older kids in Matts this year. He’s got wheels.
He’s an Oakhill student and already in the system. Could be something very special in 4-5 years time if he continues to develop.
Yea he is certainly an option. I’ve only seen limited clips of him but I’d love parra to back someone like him and have gutho mentor him even after gutho retires.
Wouldn’t hurt to have multiple young options and see who proves to be the best – esp since Hopoate and Voltano can also play centre/wing
Hey Adam, I disagree RE Longi. Blaize is not a fullback and would probably be the slowest fullback in the NRL Besides gutho.
Maybe blaize as a 6 he offers more. But Longi offers far more speed and footwork than Blaize.
Longi is the QLD fullback, the best club in the nrl’s first choice cup fullback, who’s won comps in lower grades.
Blaize is not a blue chip fullback* prospect, maybe a potential good 6 or something else.
I agree with what you are saying tho mate, the refereeing was shocking…
And in my opinion we are doing ok for having 8 players out.
We can’t expect much more than the efforts the boys have been giving, some of our players are working extremely hard and putting in significant efforts.
That’s all we can ask for at this current time as fans. We can’t expect a side full of reserve graders to flog a top 3 team at a location we were historically always loose. I think it’s been 16 years?..
I
We played as our ladder position suggested.
I’m now prepared to wrote of Penisini due to our lack of depth and junior development or recruitment he has never had his position in danger.
Best thing for the Kid is to leave to a better team and challenge himself or any and all potential will be wasted if I was advising him I’d say go as soon as possible.
I’d like him to move to the wing I think in attack he could offer something currently he’s a defensive liability.
Maybe he (Will P), can take up a new mini Sivo position on the winger as a power runner finisher. He can find the try line pretty well close to the line.
There’s also a chance / possibility Will has already been told or heard whispers that Ryles doesn’t want him there long term or potentially might be looking at using him in a different position.
Some of the players have lifted upon the new coach news, Will has only declined. He doesn’t look happy, he is playing well below his own previous standard.
Will might even just be well down on form as we have seen happen to many players after they have been in first grade for a few years without changing clubs. It happens.
There’s whispers Ryles might be looking to Place Lomax on one side and Simmonson on the other to stack speed & X factor outside of our back rowers taking up each centre position.
This would make sense because it would tighten up our defence significantly having both Lomax & Bailey as our centres because both of them are faster and offer much more in terms of speed in scrambling defence situations.
If Jason has Lomax & Bailey are out centres all the sudden players can’t simply beat us with speed every time they shift the ball out towards the edge.
If you look at teams who are extremely good defensively their centres are very mobile and fit, fast, and do not rely solely on power offence as their strength like Will P does.
Panthers like to play their Bulky power running backs more so on the wings too usually. Like To’o and Turuva.
The eels new coach is a defence first mindset coach who’s been trained under the best coaches in the league.
There’s a high possibility he will plug the centre positions with his two best backs besides gutho, that will most likely be Lomax & simmonson.
Will P will not be rewarded a permanent centre position under Jason playing like he has. He will simply drop him to cup or shop him off. We have a real hard coach now coming in who will treat it like a business, people who know him say he is a guy who’s not afraid to make the tough decisions fast. It’s Exactly what we have been in need for if it’s true mate. 👍🏆
I tend to agree Offside. As much as it pains me.
It’s clear parents are happy to have their kids play Junior Eels. But when the decision time comes for senior contracts they seem likely to go elsewhere.
I did mention about splitting the HOF role into two positions 1. Senior and 2. Junior heads of football. I’m no MON fan but given the addition of NRLW and HN League teams and the Junior women and girls growth. He could be struggling with the additional workload. We do have a large Junior league so it stands to reason to split the position.
Maybe MON needs more help. It’s hard to know because the club lacks transparency and operates like North Korea as far as information sharing is concerned.
If media reports are accurate it seems Ryles is looking at the neglected depth issues that have chronically plaged the club.
I’m hopeful Ryles will make a positive impact.
Maybe Jason is taking some pressure off MON, if the reports are correct he has been driving around and even flying around to meet prospects. He met up with a JNR titans back up half in QLD, apparently met with Val homes. Also had meetings with Bunnies NSW cup back up half to try poach him. Plus got the Penrith NSW cup fullback to apparently sign with us.
If the reports are even 1/2 correct mate then it’s evident Jason Ryles is taking matters into his own hands like other good coaches are doing. Flanno is also doing similar things and using himself as face & pitch deck to persuade players himself since he holds credibility as a coach.
It’s similar to what Bennet and Bellamy do too where they openly state they want or would like certain players.
I know we got good forwards, but if we are being honest we haven’t seen enough of this from the Eels in years. We’ve signed 1 or 2 good back in like 5 years. And 1 of them is starting next year in Lomax.
People like to hide behind the fact MON is a failure and maybe it’s true, but the good clubs and members don’t hide behind excuses the head of football is to blame. Other clubs leaders / coaches are the ones openly chasing the good players.
If you remember for years anytime a good forward became available at times (who wasn’t crazily over priced) we were linked to them. But every time a fair priced or good value back become available we (the eels, MON, or BA), were nowhere to be seen.
We signed about 5 + varies forwards and two dummy halves over the last few years who legitimately aren’t even first grade material (most have moved on) or will be once Jason gets the opportunity.
What I’m asking is why has Jason already taking matters into his own hands (if it’s true?)
And already gotten us a Gun young back up fullback who’s better at #1 than Talagi. Plus attempting to sign varies Champion halves who are stuck in cup who can legitimately cover for moses or brown when they get injured? The two positions you cannot compete for premierships without sufficient players to replace them are: Fullback + Half back.
We’ve not had a remotely competitive back up FB or HB for years and we have a below 10% win rate (from memory) win rate when gutho or moses is gone. In fact I think somebody said we win 1/10 games stat wise without gutho.
This is where I think the teams been mismanaged for years and it goes deeper than MON who clearly is out of his depth or lacks the support as you mentioned.
But our old coach & his assistants were not active in the player markets making it clear they wanted them.
Put it this way, when did we hear about them flying up to go meet other clubs back up players who have significant upside potential to try sign them?
Compared to the bulldogs, dolphins, chooks, even titans we’ve failed monumentally to consistently try sign backs and young halves into the system to build an actual team of athletic football players.
It’s not to say ba or mon are entirely to blame either, our board & CEO has let this go on for far too long to the point we have the slowest and unfittest team in the NRL.
In other organisations the leaders remove you from your title before the whole ship sinks, they’ve waited until we had to fight for a wooden spoon before they decided to get new coaching staff and get a new coach out aggressively trying to recruit new fast & athletic talent.
Obviously we’ve still got issues at our club. But just the fact our coach is actually trying to get young, fast & successful lower grade players to our club us a huge win in itself.
But it’s taken us years of failing in every finals, having the worst edge defence on the try line every year, and now fighting to avoid a wooden spoon.
Before the board & CEO actually made a decision to fix it. And we still don’t know if it can be fixed with the same people in our club making up all these stupid contracts with imbecile clauses.
Even those clauses we can’t only blame on the head of football, the CEO & co are supposed to be smart enough to help stop or reduce stupid decisions, especially ones that continue to happen!
Time will tell. I still think Mcelduff & Jim S the ceo are incompetent compared to other successful club’s executives. My 2 cents.. just going off their press conferences & decision making.
As for Penisini I reckon he will be the odd man out next year unless he shows something exceptional in pre season.
Lomax and Gutho will be the centres.
Lomax didn’t come to the Eels to be a winger.
Simonson will get one wing.
Penisini is too slow to hold the other.
AMS may grab the other wing or they will externally recruit.
What about stonestreet from sharks – far too good for reserve grade and no way into sharks team??
Ron he’s a died in the wool shark junior who absolutely loves the club.
He would be a really good get but it would take a lot to convince him to leave them.
We’ve been banging on about him for a couple of years. I reckon the club is well aware of him but could they get him away from the Sharks? Not so sure.
It seems sharks and titans are ripe for us to pick up an outside back as they have so many good ones. Surely we can convince someone to come down – those two clubs are no where near parra in history and size/resources. Big test for ryles
In this faster-paced game, I feel that Penisini can become a very good edge forward. He runs strongly and direct, can break tackles, and can offload the ball at… will (forgive the pun). He would thrive running off Moses’s hip and bursting through the attempted tackles of opposition halves. Besides, it’s not a position unfamiliar to him.
Hammer I like that idea.
I see both Cartwright and Matterson as middles these days, whereas Tualagi (left) and Penisini (right) are probably our most direct runners and therefore best suited on the edges. Lane can cover both the middle and an edge off the bench, allowing him to make a greater impact due to fewer minutes from him than he currently plays.
I can’t dismiss Penisini’s first year form, he looked strong all round, he deserves the benefit of the doubt under a new coaching group and better players around him. Lomax is a high effort player, with confidence and grunt, I reckon he’s got a voice as well, playing next to him might help lift WP back to his original trajectory, you don’t just lose talent. A positional switch is interesting, has he played in the forwards in juniors? He looks around the same build as Reuben Cotter.
Or if they made Will Penisini into a power winger like Penrith does with to’o and Turuva. Penrith typically likes their power wingers for strong kick returns.
Will p isn’t the mobile & fast X factor type centre you see now in most good teams. Penrith uses more mobile players typically as their centres. Just an idea. Will P could be a new mini sivo. Will P can finish a try.
Spark there’s some rumours / suggestions Ryles is potentially looking to make Lomax and Simmonson his starting centres next year. It’s a slightly left field idea because we are used to will P there, but if Lomax & Bailey are stand outs for Ryles he will prefer his faster & better defensive backs in the centres you could imagine. Unless he’s short for wingers and needs to utilise either Lomax or simo on a wing (Zac left at George to not be a winger though). 😅
Ok that’s interesting. I suppose it depends if the new fella signs from Penrith ?
Anyway Im excited about the new coaching team !
Yeah spark it will be interesting, the young fellah from Penrith is a blue chip specialist fullback for his grades. He obviously won’t be a finish product but has way more speed and footwork than Blaize as a fullback. I also would like to see the young fellah play games at #1 and gutho slip into our left centre position to plug that side where we leak tries in every game… then Lomax in the other centre spot. Imagine how much it would bolster our try line defence with gutho defending at centre? People don’t realise how good he is defensively. He could be slow and still offer more than most people overall. Imagine gutho defending every game where blaize has been? We would have leaked 50% less tries on that side. I hope Jason considers this option with gutho as a wise to finally Strengthen our dreaded defence out near the edges. Just a thought of he could use gutho he wants to blood the new kid as the long term fullback. I’m of the belief we have some really good players, we simply need to significantly bolster our try line defence and we are a top 8 side. The eels can beat the best teams even with dog shit defence on our good days. It’s just defence we severely lack (Imo) if he improves that we instantly start winning those closer games. My bold prediction is we are a top 8 team again next year with some improved defence and better backs depth, which Ryles is already working on. We didn’t even have a proper NRL backup fullback for years. Hence we lost like 100% of games gutho was out. You can’t seriously say you are competing for premierships as a club without even having a nrl standard backup fullback. The clubs been a chair on 3 legs. It’s great to hear Jason is signing a legit young fullback and chasing legit young halves as backups. It’s madness to me the club and old coach focused so much on forwards for years and left us unable to win games more or less the second moses or gutho couldn’t play. Jason has obviously identified this (common sense), hence the first two players he’s chasing are specialist young halves with legit potential and a legit specialist fullback who’s got a future NRL career. Hope he gets them, it’s been well over due and I’m glad to see it’s the first positions he is chasing depth for. Very excited to see how it all turns out. The bunnies back up half Hawkins has more upside potential than Jake Arthur, Asi, etc. The panthers jnr has more potential as a specialist fullback than Blaize. Already Ryles is not chasing rejects. I don’t care if we don’t go perfectly next year, it’s the intention. He’s intentionally trying to make good decisions. Not just taking rejects or what’s easy & cheap. Those young players Ryles is talking to are kids who are winning premierships are lower grades, we need winners. No more fringe first graders who’s ceiling is limited.
All good points mate.
I tell you Ryles wouldn’t have been impressed with what he saw against the Roosters.
Yes we had some players out, but individually, some players didn’t do themselves justice.
Spark I think maybe our boys were down in confidence and a bit mentally effected from the week before. It was sloppy but I’m just happy most the boys are turning up giving solid efforts every week. Even at FULL strength, you know our record over there VS chooks is shocking. I think 16 years since we beat them at home.. unless I read it wrong. 😅 The wet conditions suited the chooks more too as their players have pretty good footwork and middle of the field ruck running game.. e.g teddy & the cheese.
57 missed tackles !
Conditions contributed a bit to that but the team was eviscerated out wide. Roosters had a major class and experience advantage there.
I am digressing. Annesley once again comes up with a dubious justification of officiating.
The field goal blocker situation. The rules say there has to be an obstruction, it can be a non-contact obstruction. eg, if the defenders have to change line, even slightly, when charging at the kicker. In the Sharks/Knights game there was no mention of whether the defenders were obstructed by any action, just that because they were downtown they were obstructing. Cronulla’s Kennedy looked to run a perfectly straight line, no one touched him but he was called as being obstructed but you needed some different angled camera shots to prove it. The bunker has these but nothing was shared publicly.
So the fantasy non-contact obstruction and the accidental trip become free thinking interpretations.
BDon,
Annesley also mentioned the blockers need to be near the ruck. The original intent was to stop the markers being impeded in the attempt to charge down the FG attempt. The two Knights players were well wide of the ruck, I can’t recall for the Sharks.
The interesting thing for me is that in all the subsequent tv and radio shows I’ve watched and listened to there has not been one “expert” who agrees with Annesley’s interpretation.
It seems to me the NRL officials are becoming like The Fonz, struggling to ever admit they are wrong.
In reality it means I should stop letting all those poor decisions against the Eels get to me. But that seems even harder than the NRL admitting it’s wrong.
N…I don’t think anyone who is a long term, avid RL follower wants to undermine the authority of officials and the game. We’ve seen over the years that mistakes happen in a fast moving, brutal game. You get to know that if your team has the physical, mental and skill aspects, they will most always prevail. (Greg Hartley offered some thought for exception). But when the latest in modern visual technology still can’t greatly improve the percentages of good calls, and officials seem to be in a world of their own, students of the game become engaged in the melee of opinion. For me, it’s almost like involvement and entertainment, if it was anything more it would be mentally challenging. Your last para is spot on, don’t get twisted, have an opinion based on evidence, and enjoy the best game on offer, warts and all.
All good points. I’m the first to put my hand up to say I would never be a referee or other rules related official in NRL. I respect that the individuals put themselves out there knowing that every decision made will be disagreed with by half the audience, even the correct ones.
I try not to get too worked up about decisions but, particularly when watching with my 21yo son, my wife tends to leave the room. Then she suffers the ongoing analysis/assessment over the dinner table the following few nights. We are trying to lighten up about things to give her a break! It is a work in progress.