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The Eels won, or rather dominated, the Mariana Trench Trophy as they delivered a 60-26 hiding of the Wests Tigers to consign the joint-venture to their 3rd straight wooden spoon. The victory comes with a heavy cost though with serious concerns about Dylan Brown (suspected ACL) and Will Penisini (suspected MCL) heading into the offseason.
Sixties and Forty20 break down all of the play as usual but are joined by a pair of special guests this week and Greg and Rob chime in to deliver their closing takes on the game. The boys chat about the heroics of several players including what looks to be a bittersweet send off for Reagan Campbell-Gillard after the big man pocketed a try and a conversion in a rousing last hoorah.
A wild take. I don’t think Tbaz did as poor of a job as people make out. Whilst I don’t want him as head coach he grabbed four wins this year missing close to half his starting side and almost jagged one over Penrith. BA won three games all year winning only one game without his halfback. They never gave up in effort even if they were showing little skill. He’s done an immense job in tough circumstances.
Baz did really well. He had the weakest (injury wise) eels team I can remember in a long time. He United the team during uncertain conditions. He is a top bloke in real life and the fellas probably loved him being around.
Muz, we can never be happy with a season like this, but kudos for a good finish to the season are deserved.
Yeah true 60’s most definitely we can’t celebrate, but as a fan I was at least happy to see the efforts by our boys and coaches, they didn’t give up effort wise. They kept trying. Lots of great young players got opportunities. It wasn’t a successful season but still some positives
It wasn’t an easy gig. I don’t need to repeat how highly I rate BA, but the job that was done by the coaches in the latter part of a long season deserves some accolades.
Agree.
Good win – I had no doubts they would do it and by a big margin. Except for that game against the Roosters in artrious conditions they have played great attacking football over the past month or so. The Broncos bemoan they have $4 million sitting on the sideline well Parra have had that for half the season. Traumatized by the sacking of their beloved coach adjusting to a new style and making stupid mistakes has worked against the team this year. To finish with a big win even over the Tigers gives the team a positive filip for 2025. It’s been a tough year and a contributing factor not only with Parra but with many teams who have experienced the worst refereeing I can recall. That referees influence the outcome of a game is undeniable but what is more appalling is the mistake made by the bunker even with their advanced technology. And Parra have had some bad decisions go against them. As with all loyal patient Parra supporters there is always next year. Who will win this year – it looks like a two horse race. Big Joe or Gutherson is Parra’s player of the year. One final thing – get rid of the six again.
Hey Zero. Next year remains our battle cry. There remains plenty of work that the Eels need to get right going forward, but the effort levels from the latter part of the season gives hope. Last year, we said that luck and injuries would surely be better in 2024. I’ll say no more at this juncture.
Tks guys, enjoyed the final rap(or is it wrap?). One major difference from last week was that Gutho was on the park for the run home. Are there far more knee injuries than the past? Seems so. I’m thinking Joe O next year will again look like the Origin player emerging 4/5 years back.And just on the bunker, last week Kelma lost a challenge when a bloke clearly impacted the ball as he pulled his hand away, based on that Sivo should have won his challenge last night,there was far less impact. In the Kelma one, the opponent should have also been penalised for holding too long. But, c’est la football!
Cheers BDon, I think it’s wrap. 😁
We tried to avoid talking match officials after last night. But yes, that call was befuddling.
Agree Bdon. Joe O as sixties predicted ages ago Joe would become a much better eels forward after getting in a proper pre season or two at the eels. Joe has turned into a very forward for us. His effort and consistency this year have got him up besides Clint Gutherson, RCG and Dylan Brown as one of our best players this year.
Muz, I spoke to Joe at the member event last week and he would not hear of any personal praise. For him it was only about the team results and it just was unacceptable as far as he’s concerned. I reckon he’ll be ultra driven next season.
That’s awesome sixties, and you could see it Joe was a leader for our team this year especially in the forwards. Glad we have got him for next year. Wests are fools for letting him go. He is better than any forward they currently have including papali’i now. Who would have thought Joe would go from unwanted at tigers to one of the eels best forwards 2 seasons later.
Gents, firstly thank you for turning up each week during a rough season. It is always a good listen.
And thanks for the insight into the coaching. Barrett has done a good job with a side that could have just given up. Ryles has plenty to do but I assume he would be pleased with how the players kept trying.
I’ll miss RCG and am at a loss about who I’ll have for first try scorer next season. That said while the Dragons will get value out of RCG Parra got the best of RCG.
And I’d like to point out the form of Kelma and DJ the last few weeks. Kelma is turning into a weapon on the edges and looking forward to he development next season. And while I believe DJ is leaving the club he has really started to show some form playing half back.
The sour note is Dylbags doing his ACL. That said we welcome Iongi and Lomax to the club.
Enjoy the off season break and I look forward to the first training reports of the Ryles era.
Thanks Shaun. Appreciate you sticking with TCT and the pods in a tough year. It’s been interesting watching the structure of training turn full circle. Hearing and seeing the enjoyment at training during the latter part of the year was something I couldn’t share earlier, and there may have been some fans who took that in a negative manner. But it was the key to moving the team away from being a double spoon side back when BA took over in 2014, and it worked again to keep the side energised in what has been such a long season.
Enjoyed the game last night obviously.
As for the individuals, just a couple of takeaways…
Sean Russell has a lot of thinking to do over the off season. I understand that the leg injury may have been impacting him but I believe he’s at a bit of a crossroads.
If I were Sean I’d seriously be looking to someone like Roger Fabri to discover some speed and lose about 5 – 8 kgs.
There is a footballer in there but if he doesnt do the extras , he won’t be in the top team moving forward.
I reckon if he stays, 2025 will be a huge year for Sivo.
He had a great first half but tired badly in the second.
I think if we can get him super aerobically fit for 2025, we can have a real superstar on the wing.
Spark I think if they can’t get much more out of him this next off season Ryles will probably look to move him on unless he is on low money and seen as a good backs depth option. Ryles hasn’t got any emotional loyalty to these players so you would expect he will not hesitate to move them on if he believes upside potential is limited. The other player who’s going to have to watch themselves is Will Pensisni. If the new coaching staff cannot help him significantly improve his defence, Jason will be looking at his cards and tossing up Wether to move him on. There’s players who can defend better than Will who get sent to super league (examples: Reimis smith, Tom Opacic). My personal feeling is Ryles & co will see if they can train them better defensively, and if it doesn’t help some of them next year they’ll be shipping them off. Jason is apparently a defence first coach whose specialty is forwards defensive coaching. If he concludes the edge defence is poor partly due to our centres and not just our back rowers or wingers. Will P will be under the microscope. Sean & will have potential but have declined. Let’s hope new coaches can give them a fresh form lift. Otherwise my feeling is Jason Will consider moving them on. Jason R only has a few years to prove himself. He will be shipping more players off by mid season if our teams not performing up to standard. His mentors (Bellamy, Bennett, Robinson) do not hesitate to shop off players early if they can see writing is on the wall. Previously parra has been ultra slow to move. Interested to see if he changes this approach.
Absolutely right regarding Penisini.
It’s not quite overhead projector time but it’s close !
I’ve got Simmonson and Lomax as my starting centres for the eels in 2024. Iongi on 1 wing, Wilson on the other wing (if we sign him)..
Gutherson still fullback.
That’s the most X factor back line we would have had at the eels in possibly 10 years or so I can remember.
1). Gutherson 2). Wilson 3). Lomax 4). Simmonson 5). Iongi
Other option is with Gutherson on our left centre, Iongi fullback, and Simmonson moving to wing.
If we could run this as a starting back line next year with Brown and Moses healthy, that’s the best back line I’ve seen from the eels in donkeys years. One can hope.. 🤞
Well that is a good way to finish the year. scoring 60 points or 100 in 2 games.
I sit back n think imagine if trent had a full complement.
ppl must remember we had no simmonsons no hopgood no jr paulo no moses, no matterson. for most of the yr.
I’m thinking if they play we are playing semi’s under Trent.
We the fans must give credit where due to Trent.
To Trent n the player’s Thanks for everything you all have done for our eels. all the best in your future endeavours..#go eels#
Agree mate baz and our coaching staff did very well considering how many injuries. You could argue we improved and that was with a more depleted roster.
Standing applause to the TCT team. Thank you all so much for getting us through the season from hell.
I enjoy riding the highs but I can’t tell you how much TCT helps me get through the lows, and boy did we go through our fair share of lows this season.
Super relieved to avoid the spoon, and I can finally stop holding my breath now that Dylan’s injury is not as bad as first thought.
Upwards and forwards, I’m looking forward to your offseason podcasts, there is every reason to be optimistic for the 2025 season.
I’m especially looking forward to the season review, the crap slide started with Moses twitching his groan in round one, the writing was on the wall but we lived in hope until all hope was gone.
The review podcast will go for over two hours, what could go wrong did go wrong, the season almost ticked every “you’ve gotta be shitting me” box. Dylan avoiding surgery hopefully means the footy Gods may look elsewhere for a laugh next season.
We avoided the spoon and the Dogs got flogged. Not a bad duece, I’ll take what ever I can get.
nothing better then the dogs getting flogged in the same weekend we smash tiger’s
Jo the dogs have been flogs for years. They probably feel like they have won the comp by making the finals and now capitulating in real time. I could be wrong but don’t be surprised if they don’t win another game this year, us eels fans can rejoice 🤞😂
Lol Muz, I don’t want any team to win the comp other than the Eels but I especially don’t want the flea bags winning the comp.
I hope they get flogged by Manly.
If the dogs don’t win another game I’ll be over the moon. over rated