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It isn’t on the back of a result we ever wanted but tonight TCT venture into new territory as The Tip Sheet goes really instant, live in fact.
Join us as we react to the Eels performance immediately after the final whistle – unfortunately in a game where Parramatta have been blown off the park by Melbourne in the first half. Sixties and myself will salavge what we can from the post-mortem of a horrendous start to the 2025 campaign.
The stream kicks off on YouTube at 6:20pm where you can participate in the live chat.
2nd worse first 40 in club history is an unfortunate start for the new boys and new coaches. We desperately need a decent / respectable second half for the confidence and moral of the team or they will be starting off this year thinking they might get the wooden spoon. We desperately need Moses and the Fox on this side. Matto too possibly on an edge once he comes back if Tualgi isn’t able to improve defence on his side.
If???
Tuilagi cost us 3=4 tries, Geez
Warning signs were there and he didn’t disappoint. I’m sorry but next please
Never seen a team start off so passively and pay the price so convincingly. What happened to our aggression (there was absolutely none) and what has happened to our offloading? Our defence was all over the place and ineffectual so what happened in the pre-season? Need to see huge improvement otherwise those people who picked us for wooden spoon will be right!
Don’t want to see him again
How can the storm slow the play down this much? Milk penalty’s? Lay all over players for what seems like 5 seconds. Ryan pap also just milked a soft head touch and we got penalised. Unbelievable.
Hey muz we have won the 2nd half 12 10 haha
Tanky
True that’s one positive tanky. To be fair once we started to go to the left side where Will Peninsi etc is we looked a lot better. The Lomax side didn’t look very good yet.
Everyone knows Tualagi can’t defend. He needs a good halfback to protect him – that’s how bad he is. That isnt Ryles fault.
Hopgood was awesome in 23, average before injured in 24. Rust or just an average player?
We knew we would get no metres out of the back 3, no surprise there.
Yep there are injuries. There are also unfit players and players who would have been in the 17 regardless of injuries who today showed they are not first graders.
If Brown doesnt want to be a leader and wants to go, the door is over there.
It goes back to recruitment and retention at the club and those responsible not being held accountable.
We looked better with hoopgood tipping into other players in support like doorey. Problem is we don’t run in 2s and threes enough. Too much one out or telegraphed backline movements
Agree Ron. Was too much one out running and you simply won’t make meters against the storm doing that. Once they started to play off Hopgood we looked a lot better.
Good to see we trained really well in the off season.
Effort, attitude and attention to detail wasn’t there.
I don’t care who is missing there just the 3 basics to turn up into round 1 with whatever personnel you have and all weren’t there.
We went with lighter more mobile forwards and should have been rushing up into the face of Storm players all match. Give them no room to think and react. Instead our defence took 3 steps forward and stopped waiting for attack. This is not Rugby but League with 10 metre rule. And our one out running in attack stopped in 2019. So what happened in the offseason to produce such a putrid display? To be honest I stopped watching at about the 22 minute mark with Storm scoring at better than a point a minute. We need a complete facelift with one week to achieve it.
Stick by Ryles. He inherited a BA mess. Brown please just go mate. You’re a joke. 1.3 hahahaha
It’s not browns fault. It’s the admin who have let brown and Moses down. They can’t be expected to drag these players off the canvass each game or make their tackles. A better admin plans and puts players around to maximise brown and Moses. We plucked volkman who hasn’t played nrl in over a year . He might be ok but he’s rusty.
See Josh, this is the exact same hypocritical BS I’ve been reading elsewhere this evening. The BA haters were adamant he was the sole problem and the amount of times I read just get a new coach, any coach and things will be better was ridiculous. The players are there, they just need a new voice, was another. Then JR gets hired and the BA haters are doing backflips. After trial 1 it was all about how great JR was, what a difference he’s made, the players are fitter, they’re more mobile, how good will Junior go now hes shed kgs, the dead wood has been cut out with BA gone, RCG and Gutho were shit etc etc etc etc. And now here we are and it’s reverted back to “JR has inherited BA’s mess”. Josh, that’s complete and utter rubbish. JR inherited a squad that made the GF 2 years ago. He made multiple changes – his own doing and choices. Now it’s round 1 and things can change but I highlighted my opinion on this a few weeks ago and I think I’ve been proven correct. It’s laughable all the idiots that kept banging on about BA and his talk of chasing the collision being BS – guess what, that’s exactly where the Eels got absolutely pumped today, they lost nearly every collision and the forwards, as I predicted, got their arses handed to them. I really hope JR turns it around, but the hypocrisy of some people doing a full 180 and now somehow trying to blame BA for today is beyond stupidity. Maybe some dickheads might just realise he was a good coach after all, but I doubt they’ll admit it as they’ve painted themselves so far into a corner with their stupid comments on him there’s no going back now.
Completely disagree. You have no idea about football buddy, nor roster management. BA thrives in super league for a reason. Mate it’s 2025 not 2022.stop living in the past!!
Ryles has inherited a terrible roster. It’s not his fault! Do you think Bellamy would allow player options in favour if players? Do you think Bellamy would keep Paulo at 950k a year? The answer is no. Ryles has done a tremendous effort in short time culling dead wood from BA’s pickings. You need to smell the roses – we are 2-3 years off a premiership.
Perhaps you’ll recommend we re sign Jacob Arthur? What a clown.
But so many people said the roster was fine, it was the coach. JR culled RCG and kept Junior and then slimmed him down to a totally useless conveyance today – JR, not BA. JR went with more mobility in the pack, it backfired spectacularly. JR could have culled whoever else he wanted given what he did, so this is HIS squad.
Saying I’ve got no clue is laughable considering you’re laying blame on an ineffective roster due to BA when most league journalists all said the talent was there last year and they underperformed.
Ryles has made massive changes, it’s his squad, he was the one that got rid of the likes of RCG and Gutho. He has put his faith in forward mobility, on today’s performance he’s got it massively wrong. He’s had all pre season to instigate new systems, hell, all.ive read is about how great the new CULTURE is after the 1st trial win. Guess what, that was as insipid a performance in the 1st 40 minutes I’ve ever seen. So Josh, with all due respect, stop blaming BA because there’s plenty of Ryles in this squad and today didn’t cut it in any way shape or form.
And by the way, Josh, read this from Ryles himself after the game – “We’ve had a lot of change and a lot of change in personnel. The program has changed and then I’ve changed a lot of things we’re doing on the field.”
But yeah, the blame today lies with BA. I know who the clown is mate!!!
And your gem of an idea to get rid of Brown, what a goose!!! Maybe Ryles can replace him with another class act like Volkman??
I agree with your Stubby but BA’s time had come and it was time to go. I was expecting a more aggressive attack and ‘in your face’ defence but none of that transpired. Unfortunately we appear to have regressed back to 2018.
We have the players there but something happened to strip the players from what works in attack, simply run hard, support and offload. Same in defence, move up quickly, secure the ball, get them on their back and slow the ptb down to reset the defensive line. A simple game for simple people or so it should be.
Agree totally Glenn, BA’s time was up, but don’t forget in some quarters he was being judged on results of ’23-24 and there’s no doubt that injuries and suspensions played a huge role in those results. All I’m saying is it’s pretty hypocritical of certain people to bag BA relentlessly for those results, yet when Ryles 1st game ends in quite possibly the worst 40 minutes I can remember, the same people are making excuses for him – the exact same excuses that BA wasn’t afforded. Geez, I’ve even seen people say how impressed they were with JR’s press conference and that fills them with confidence because it was so much better than BA – seriously? How deluded can some people be? And that even extends to Super on 1EE who damn well should know better than saying it was much better than BA saying they didn’t front load their effort. Guess what, Super, they bloody well didn’t. I know the team copped some hidings under BA but at least they put in for decent periods of the 1st half, that was just diabolical yesterday. Like I said, some people painted themselves into a corner with BA, they have nowhere to go now, they have to be positive about Ryles because they were so negative about BA. BA is gone, focus on the forward, but some people just can’t and things like blaming BA for yesterday is just ludicrous but makes them feel better because they simply have to think what they have is better than what they had due to the stupidity of their commentary.
Let’s not cut our wrists yet.
These are new systems and will take a while to sort out.
Papenhauzen was the difference between the teams. He just blew us apart with his speed and by the time we looked up it was 46 and we had become so fatigued by chasing him, that everything else fell apart.
Ryles knows that speed is king and has tried to address this but he has inherited most of this team so let’s not execute the coach.
Ryles will be now in a position to objectively look at the side and I believe that he has had a few questions answered.
1. Ryley Smith will be starting in the 9 next week. He was the one talking in the huddles, he is an absolute marvel. He is an massive signing for us.
2. Depending on injuries, Kelma Talagi is gone. A terrible defensive performance.
3. Dylan Brown – A very very disappointing afternoon for him.
Thought Guymer looked enthusiastic when he came on
Spark to be fair Dylan Brown didn’t look too involved in that game. Makes you wonder if Ryles didn’t want them to try keep going to him thinking we probly can’t afford to lose him and they had no to low chance of beating Storm this depleted.
Spark I thought out younger players looked good.
Ryley smith played hard. Sam Tuivaiti is huge and made impact on his runs. Guymer played hard. Will penisini played good once he got ball in hand.
We still don’t move up as a team and the kick chase wasn’t amazing.
Ryan Pap absolutely tore us up to be fair and speed absolutely bedazzled us defensively.
Parra had minimal platform up the middle and it’s going to take this team time to get used to having no RCG to lay a platform up the middle.
We possibly need two good defenders on our edges in Matto and Williams to add experience there. Tuilagi beside Volkman isn’t a good idea defensively.
You are right .. all our kids were great even the wingers.
Love our fullback.
Ryles has been crippled with injuries to start the year.
You take paps out of that game and we may have been competitive.
I think Dylan picked up a facial injury as he looked a little puffy but nevertheless he was just a catch and pass man.
Stats have him with some try assists but it’s deceiving. His kick for tago and a couple of passes.
Volkman and the team needed him to really stand up this afternoon and he didn’t.
You put Dylan in the Melbourne team and he would look great but in our team when he has to be a leader, he just can’t do it.
Agree
14. Ryley Smith first game
7. Volkman 6th game hadn’t played for over 12 months.
1. Iongi 2nd game
Excluding Hands and Dylan.
These guys under 10 first grade games between them. Against Harry Grant, Jerome Hughes and Papenhauzen. It was a total mismatch.
Our forwards folded like deck chairs up the middle. Paulo is not a starting prop. We tried to match them upfront with Junior and Joe O and it didn’t work. Is that Ryles fault ? Did he know they would get run through? I think he knows now!
The true test will be against teams like West’s and Dragons.
I watched an interview with nfl trainer and he said it takes 2 off-seasons for a coach to build fitness into a squad. Ciraldo tool two off seasons and some brutal axing of club captains, Josh Jackson, Faitiler-Mariner, Reed Mahoney all axed or stripped of captaincy. That sends the message. Our remaining players most will be gone in next year or two but their long expensive contracts cast a shadow over future signings. We are in for tough times. But hopefully the end result will show 2026 onwards.
It’s not all BAs fault the HOF has also presided over the contracts.
It’s cliche, but it’s true that the positive is that the only way is up. And we did start that in the second half. No doubt Bellamy wouldn’t have been too impressed that his players blocked off. With senior players coming back that will be a major boost, but we are a long way from anywhere near the top 8.
I missed our 2nd Phase.
To me it was the right formula but we couldn’t do it right.
Now teams like Melbourne and Panthers are showing everyone how 2nd phase is done.
Yep, when Parra were on and had the offloading and 2nd phase play happening we were unstoppable, where has that gone… 😭
I think the most disappointing thing was we produced another 30 minute complete switch off and Melbourne played like they were on the training ground it was that easy. Four of melbournes try’s were just so soft and we gifted them another 2. A lot of players were disappointing but tualagi complete stood out and it was we lack of effort and urgency in anything he done. He looked near disinterested at times continually missed tackles, walking non stop, no line speed, looked completely lost in defence line and Melbourne and teams in the future will exploit this. The players around him look like they have no trust in him either. I think Ryles has seen what we all have seen after today and I’ll be very surprised to see him again for a while. Lomax is an elite winger also I think he should end up there he is so much more of a threat on the wing. Some positives but where Riley smith and Sam Tuivaiti were good especially smith his exactly what we need a little mongrel hooker who will go all day I liked what I saw. His not the complete package but his attitude is outstanding. Doorey looked a lot better in his different role looked a lot better also
We had a lot of nsw cup level players in the team and it showed – we looked more like a nsw cup team rather than a first grade side at times.
The silly errors to length of field tries are still there which is a very bad sign for any rd 1 team.
The positives are Ryley Smith and Sam Tuivaiti both having good debuts and Will Peninsi is still our best centre – don’t be suprised if Lomax is back on a wing by rd 6 if we keep losing games.
Was a very un-Brown like game, would often shuffle the ball on rarely taking it to the line. It really didn’t look like he wanted to be there. I’m sure he did but the performance was baffling.
Tuilagi’s defence makes him a liability that we can’t afford. While he is in the team coaches will target him exactly the same way Pappenhousen did on the first try.
We have some great young players coming through, we need the senior players to switch on an act as positive mentors. The senior players need to set the standard – not the youngsters
“Was a very un-Brown like game, would often shuffle the ball on rarely taking it to the line. It really didn’t look like he wanted to be there..”
Actually, that is a very Brown like performance over the last 18 months.
Look I used to be excited by Brown, his effort plays in particular. So Brett Kenny like. But his last 18months have been so ordinary. The guy let the team down in 23, was going to make it up to everyone, was out on the drink the day before a shalacking by Manly ANZAC round last year.
What could have been Bert 2.0, is fast looming more like Tim Smith.
What you mean like the senior players we moved on ? And don’t anyone kid themselves Mr Bellamy pulled the reigns on his steeds in the 2nd stanza. I would doubt if you see Kelma in top grade again.
The defence was abysmal the ease in which they broke our line they bombed few more too. I get we were not winning but Melbourne didn’t even play that well we just collapsed.
Well that was a bad day at the office. The first half was a shocker and I wonder at one stage whether Parra had actually had thirteen on the field such were the holes in defence. Mistakes against the Storm will cost any team and Parra made a number. Kelma can run hard but I have to say he leaves his brain behind. Dropped balls lazy defence but he wasn’t the only one. Ryley Smith tried hard as did Williams and Longi did okay. Chasing the ball in the first half gassed them and to drop the ball with 30 seconds on the clock was just plain stupid. There is a positive – we out pointed them in the second half. How good was that. 56 points – history tells us we can’t win the grand final but that doesn’t stop us from getting there. We cannot blame the referee but why were the Storm allowed to lie all over the tackled player. Why could the Storm drive us back and we were lucky to put them on the ground. They were up so quickly you wonder whether they were on side. Lying over the tackled player allows them to set their defence. Parra at one point must have been 15 meters back in defence.
Okay – one bad one – what do we do next. Make some changes.
When Matt Doorey is looking a million bucks you know things are grim.
Concerns I have had throughout the off season were realised in that first half. All the positivity is commendable, but just because systems, structures and body shapes have all changed, it doesn’t mean for the better.
It’s only round one, I get it, but geez there’s a lot of work to do and out of all of our forwards, I reckon only 3-4 are actually first grade standard. This forward pack needs a massive overhaul.
Another thought. Gutherson and Moses when haggling over a contract and money proved to be an absolute distraction. Either Brown is going to stay or leave. Put a deadline on his decision because whether he thinks so or not this contract saga will affect his game. Where is his mind focused. It cannot be entirely on the game.
Dylan – get it over and done with one way or another you will hurt yourself.
Brown was an absolute disaster today, and he alone is responsible for his abysmal performance. If Newcastle seriously thinks he’s their answer at 7, they’re completely delusional.
Kelma was just as useless, and Tago has no business ever stepping foot in first grade again. Lomax needs to be put on the wing immediately—it’s inevitable that this call will only grow louder as the season drags on.
Agree, not only does he have multiple player options but the genius drafter of said contracts said he has until round 10 to decide? Why didn’t they at least say decide before season starts?
Storm has Wishart on $350k with a club option for 2026.
I dont want to be too negative. But I think Tulagi played himself out of first grade.
It will be much easier next weeks opposition. So we shouldn’t be too drastic.
Volkman only missed 2 or 3 tackles – he wasn’t the problem.
Junior and Joe O were average.
Jack Williams HIA didn’t help. He was OK.
Tuivaiti and Ryley played well considering.
Our play the ball average was 4.12. Some players were laid on all day we got 6 agains when it should have been Storm players sin binned. It should be 1 penalty in red zone and then bin! Storm masters at milking. Tackling they turning players around so heads are facing their own goaline almost every tackle.
While I was devastated with that 1st half, the 2nd half was a different story. Great to see Tuivati, Hopgood, Penisini. the second half was impressive for me. Ryley Smith is a gun, Charlie Guymer, We are going to take some time to gel, but it will happen. Stay strong Eels fans!!
Things that didn’t smell worse than the old Holroyd tip.
#1 Ryley Smith will be the #1 hooker before Moses is back. I could have sworn it was 2022 Reed Mahoney in that game. 3rd in the tackle count and only played 3/4 of a game.
#2 Hopgood and the young forwards had a go and continue to show potential, but we lacked the firepower of an RCG to get us out of the deep end. We were making sets of six with zero go forward.This could be Ryles’ biggest strategic error.
Things that did.
I don’t like to name players who performed poorly so I’ll leave that to the imagination.
#1 the defensive structure in the backs was terrible. I’m still not convinced Lomax is a centre. Ryles needs to fix the RHS defence.
#2 We got rid of Gutherson a year too soon, although he missed his fair share of tackles last night against the Dogs.
#3 Tuilagi standing at centre in defence is a straight up game plan error.
#4 The player that kicked 3 times on the 4th tackle should spend tomorrow in kindergarten at Parramatta primary school learning to count his fingers.
#5 In the first half, I could have sworn that none of them had ever defended against a decoy runner.
I don’t know if Melbourne got tired, we got more ball in the second half or things started to improve once Smith came on – maybe all three.
I’m pretty confident Brown will be the Parramatta five-eighth in 2027. He wasn’t bad but it wasn’t a six million dollar man performance. He is a much better player when Moses is on the field.
There’s a lot to do before next week.
Disappointingly, much of it is the to do that was there while BA was still in charge.
The defensive structure is worse than it’s ever been.
Will Moses and the Fox fix that? Unlikely.
We need a cover defender with the guts and speed of Hindy in his early days to plug the gaps in the centre.
A loss against Melbourne was to be expected.
Next week, a loss will be disappointing.
A big loss will be unacceptable.
POor first half when it should have counted. We were always going up against beaten Finalists and ex co coach. AS others have said we seem to lack the upfront strength but its week one and we have several top players out.
Lets see us over the next 9-10 rounds and bear in mind injuries….and lets be honest Ryles needs his time to get us into the groove. No panic from me…I have seen too much.
If we look at the roster, a lot of the issues result from extensions and signings made 2 years ago by the current R&R team. Adding in to that issue was granting all the,options and we still have no idea why they were necessary and if they were really advantageous to the club given that POs seem contrary to that .
The change in the team will be harder than say that at the Bulldogs given we have players who are on contracts that gave them the upper hand to stay by using the PO, maybe at a lower rate but still on th books and therefore can’t be replaced.
Starting the season down 9 players from the top 28 is close to diabolical, has the change in training contributed via loadings etc. what was the rush to resign Tago, there are a number of better wingers that would have been available, no doubt MON and others can justify it, also Tualagi was extended when it’s obvious he has defensive frailties.
A number of questions to be answered and seems we have to overcome the roster being loaded with journeyman in the past and may take a year or so to clear the decks, we don’t have a Gus Gould using his influence as we saw at the Dogs using his muscle and influence.
Maybe a good year to push the youth into the team and getting experience ahead of time. Dunster and the like are hardly going to make a difference.
Not that I want to remember anything, I can’t remember any ‘training run’ tries out wide by Storm but geez they found a few other ways to score, mainly at the edge of the ruck with space, time and pace, and also luck.
They were just thinking and playing too smart and quick, and with that Harry Grant milking act where he won a penalty, they scored and went to 18 nil, I thought we are just not in this contest.
We conceded 56 but only got beaten by 38…how does that sit in the 50 theory?
A few thoughts after our first game, I like D Brown and thought he would be better but really he was the same as when he played with Asi last year and looks like he hasn’t grown his game. Unfortunate. Our team has played 2 trials and not everyone played in them and in this game were missing our main leader and unfortunately we don’t have an abundance of them . Melbourne had at least 3 maybe 4 leaders that have played alot of games together and represented State and Country, a big advantage.
See how we go in the next 5 games or so and see how some of our players step up or step out of 1st grade before we start blaming
rosta’s etc.
One thing for sure is that Ryles will have learnt more from this game than Bellyache.
Keep the faith Eels.
We are so lucky to have Nathan Brown next to Ryles in the coaching box. It’s going up be a wild ride for Ryles and Brown provides a calming voice.
One thing is certain, Ryles is not going to cop players not pulling their weight.
We have some injuries at the moment but he will not cop players not putting in and unlike BA, he will make them accountable.
He will have no trouble dropping established players for youth if that is required.
If Dylan Brown thinks he can coast in the next few weeks, it’s not inconceivable that he will drop him and try someone else and he will make that 100% clear.
There are green shoots.
There was one point in the second half where I noted that if Parra scored the next six tries they’d be back in the game. Then Melbourne scored again.
Smith played well as others noted. Iongi tried all game and showed enough that he will be a great signing. And like others I was disappointed in Dylan Brown. Admittedly it is hard to play behind a beaten pack but when the Eels did gain some ascendancy in the second half he didn’t take the line on and try to create chances as I expected he would.
Hopefully that is the low point of the season, Lessons learned and time to move on.
Just a few thoughts that came to mind:
– our stand out players in most games are often our rookies or young green faces which shows where some of our roster is at in regards to how they turn up in terms of intensity on a weekly basis
– it’s a sign of our roster if brand new rookies are the stand out players over the experienced NRL players and we saw this last year where Guymer debuted and stood out massively
– we are officially in a rebuild and whilst I think we will do better this year we have heaps of money stuck in players who either aren’t up for it anymore or are a few years past it so we will have to practice patience with Coach Ryles & Browny
– This club lacks leadership and there’s a trend where some of our experienced players like brown who can look like the best player in the NRL one week then you can barely notice they are there the following but he is not the issue in our team but just an example of the fluctuations in class / output they pick and choose when to do it for parra
– We need to consider Joash Papalii on the wing to add speed and options to the kick return for Iongi – both of these kids could make line breaks from our own end if they were working together like how storms fullback and wings worked from the kick return and tore us up with speed and support (where’s Iongi is returning one out) and tago offers minimal kick return meters
– If we are to beat teams we absolutely will need Ryan Matto and Jack Williams on our edges with Guymer coming off bench. Way WAY too much easy space next to the ruck and easy tries – Volkman needs a strong / experienced like Ryan Matto next to him, I don’t care if he can’t run the ball as deadly. Defence needs to be #1 issue addressed.
– We need to keep working on our slow the ball playing down details – the Storm LAID all over us like blankets and somehow avoided penalties 99% of time. WE still had BA’s teams quicker get off the tackle habits and allowed Storm to MARCH down field with ultra fast play the ball and just easy momentum, it was like they were playing with a giant sail behind behind them witj a Gail force wind carrying their ship down field with almost unlimited momentum.
– We desperately need guys like Dylan brown and Lomax to step up and lead this team, they can’t blend in with reserve graders or rookies in this team – if you are a Rep star and you blend in / don’t stand out in a team full of Roookies and depth players either you aren’t commanding the ball enough or not controlling the team – when times used to get tough gutho and Moses took over the team, we now need a few players to really take control of the side – once again you can’t have rep stars blending into a side of rookies and not standing out, it’s a sign the the ball needs to be in the hands of your best players more
– If Lomax was on our wing I still think we win more games, but I understand he signed as a centre – I personally feel Lomax is the games best Winger but Will Penisini is still a better centre for us at parra going off the small sample we’ve seen today and in trial game 2 but it could change in time
– the positive – we attacked well on the left side in the second half and Will Peninsi and Russel have a good combo and Will needs hands on ball more in attack! The left side looks vastly better than our right and that could also be due to the threat of Dylan Brown attracting defenders to compress and creating more space out wide for Will and Iongi (like I predicted before the game where we might score the most). At least something was working and we won the second half.. it’s something at least.
The key point is leaders and leadership. The Storm spine are all leaders, compare that to our spine and you see the vast difference. Junior, Lomax and Brown all need to step up, yes we wouldn’t have won but it would have been agood start from them to settle the other players and stick to the game plan.
” If Lomax was on our wing I still think we win more games, but I understand he signed as a centre – I personally feel Lomax is the games best Winger but Will Penisini is still a better centre for us at parra going off the small sample we’ve seen today and in trial game 2 but it could change in time ”
I agree with this. Penisini was patchy today but I think the backs are confused by the structure. It certainly didn’t help having Tuilagi in between Lomax and Tago in defence.
I think our best backline has Lomax and Addo-Carr on the wings and a tussle between Penisini, Russell and Simmonsen for the centre spots.
Russell was short changed today by a few plays, and I think he is a reasonable defender at centre. Same for Simmonsen, who, in my opinion, has played all of his good games in the centres.
As for leadership, Junior Paulo has to lead. I thought today, the leaner Paulo had lost some bite.
I thought we won the second half because Melbourne could play conservative football without risking their strike players.
We need to fix ruck defence.
Open to suggestions on the best way to do this, but I think Williams and Hopgood are our best workers, they need to own the one off the ruck positions in defence where the likes of Paulo and Guymer can clean them up.
Today it was clear that although he annoyed me beyond words by repeatedly kicking on tackle 4, Volkman rolls up his sleeves and tackles.
Bring on the Tigers for a must win game.
.
Unfortunately I was dreading this game. Even more so when Moses was out. The first half was dismal. I actually turned it off when it got to 22-0 to do some stuff for work. I turned it back on for the start of the second half. I know the storm took the pedal off, but I thought there was something to take out of the game before next week. Riley Smith, Sam Tuivati were both good. Put a lot of the senior guys to shame. I’m not writing the season off just yet, but we’ll need to get our act together quickly. Maybe matterson and moretti can add some spark next week. Perhaps even Richard Penisini on a wing. Anyway. I’ll be watching next week praying for a win!
I was at the game. The wingers weren’t the problem. Russell tried hard. Very hot day (35) didn’t help. One or two players missed tackles, tries scored, back to back tries, energy sapping weather, a loose pass leads to a runaway try, an intercept leads to another, plus the storm have great playmakers in their 6 and 7, a speed demon in their full back, a scheming impresario in their 9, etc etc.
Our boys could have given up but they didn’t. Hopgood started to do some excellent ball distribution, there was nice quick passing to outside players and they were running into the ball.
Well beaten by a better side but some good signs were there.
Next week will reveal more.
I don’t think to many other sides would’ve stopped that onslaught from the storm
its a new system and will take a little while
At least they showed a bit more in the second half
I thought Iongi Penisini and Williams were strong and Smith and Tuivaiti were strong on Debute
I would love to see big Tuivaiti and Mataele coming off the bench with their size and leg speed