At the start of this season, many people saw the Eels fighting it out for the last spot in the 8. The loss of Kieran Foran, Junior Paulo, Nathan Peats and Danny Wicks was supposed to take a lot of the competitive edge out of the side that won 13 games last season.
Parramatta, at one stage this season were without their Top 2 fullbacks and their Top 2 hookers as well as fielding a halves pairing that had played all of 6 games together.
I doubt any other team in the competition would have been able to string 2 or 3 wins together missing those key players.
We played Melbourne without Slater, Smith and Cronk, and we beat them. Cronulla struggled without James Maloney and the Cowboys will be lucky to hold onto their spot in the 8 although they've probably had it tougher on the injury front.
My point is, that if you went to pretty much any other team in the comp and gutted their spine, they wouldn't be top 8 quality, let alone equal fourth.
This is a reflection on the quality of the coaches as well as the work of the recruitment staff who have built a squad capable of filling in where needed and getting the job done.
You've seen Clint Gutherson move from five-eighth, to wing, to centre and fullback. You've had French move from fullback, to wing and back to fullback. You've had Will Smith bounce from utility, to hooker, to fullback and back to utility. Even Auva'a, who isn't a specialist winger has had to move from centre.
It seems a lot of people have forgotten just how disrupted our team was and has been throughout the year and yet somehow they keep turning up.
Our team isn't going to go out there and put 50 on a side. But they will do the most important thing, and that's win. The Raiders have a better for and against by nearly 100 points this year, but their season is over. They won big at times but they lost too many games.
Sure, I'd like to see an Eels side of old that bangs on 30 points in a half, but those sides didn't win competitions.
This side hasn't won anything yet, but they're the most consistent side we've seen in over a decade.
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True that, Super.
We are tough feckers and getting into the finals is great and the goal for the season is achieved. We need to step up now and upset more teams and people.
I dont know if we can really step up another gear to become contenders from pretenders this year, but I'm sure we'll have a go at it. I'm proud what we've achieved this year after most pundits had us finishing between 9-12 spot below teams with great rosters like the Raiders, Titans, Cows and Warriors. We've also had our own fair share of injuries losing key players for extended periods of time such as Beau, Bevan and Clint for the season.
Re-building started last year after losing Foran, Junior and Peats for good, would have still made the finals despite all the adversity, confirmed this year we are a top 8 team and the next step is to become a top 4 team next year if we dont manage this year.
Anything can happen in the finals. We don't have the pressure as other teams do to win the comp such as the Storm, Roosters, Broncos and Sharks. We were merely scandal ridden, spoon carrying Parra not too long ago.
We've come a long way, baby.
I think I might have said 10-12th but in the hunt for 8th late in the season, so this is one of those times where I am happy to be wrong.
I also wonder, out of curiosity, whether it is better we finish 4th or 5th? If we finish 4th we play the Storm in Melbourne, right? Good for me as I can go watch the game. And if we finish 5th we host 8th at ANZ, right? I think we have a great chance to beat 8th (Cowboys? Manly? Saints?), so if we finish 5th and win in Week 1 finals, we go to Week 2 with some confidence and momentum. But if we finish 4th do we face the prospect of losing momentum and confidence if beaten by Storm in Week 1?
4th is better than 5th. We can afford to lose to the storm and get a taste of finals footy as opposed to playing backs to the wall stuff in week 1.
It's a no brainer. All the pressure will be on the storm, whilst if we finish 5th all the pressure will be on us beating a team that just made the finals by the skin of their teeth.
The boys will be underdogs for this one and that's precisely why we fans believe they can do it!
We fans can finally have faith and know that we will give it our very best shot. Thanks Brad!
I guess it just depends on how the team is going leading into the finals. I think we could upset the Storm if we bring our A-game because we have that ability to start popping offloads and playing off the cuff. I'd be a little worried about playing Penrith because of the form they're in but wouldn't mind the Cowboys given they seem to be limping towards the finals and could possibly drop out due to St George winning in the next few weeks.
parra players need to turn up to play against the bronco's, unlike the newcastle game. look there did the hard work to get to 32 points and now must bring to climax home.
as ray price said last night, there should be no one in a team that dont give it all.
bring it home boys , play hard have pride in your your team and club, back your mates and coach.
there should be only one way home now , keep winning , play hard and tough no more talking needed guys.
and we can win the big one gf.
Fair and rare blog from you sups, agree were going ok.
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