This is almost a chicken or the egg question. Before anyone jumps in, of course we need both. But if Parra had the resources now to buy a top line 6 or 7 or a prop, which would make the greatest impact? Or even if that player was Dylan Brown is the improvement to be found via the halves or the forwards?
I reckon the pack with its latest additions will be an improvement on last year providing they stay on the field. But saying that is true of any team. Melbourne without Smith this week or Souths without Reynolds would both be much poorer. I think we have to sort out the halves to get any advantage of our purchases. Obviously, if Parra had the chance to buy Taupau they should. But the team won't be what we need it to be without a 6 or 7 to take games. We saw the difference in halves in Dragons vs Rabbitohs. Even after a decent individual game, Hunt made a poor decision with the game on the line which cost the win. Reynolds then iced it.
What about you? Are you happy to see additions to the forwards and keep the same halves or would you now rather have a change to the halves?
Replies
I like the logic and you obviously see the conundrum. So where are we at now?
Mine too.
I would not lay the blame for St Merge's loss solely on Hunt.
Dufty and Mann were equally to blame - particularly running the ball on the 5th then dying with it after creating a 3 on 1 on the flank was the nail in their coffin.
Ball hogs - pure and simple.
However back to your question - THEORETICALLY we do have the halves to take us forward, in practice they both have failed because of their immaturity in wanting to be the primary play maker and their inability to resolve this issue.
That said if the forwards do NOT go forward then I don't care who you have in the halves you will always struggle to make progress.
Point of interest - 2017 our "small" forward pack matched it with the best - 2018 they could not make metres - WHY IS THIS SO?
From memory I did a comparison on pack weight and found we were only 36 kgs behind the heaviest pack in the comp, and running about mid field for pack weight - I do not rate that as a "small" pack.
We have heard a lot about the restrictions on financial backing for the coaching staff to get the right people - conversely we have heard Brad Arthur has refused help - what is the real situation?
Game plans have been one dimensional and predictable with only two variations - sweep to the left or sweep to the right.
Imo the complexities of our situation are not to be resolved with the inclusion of one or two key players - it goes much deeper than that.
Mushy, good reply, I believe that the forwards did not respond well to the new NRL refs edict on the penalties in the play the ball and speeding up the game. While it should have benefited our smaller forwards in theory, the early season penalties that the forwards gave away, meant the bigger packs had a better run with their running over our smaller ones, the extra defence and lack of adjustment to these rules really told on them.
Losing several of the forwards early such as Trex who was showing good form, also Scott, did not help. Then Ma'u, goes down lose the work rate of Edwards. Mannah out for some time as was Tepi, Terepo and Brown later in the season. Hayne also out for some time did not help either.
Rather than being expansive they tried to close shop and be safety first but that also failed, when they played a bit more expansive things improved a bit. The biggest killers though were ego's in certain positions.
So, those sweep plays. Do you think that Parra only trained for those? They weren't limited to that last year. They had stacked blinds, changing sweeps, cut outs etc. But they all stemmed from the halves and yet the same halves aren't attempting those this year. Odd.
We need a good forward pack. Without a decent forward pack the team can't get a roll on which nullifies the halves to a certain extent. It is hard to gauge what is needed most by the Eels because the halves we have should be killing it. I truly believe we need an awesome strength & conditioning coach more than anything. This season the Eels looked unfit with very slow play the balls & our players being left on the ground after the play the ball. They were slow & had a very poor response time so opposition teams knew all they had to do was speed up the game a bit & the Eels were shot. They just couldn't keep up once the opposition got a roll on. I would go for a stronger forward pack over replacing the halves & get the team fit enough to compete which I don't think they were this season.
Disagree with a Graham type captain! How many Premeirship have any teams won with Graham as their captain? Answer = 0
Can we find a Smith type captain?
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