I am a massive Parramatta tragic fan and was at the game on Thursday. And whilst it was an enormous victory (beating Melbourne is better than winning against the dogs these days), it is still a bit difficult for me to get too excited for the following reasons:
1. Melbourne were not at full strength. Most people (fans and commentators alike) have forgotten that Harry Grant was not playing. This kid single handedly pulled apart the NSW defense in the final game of SOO last year, and a major reason to why the tigers won so many games last year. He would have had a much bigger impact on Thursdays game than Mahoney.
2. Edge defense. We don't appear to have learnt from last years sins unfortunately, and we cant sugar coat the loss of Jennings. And Opacic is still very much a work in progress. Niukore did a formidable job on Olam but he was exposed at times even on a wet track. Gutherson was also tremendous as our last line.
3. The wet weather worked in our favour. This stifled Addo-Car and Papenhuizen in attack. One wonders if whether both their breaks would have lead to tries. Also Olam may have had better success attacking a second rower.
4. Sivo scoring two tries off bombs against a smaller average winger. I felt sorry for George Jennings but Sivo was up against a sub par edge with R.Smith and G.Jennings. I may get a bit more excited if he can replicate his same feat in 2019, or repeat that performance against better opposition like a Tupou or a Ravalawa. Also I'm sure Bellamy will fix this edge throughout the year.
5. Assistant coaches. I must admit that i am an outsider - and have no basis on making this claim. But it appears to me that whilst Arthur may be a good head coach we lack power in assistant coaches. I am not a fan of David Kidwell since we can never seem to match the defensive prowess of a Melbourne, Roosters, Raiders or even Sharks. Some of these teams have the worst individual defenders (e.g Josh Hodgson) but as a unit they are trained to be impenetrable. It worries me that even with our calibre of players we still allow teams to run around us.
I hope they can prove me wrong. I will still be going to every game and living every try and big tackle. But history has taught me to approach every year with cautious optimism.
Eels for life
Replies
Lol Harry Grant hasn’t played a game for them yet..Didn’t storm win the big one in the wet?..Is that u Bellamy
Welcome aboard Jason, some good points there, good first blog mate
Good blog mate. Some great points. Our big test will be how we back up against the Sharks this week. They pushed the raiders. Not sure if they were good or raiders were bad, but a game like this has always been difficult for us
That Storm side destroyed Souths up the middle. Our forwards have not got enough credit for that win.
Agree about the assistant coaches. The only difference I see between BA and Trent Robinson is the assistant coaches and Politis
I’m cautious because it’s only round 2, we have earned a reputation for being quick out of the blocks only to fade at the end. Let’s see how we are travelling round 22.
It’s all good mate I apologise if I was out of line as well. Today is a new day, not something to dwell on.
nicely handled Adam and Brissy.😃
We had Niukore playing in the centres and M Jennings missing from right centre. Matto was knocked out illegally leaving us one short on the bench. Eels won that game fair and square.
It's all going to mean nothing if we fall asleep in the next two games. We have to back the performance up. The Sharks game will define our season.
We define ourselves by proving that we are a team that can produce consistent performances. We would agree that in the past we have produced an excellent performance against a premiership contender one week, only to play dismally against a lower ranked team the next week. We have been doing this for years and this is what makes teams like the Storm so successful. Win or lose , they play well EVERY week.
Once we can do this, then we can rightly be called premiership contenders.
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