The Growth This Year - My Top 8 - Eels Blogs

It would be natural for any discussion about Parramatta to find much to criticise. We have a team that sits in the lower division of the table having lost far more games than would be deemed satisfactory. However, in the wake of a number of improved performances, it is worthwhile examining the growth achieved by the team thus far this year.1. Attack. Take Hayne out of the team in previous years and the team seemed clueless in putting points on the board (excepting Sandow's performance at fullback last year.) Hayne was central to everything that the team constructed. This is no longer the case. Our structured plays put pressure on the opposition in their quarters and our willingness to spread the ball in the right situations is still creating long distance tries. We are not reliant on one player.2. Linked to the above, we have created a "dangerous left". Semi has been the beneficiary of great inside hands and the role of Taka cannot be ignored.3. Aggressive forwards. The addition of Peats, Watmough and IDG has provided line speed and aggression to the forwards. We are still leaking more points than we would like, but many of these have come from our inability to defend kicks (the Cowboys game highlighted this).4. Dealing with adversity. There is still some way to go, but the signs are there that we are improving our ability to dig in when times are tough.5. Squad depth in the forwards. Fourteen of the squad were unavailable for selection this week. To field a team capable of matching a top 4 team under such circumstances would not be possible without depth. Obviously we are lacking some depth in our backline, but a couple of key recruits will change that.6. The development of Corey Norman. What a break out year! This bloke was the one under pressure when the year began. With Foran recruited for Norman's preferred 5/8 position and Sandow coming off a successful 2014, all things pointed to Norman battling for a spot. Instead, Norman has produced the best form of his career and solidified his value to the club.7. Team spirit. It's becoming a key component of this team. They are playing for each other and the coach.8. The learning curve of Brad Arthur. This bloke can be hard on himself. He insists on his players continuing to develop and he places the same expectations on himself. He is a better coach this year than he was last year. His qualities as a bloke, being straight up and loyal with his team, has always resonated with players. His skills as a coach continue to grow. He's a Parra bloke and he's here for the long term.I'm not ignoring the areas of concern, such as our periods of poor concentration, poor handling and atrocious penalty counts. We need to control the ball better in many respects. However, for a team to be improving as we are during a period of great external pressures speaks volumes for the direction that our squad is heading. How many thought that we could show such qualities without Hayne?

Nice read, as always Sixties.

The competition is so tight, and there are many factors in the draw, coupled with luck a team has no control over, which equates to a teams position on the ladder can be a false representation of how they are performing.

Some teams get lucky, I know the Knights, Raiders & Titans early in the year did, as they came up against much better teams on the ladder but with very depleted squads, couple this with a bye or two in between and they are appear well placed on the ladder and inturn not getting the blow torch applied to them how on they are performing.

I am of course a little biased towards the eels, but I think we have performed pretty consistent footy of the last 6 weeks, much better than our position on the ladder indicates, and better than some teams placed higher than us.

I can count 3 games we should have won this year, add those 6 points with another bye up our sleeves we are on 22pts and outright 3rd. BA would be talked about as the possible Daly M coach of the year, not the unfounded and false rumours he is on the outer.

I knew there must be a reason for BA's delusional behaviour. No one can consistently do the same thing and not learn from it after 11 years at the helm. He After hours of intense research. Here it is. It's all the water he drinks! Read the below -…

"Against Manly Hands can play 80min. If you look at stats against Manly and you will see the hooker does not make as many tackles people Manly use the ball from their own end and attack wide. So Hands wont be required to make many tackles next week.…"

"I've waited to comment on last night's game until I had slept on it and let the dust settle. My last post was full of misguided hope that maybe the team could tough things out. Fool was I, its not what this club is about. The post by CE sums up my…"

Replies

The French Fullback #1 June 28, 2015 at 3:26pm

The past 6 weeks have been our best in terms of being competitive and consistent for a few years. Our biggest loss was 6 (Cowboys), and other losses by 2 & 4 points. Our wins have been by 6, 4, 4 which shows we are slowly learning to win. With our injuries it has been a tremendous effort by all the players. Choc has really lifted in recent weeks, and Junior has given us the go forward we knew he would. Our biggest area IMO to fix is the small things. E.g yday with 10 mins or less left we kick to Dugan, let him get past us down the sideline, concede a penalty. Those kicks need to be a bit better, and the chase too. We seem to do simple things very poorly at times that cost us metres, penalties and then points. But plenty of positives in the way we have been playing for the MAJORITY of games.
- sixtiesboy > The French Fullback #1 June 28, 2015 at 3:48pm
  
  Consistency of effort. Well noted!
- Glenn Lifetime Eel > The French Fullback #1 June 29, 2015 at 9:49am
  
  This improved performance it directly related to putting bigger forwards in the pack. Against Storm I think BA added Moeroa and Pauli and the next game Junior came back.
Bert de Naturál✌️™ June 28, 2015 at 3:34pm

Nice read, as always Sixties.

The competition is so tight, and there are many factors in the draw, coupled with luck a team has no control over, which equates to a teams position on the ladder can be a false representation of how they are performing.

Some teams get lucky, I know the Knights, Raiders & Titans early in the year did, as they came up against much better teams on the ladder but with very depleted squads, couple this with a bye or two in between and they are appear well placed on the ladder and inturn not getting the blow torch applied to them how on they are performing.

I am of course a little biased towards the eels, but I think we have performed pretty consistent footy of the last 6 weeks, much better than our position on the ladder indicates, and better than some teams placed higher than us.

I can count 3 games we should have won this year, add those 6 points with another bye up our sleeves we are on 22pts and outright 3rd. BA would be talked about as the possible Daly M coach of the year, not the unfounded and false rumours he is on the outer.
- sixtiesboy > Bert de Naturál✌️™ June 28, 2015 at 3:49pm
  
  From recall, I think that the Roosters have pretty much been able to field a full strength side or close to it regularly this year. Some teams have great fortune.
sixtiesboy June 28, 2015 at 4:02pm

Talk about baseless, vile journalism. I bet she's hardly talked to a player or watched them train. I bet she's hardly watched them play. It's indicative of the standard of journalism that's been prevalent of late.
aveel June 28, 2015 at 4:20pm

In regards to your final question "How many thought that we could show such qualities without Hayne?"

Lots of posters on here thought we would make the 8 at the beginning of the year. They obviously thought we could show those qualities. Anything below the top 8 is another failure of a year.
- sixtiesboy > aveel June 28, 2015 at 5:19pm
  
  I don't think that missing the 8 will be a big negative. I think that the team probably set a goal to make the 8. To me, given our player availability, I will draw positives from the manner in which we compete. I predicted a finish on 24 points a few weeks back. Earlier in the year I predicted a borderline 8 finish. Our close losses might come back to bite us there. Right now I'm happy with the development of the squad. I'd be aiming for the 8 next year for certain.
sixtiesboy June 28, 2015 at 5:13pm

I'm quite positive about the news we will get this week. I agree with your thoughts regarding our form mate.
sixtiesboy June 28, 2015 at 5:26pm

Cheers mate. I'm not pretending that we don't have aspects of our play to fix. However, I'll share something that I was told after the loss to the Cowboys. I was told that whilst the boys were disappointed with the way that they lost, they were also recognising how close to the mark their game was. I was told that they were remaining very positive and upbeat. It has certainly shown since then.

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