The last 3 grand final losses were all lost before half time without Parra firing a shot, but the issues are clear that we had lost even earlier before stepping on the field. In all 3 we played greats of the game in Andrew Johns, Cameron Smith/Cronk/Slater and last night Cleary supported by sides stacked with rep players with big game experience.
We were mentally defeated before stepping on the field in each game as seen by our first half performances. The question is why are the eels so mentally weak regardless of the coach and year.
Some will blame BA, Moses or our fowards but it doesn't matter we lost the first half and didn't give us a chance so history repeated for the 3rd time since 2001. We had the best side in 2001 coached by Brian Smith. We dominated all year only to put in first half performance similar to last night. 40 minutes where it wasn't mistakes that hurt us, just a much better performance from the opposition who handled the pressure of the occasion much better. 2009 coached by Daniel Anderson and we relied on Hayne to get to the grand final but it was our ability to offload and create 2nd phase that helped him star. We failed to keep the same game plan come the gf and once again it can only come down to mental weakness and lack of confidence meeting a team of players used to the big occasion and handling it better.
The mental burden as the gap from our last premiership and media attention to it grows will increase the pressure each year. We really need to find a great sports psychologist and have them on staff for few years to work with the team unless we can sign or develop a key spine player to dominate in rep games and finals to help other players believe in themselves and the team. There is too much pressure come finals time on our players and there is no way anything will change until we address the issue which isn't lack of skill but lack of mental strength to deal with pressure of living up to the greatness of the 80s.
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I don't believe any of this. The key to winning grand finals is to be constantly there. There used to be a saying you have to lose one to win one. Our key to breaking the drought is to make sure we're there next year. Penrith lost their 1st GF 2 years ago. Melbourne and Roosters also lost GFs. The key is they made multiple GFs and managed to fix the mistakes they made previously
The whole 36 year talk, though true, really drained us. It was not about winning a premiership but breaking a record on top of that, knowing if they don't the 37 year talk gets louder, they had the 2nd week curse on their back and finally got rid of that now 37 years will be the talk.
BA did well to break the 2nd week hoodoo but now we've been there, know what to expect and have experience we will go into our next one more prepared.
It didn't seem to drain St. George in 2010 who had a 31 year drought, Souths in 2014 who had a 43 year drought or Cronulla who had never won a premiership (49 years). I just think we are a cursed club.
Narh. The Riff just had a better team. They made more meters. Simple. Hate to quote the line but we lost the collision.
I agree Penrith had better team but why is there the same theme of Parra losing preliminaries or gf's for so long. We have proven we can compete with best sides through the season but then fail at finals time and time again.
It would have been interesting to see Parra performance if we played cowboys or Cronulla as they are also don't have the aura of a great team like Penrith or Melb 2009. The tigers had massive gap between premierships similar to Parra but came up against the cowboys who were also low on gf experience so mental side of playing in gf affected both sides equally.
The better team won its as simple as that, no team could counter that 1st half onslaught - I've looked at the SOO stats neither the blues or maroons exceeded 400 tackles in a game, yet we made 414 tackles in the most physical and intense 1st half we've seen for a while . The area I'm critical of is getting tactically we were found wanting - we are way too passive in defense and didn't attempt to bend the rules way too disciplined - Panthers rolled the dice by being offside and they call it quick line speed. The positve is at the very least these players learn and understand what is takes to under extreme pressure, our window is not shut by any means but skill, talent and guts are not enough to win a title coaching smarts and tactics have to be part of the mix - interesting to see the adjustments made to our style of play next season
In 2001 v Knights Joey immortal
2009 v storm Smith future immortal
2022 v Penrith Cleary???
Exactly
Correct mate. Look at the teams who beat us we are unlucky to run into great teams. Wish we could have played some shit mob like the Warriors in 11, Dogs in 12 or Storm without Smith
The riff were the better team on the night (we have shon that we can beat them). We looked physically and mentally spent compared to penrith who were able rest players during the year.. that to me is the difference..
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