Below is my view of the performance of our players for the year to date. I have biased my views around the amounts they earn so that the top players have higher expectations than the lowly paid.
Hayne: A freak. A one man band and while Gould can dig in the dirt and find fault as he did Friday night have a look at his numbers. Scores tries sets up tries and is a clear target every game he plays. Can be slow to gather the ball on the ground in the in goal but now I am picking fault. Sums up all that is good in the Eels.
Burt: Has been quiet. Can be an attacking genius when the forwards get a roll on but goes MIA when we are on the back foot. Not a big body and has trouble making yards when we are in trouble. I am concerned that 2011 may be a season too long for him. Needs Eric Jnr on the paddock.
Eric Jnr. Had a career best year in 2009. Clearly under physical injury cloud in 2010. A big part of our go forward but we have to be worried that the body cant now carry the load
Inu: Not a center !! Has massive absent minded moments. A true coach killer. Not fast. A better than average goal kicker. As a winger has been solid but for the money paid not worth the coin.
Reddy: Never lets us down. Hands limited but puts in and for the money is the type of player every club needs in their roster.
Wright: Here we go. We pay this bloke minimum wage and fill this site with Blogs giving it to him. For mine he earns every cent and there is not a better minimum wage center in the comp. Cmon Jono finish the year on a high.
Tahu: We pay this bloke top dollar and he has bad hands and not the maturity of other players. There are at least 6 centers better than him for the money. One the worst buys of the year and will get worse in 2011.
Mortimer: hindsight is a valuable thing. Small frame, no speed, poor kicking game brilliant 2009. Kids limitations wont be fixed by a stint in Wenty he for mine is done. Stick a fork. Courage does not replace talent. Over paid for 2011
Robson: Another value player who never lets us down
KK: Can overplay his hand but its his second season in the NRL and he had a bad injury last year. Would prefer to have kept him over Morts and will link well with Trent Hodge
Humble: Value player over hyped in the blogs but solid
Mateo: NOT A 6 !!! But one of the most talented players in the game. As an impact 13 a must keep for the line up. We got this wrong. Makes mistakes but can win you a game.
Love Shack: Broke DA's heart as was a big part of the structure he wanted for 2010. Cant comment
Hindy: Slower with every game is the only negative. We cant win without Hayne or Hindy and while Hindy is on I know we will compete
Ben Smith: Biggest issue is injury. A real positive for the squad. Potential captain
Horo: most improved in the club. those who saw him at Wenty would share my amazement at just how good he has played. Get him a contract
Caylo: I cant bag him in his last year. 3 to go Nathan go hard happy retirement
Moimoi: Clearly slower than last year. Was the most dominant forward in the game last year. Not this year.
Poore: Compared to what the Raiders paid for Shillingtona and Learoyd Lahrs this guy is the most over paid bench player in the history of the salary cap
Mannah: Terrific and 11 minutes of origin was another example of how bad a coach Bellamy is.
Matt Keating: Value player who has good dummy half passing game lacks a kicking game which we need
Overall Poore and Tahu were not good buys. Losing Mateo and KK will prove tragic. Overpaying for Morts and losing KK not smart. Inu for the money was not worth keeping.
In 2009 Eric Jnr Fui Fui Burt all had career best years that have not repeated. Maybe we caught lightining and did not know it.
I dont know if DA can coach or not. What we all know is that our recruitment is reactionary and we get more wrong than right. I like Quade Cooper but telling me we have 500k spare as we wave Mateo good by ? Telling me we pay Poore and Tahu 800k + of our cap ?
The issue is that our Board and CEO are rookies and are being shown up and their mistakes are leaving a club in tatters. If we dont sign anyone for 2011 based on what Ozzie says we will be 500k under the cap !!! And almost every other NRL team will have an Eels jnr in their squad.
Replies
Tahu..... has had a bad year, but only because he had a brain snap and got suspended for 4 weeks.... he was a passenger teh game he played 2 days after origin and he had a bad game early (against Cronualla I think) where he dropped a few close to the line.... BUT... everything else he has done has been quality. The amount of space a centre receives is a by product of the service he get's inside. Tahau has had terrible service and not much quality ball... yet he has run str8 and hard and tackled well.
Now Reddy..... Consistant in attack.... he too has had a couple of games with the dropsies and he pushed the pass too often. Like Tahu he's techincally a good 1 on 1 tackler (not as strong though)..... however his misreads in defence have cost us so many tries. Has rushed out of the line far too often... it must be bloody hard to defend inside and outside of him..... furthermore.... he gives up too many metres in D in general play.... Teams with good wide running players target him big time.... If i was playing Parra I would tell my team to run down Reddy's channel every set at least twice. You may never score but you'll make 60m a set easy.
Reddy's in my team...... however I wish people would call a spade a spade and give him shit when he stuffs up... because he has stuffed up heaps this year and copped very little.
Shillington will be on a contract almost as much as Poore next time he resigns.
We needed a Prop to boost our stocks, paid for Poore and now have 'arguably' the best front row in the Game.
Moi Moi is still killing it, not doing much less than last yr imo, wish ppl would lay off him.