Last night we found a way to win despite being more than a converted try behind with less than 20 to go. Parts of that game were ugly but there was a hell of a lot of positives as well.
I get the feeling Arthur is getting some good assistance at the moment and all NRL coaches must have that. A few things of note:
Evans and Davey starting. Who knows if they'll start like that in the finals but the beauty of that is that neither does the opposition and they need to prepare for different scenarios. The reg/junior start combo became too predictable and mixing it up is a great move.
Junior slotting into 5/8-what a weapon that is. How you stop that I don't know.
our second phase play is back and with some like N Brown who runs back a million miles an hour the opposition is preparing to either put a hit on or just stop him. He offloaded a few times before the line after a big run last night and that will be hard to defend. Against the storm we will have to have 2nd phase play.
Gutho kicking. Let's face it he was kick happy last night-but-he's now shown another string to the bow. If they rush up on him off the line he has the cut out pass option or kick in behind, if they hang back he'll run it and good luck stopping him close to the line.
Moses' confidence is back and they are trying new things with their kicks. He's shown he's willing to kick early which means defence wingers will be standing back a yard or two just in case. It creates the opportunity to go wide early with a defence line that won't be one line.
The biggest disappointment and area we absolutely have to get right before we play the storm is our wingers. Sivo and Fergo both scored last night but they have been wel below par. They need to take more pressure off our forwards coming out off our own line. They did a bit of it last night but are way short of where they were. Guaranteed the storm saw how tigers exposed sivo a few times last night and Munster/Addo Carr will have a field day if he's given that much room on the outside.
That said if we play for 80, keep mistakes to a minimum. I think we are a massive chance this weekend.
Im going to the game and hoping to see as many qld based eels fans there as possible. Let's give them a home game atmosphere-there's enough of us up here to do that!
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U? does this imply youre not with Us and you dont support the Eels?
Ray Price lives up in QLD i hear we should have him in the dressing sheds
Simple. Reed Mahoney shoul piss Smith off again. Hopefully Smith punches / slaps him in the face again and gets sin binned. However, this time we should try still being in the contest before Smith gets sin binned.
We all know Melbourne like to play structured and wrestle, there wingers and centers like to push in similar to ours.
How we attacked tigers in the first half is key. Those offload, quick play the balls and skillfull plays between the forwards is what's needed to break the storm up.
Kick in behind there winger and centers like what gutho was doing would be effective as long as he picks he's times right.
Storm get alot of benefit out of there bench, brad Arthur needs to manage the bench effectively to keep pressure on them.
Unless a miracle happens the storm will humiliate parra , the eels dont have the players or game to trouble the storm . Moses will no doubt make a fool of himself like he alwssy does in big games against the top teams and everyone will make excuses for him .
From the kickoff if we're kicking off I'd go short, if we're receiving I'd reef it straight back over their head as Papa likes to run down to 30 mtr line off kickoffs.
it puts the Storm immediately off tilt, when they can't settle into their game plan early they make silly mistakes and are easily frustrated.
Our mantra this week should be about getting in their face , bustle bustle bustle.
All comes down to how amy 6-agains the cheat refs hand out. If it's even we win. If it's another stitch up like Penrith or previous Storm finals well we know what happens.
Looking at the storms line up from round 19 they should be without bench players Max king, who should be suspended fro a looong time fro that tackle and also without Kamicamika who was injured last night. At elast that's something for us. their pack is very strong though and it will take a massive effort to match them in the middle.If Brenko Lee is in their starting side then that's who we need to target in attack. A lot will be determined by the ref.We are getting no set re starts but plenty being given against us.
Watching Storm last night there were about a half dozen times they should have had re starts given against them but nothing happened. Even the commentators commented on some of them. One that stood out for me was Papenhyzen climbing on the shoulders of a player trying to get up and play the ball. He was literally getting a shoulder ride because he wouldn't let go and nothing no siz again. Not to mentiontheir first 2 tried both had hints of obstruction which were never looked at.
Hopefully we get a decent ref.
Yes! … how the set restarts are policed will be massive.Betcha bellyache comes out with some eye catching story in reference to them during the week.
The thing we need overcome first is the two steps Cam smith takes from dummy half , it creates everything . He delivers both sides of the ruck and never telegraphs it . Huge advantage having the goat playing this position ,
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