Eels Blogs

Following the Wednesday review, Arthur doubled down on what he said in the round four press conference, explaining what went wrong with the Eels against the Tigers. 

"We played a soft style of football" and "looked for soft options".

This all essentially centres around what Arthur called a “soft mindset”.

It was not in keeping with who the Eels want to be. Playing that "tough style of football" of earlier rounds against the Dogs, Manly, and the Panthers (R1-R3).

“We’re no chance of getting the result if we play soft”, Arthur added when looking ahead to the Canberra later today.

Athur admitted the boys were "hurt" by the “soft” commentary from their mentor, but he shrugged it off mater-of-factly.

Dylan Brown noted it “sucks to lose” and it was “pretty embarrassing”.

Slow starts, lost opportunities, and not wanting it enough

Meanwhile, Big Joe lamented the Eels’ “slow start”.

“We gave them hope, the way we started. Back-to-back penalties, defending our line."

"We're too good of a team to be kicking for 2 points at the end of the game".

Interestingly, Junior was starting, though. Big Joe was on the bench, so I imagine it was tough viewing. The Tigers did start with intensity with a dominant middle off the back of Big-Truck Uto. They enjoyed 70% or so of possession in the first ten minutes where they went to a 6-0 lead, but the Eels had the lions’ share of everything for the rest of the half.  By the end of the first half Fox Stats show we had 29-6 tackles in the Tigers' 20m zone, had 57% of possession, over 70% was played in the Tigers’ territory, won the penalties 6-2 and set restarts 2-1. The score ended up 6-6.

So, Penisini’s and Dylbag’s admitted the blatantly obvious.

"We didn't take our opportunities", Dylan admitted. “A lot of points were left out there”, Penisini added the blantantly obvious.

"We didn't own" our roles, Dylan pointed out.

Penisini also added that the Tigers "wanted it more".

But, Big Joe noted how "hungry" the Eels were as a team.

That all supports Arthur’s finger-pointing to mindset issues. Performance issues.

Frantic and headless?

Personally, I felt, as well as being mentally switched “off” - mindset wise - at critical moments, the team looked frantic and rudderless against the Tigers without Moses.  

They played dumb often. Forced passes, a fumble-a-thon, forgetting it was the last tackle, or Dylan getting caught on the last, errors, rainbow passes to Mr Nobody into the sideline (Junior, our other five-eighth, off the scrum). A frustrated Gutho seemed to want to play in multiple position, everywhere, trying to be everything from fullback, dummy half to somewhere in the halves. It was almost as if they just wanted to win the game as quickly as possible and expected the Tigers to implode by default.

Statistically, since 2019, we win about 63% with Moses and lose 60% without him.

The halfback-less Eels are not alone in struggling to win without their premier General. It even happens to the heavyweights. Last night, in their R5 clash, a Cleary-less Panthers also uncharacteristically off their game and error-riddled losing 32-18 to the Eagles at Four Pines. On Thursday night, the Broncos looked a lot more disjointed and rudder-less without Reynolds in the second half against the Storm (R5). With Reynolds, the Broncos won the first half (18-16, 3 tries to 2) with 43% possession and they were desperate in defence and looked dangerous every time they had the ball. But without Reynolds, despite 63% possession, they lost the second half (14-18, 2 tries to 4) and thus the game. 

However, unlike the Eels, when Cleary is out the Panthers usually opt for a specialist halfback. The likes of Jack Coggar, Brad Schneider, and Kurt Falls. It often works, even if it didn’t yesterda. Dylan Brown is playing his fourth NRL game at half later today (won 1/3 at 33% so far). Arthur's options are more limited than the Panthers who have a habit of recruiting a back-up halfback, but I would have been tempted to follow the Panthers’ playbook and give young Sanders (image above), a specialist halfback by trade a punt, knowing he’ll make mistakes (as Talagi does). It's been too long since former goal-kicking halfback hands played half regularly and he's struggling to stay in the team and get minutes. 

For Athur though, the loss had nothing to do with not having a specialist back-up halfback.

Arthur: Having Two Sixes is not the Problem

Arthur put the loss down the team letting Dylan down, more than so.

“When we get major changes … in particular for an important position like halfback, everyone else needs to own their jobs to the best of their ability,” Arthur added.

When asked if Dylan needed to do more? “No,” Arthur point blankly responded.

“Dylan was a threat every time he touched the ball, he defended really well, and kicked really well.”

“Everyone else around him needs to do their role better.”

Dylan was also asked, “Without Mitch there, what more do you want to improve on?”

“I feel, not a whole lot.” Dylan, aligned with Arthur’s view.

Dylan, however added he still needed to "step up", link better with Gutho and kick a bit better on the last.

Today's challenge: Canberra in Canberra

With the Eels winning 3 from 17 over the last 23 years, history suggests today's encounter is a tough road trip down to Canberra. Two of those wins were with Moses. So, essentially, we have yet to win at this ground without a specialist halfback this century.

Athur was asked, "What makes it tough?"

"Your mindset. You can talk yourself into it. Everyone says it's a rough trip. But why? People might talk about the weather. But, it's all in your mindset.

With Arthur's litany of references to "mindset" perhaps in a sense we’re seeing a subtle evolution from the well-trodden “front-loaded” effort-based “chasing the collision” physicality mantra to issues between the ears as being at the heart of poorer performances.

Though it’s obvious to many Eels’ fans that their team has issues between the ears, as Arthur suggests, many would be scratching their head. All of this is nothing new.

It’s nothing new

This site has been talking about mental-based issues with the Eels for years. Professor Daz’s person of interest “Sybil” with all her multiple-personalities was an apt fit.

We struggle to string a win a few games together.

To date, in the Arthur era, around 50% of wins end up with a loss the following week. It was even worse before Arthur, but not matching Brian Smith era where 60% of wins were followed up with another win the next week. In the Arthur era, we have only won 6-straight once - seven years ago (2017). In the Smith decade, we won multiple 6-straight games all the way up to 10-straight and 11-straight.

Rewind back to 2022. Our grand final losing year. Our best year since 2009. Same issues of consistency.

In our most successful year under Athur, we only had two 3-staight wins all year. At the start of the season (R1-3) and at the end of the season (R23-25) after we got belted numerous times in between and were at risk of falling out of the eight.

In 2022, just like this year, the Eels also lost their Easter Monday game against the Tigers at CommBank, 21-20 (R6). R8: the Cowboys smash us 35-4. R14: The Dogs humiliate us 34-4 again on a Monday when it seems nothing went right for us. R16: Souths touch us up 30-12. R19: the Broncos were unlucky to only beat us 36-14. R22: Souths smash us again 26-0. Then after being in danger of falling out of the eight, we have a late-season resurgence R23-25 and win the next 5/6 before our grand final loss to the Panthers. But, after two straight wins in the finals, we looked flat and out of our depth against the Panthers in the grand finals. Our grand final was essentially against the Cowboys in the preliminary final. After two-straight wins, we were mentally and emotionally wasted.

We can’t follow up for more than a few weeks. It’s a decade-old plus theme.

It was only a few weeks ago the theme of “consistency” came up once again through the likes of Moses, Big Joe and Matto in a round two meet-the-media. So, they are on the same page as us?

Moreover, at least in part, this is an issue that needs to be addressed by the Eels' and/or players' sports and performance psychologists. What do they think and what is their solution? And also why hasn't Arthur, who has some responsibilities for establishing a culture and building a team, found the key after this long? If he can't, why hasn't he or the club or its R&R committee found someone or a psychologist who can? Exhausting all options, until a solution is found. And if it's recruiting the wrong cattle with a "soft mindset", why can't they recruit the right ones with a "tougher mindset"? 

As such, for now, the mystery of the wobbly "mindset" and why we switch on and off remains a unsolved mystery.

For renowned sports psychologists such as Dr Phil Jauncey, it all comes back to one's habit patterns starting with everything off-field not just on-field. That's another name for culture. I'm with him.

Will Arthur and the squad find the answers to this mystery in the near future? Will they bounce back later today and play smarter with a tougher "mindset"? And where's Dr Sigmund Freud when you need him?

Links for media interviews this week after our Wednesday Review: Arthur , Dylan Brown,  Big Joe, Penisini.