Seriously, every year I seem to say the same fucking thing.
The fact still remains if you don't attack through the middle third you can't shorten up the defence and create room on the outside.
We have the cattle , whether we have the nous remains to be seen.
I've said the last two seasons our results don't depend on our halves but Mahoney, this year without a dominant back three it's going to take a team effort to paper over our biggest weakness which is going to be metres out of own 20.
Gutho, Waqua and Dylbags are going to have to take on a bigger role in this area for us to be in a position to threaten at the pointy end of the season and variety in attack is going to be paramount in regards to our success.
We are a serious chance of taking it out this year, our preliminary final last year gave our boys the impetuous to go all the way and barring injury's we're the most balanced team in the competition.
In saying that though , in attack we're going have to poke our nose through the defense more then we have in recent years
The rucks the key, we win there we attack through the middle and exploit the edges . Gutho needs to follow our big men through the middle and Dylbags needs to find his go to edge forward to run suicide lines.
This is our year and it's first time in decades the players actually believe they can win, 2021 finals proved it to them.
Enjoy the roller coaster Eels fans, this is our year.
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No doubt we've got a good chance barring injuries. The boys seem to be confident and cohesive which is great. Hard to disagree with your assessment, the back three coming out of defense does seem like it may be an issue. Naiduki looks like he could be ready to explode. I'd love for him to get a chance at some stage just to see how he handles it.
The forwards are our biggest strength, we need our backs to feed off the chaos they can create and really take advantage of playing behind such a great pack.
Bup, I believe you are amongst/the most asute observer/s here.
You explain things so clearly, it makes me think you should be to a same day match plan for us against the various outfits we play....say the Thursday or Friday before the match and in turn give a review after the game.
PS good to see you posting ......and you being back again.
Finally the " Power game" and " bumpers up" approach is not front and centre in terms of how the team plays - on the topic of wingers, just because we don't have big wingers doesn't mean we are doomed, all this means is the workload is shared amongst the back 5 and a bit more risk and creativity when getting out of own territory. Matterson at lock is a must, Nathan Brown to the bench - so much skill in the team and for now it appears both forwards and backs are in snyc - less reliance for tries from kicks, an attacking approach will sap the energy out of the opposition and take the pressure off our defense - abviously it won't be plain sailing it's definitely the right mindset. Exciting times ahead.
Agree with Matterson at lock, he finally looked like the player we'd hope for on the weekend. We lack the specialist 2nd rower
Yep. Also:
1. Fatigue needs to be managed correctly from round 10 onwards.
2. Sliding defence needs to improve to stop expansive teams such as Souths and Manly.
3. (The point in the op): improve attack.
Great psychological win . Keep the premiers scoreless at their home ground. Shows the rest that the Eels are seriously up for it. The simple change of shortening the dummy half pass engages our attack much quicker.
I hate the long pass to forwards from dummy half, it limits our options and makes attack predictable. The opposition know who gets the ball and will zone in on him
Not only does the short pass "engage our attack much quicker ", it nullifies the marker who has to commit to our dummy half, it allows our big men to run better lines and it's more deceptive when you throw one out the back.
The short pass from dummy half and between our big men is the most effective and efficient way to play the "power game" and smash down the front door
Just watched the trial again, we look really well coached - RCG ball playing took me by surprise, the forwards winning ruck, quickly heading to the ground with a speedy play the ball.The forwards hunting in pairs with the intent of looking for a pass, we have a serious footy team that will be too hard to handle for most teams.