I've been pretty vocal on here as have a lot of others that from the outside in it doesn't look like BA is a coach ready to take a team all the way.
Credit to him though, he got us into the last game of the year, went further than he has ever been before and he now has Grand Final experience. It was so weird seeing him in the GF box, like a place a lot of us never thought he could be. He looked out of place. Having said all that, full credit to him. The players seem to enjoy being coached by him.
Heres the thing though, to me we didn't look like a Grand Final team but rather a team that found its way there this year. With a bit of luck and a lesser opponent we may have only needed 1 chance. But to me the game highlighted how far away we are and so much of it comes down to our structures and coaching.
Our ;grind' sets are so 1 dimensional. Bash it throught the middle, maybe a spread to our edge backrowers then a high kick to the left winger. It doesnt matter who that left winger is or how their return affects the rest of the set, thats what we're going to do. The kick chase is complete garbage. For a team thats been together the best part of 3 or 4 years and has been buliding towards a deeper run I can't fathom how such an important part of the game is completely overlooked. The kick chase hasnt been well drilled into our side. Its the same kick 99% of the time so its not like its off script and they players don't know what we're doing.
Our team needs to build through the season. What we do in rounds 1-5 should evolve throughout the season and our whole squad should be contributing not just pushign our main players every week throughout the season. RCG doesnt need to be playing 60 bash and barge minutes against the Knights in round 6 (hypothetical). Junior doesnt need to be backing up 2 nights after an Origin in Perth. We need to play the long game and look to evolve and peak at the back end.
Our stopping in defence is again an issue. Our players stop and hold and try and hold a line together . They wait for the opposition to decide what they want to do and then react. Comparing to Penrith who hunt together we sit and wait. An offload by an Eels player results in every Penrith defender ready to pounce. We would stand and wait shit scared to come out of the line. Again for a team thats had combinations and togetherness for a few years now we havent really developed in this area.
I don't think we're heaps far off but I also don't think we've been building on a lot of the key 1 percenters that you see a team thats had the luxury of time together developing .
Squad wise im happy to see the back of Reed. Doesn't hold his own defensively. By far his best attribute is his ability to ping passes our of dummy half but doesnt have any deception or ability to run. Papali'i will be a loss but is far from the complete player . Hes one of the laziest kick chase edges in the comp but we will miss him. The others are really just forward depth pieces so how we replace them will be interesting. I feel we need a workaholic edge to replace Papali'i . Someone who takes pride in winning tackles in defence . Liam Martin would be a great replacement when he's off contract.
The next 6 months is really an opportunity for Brad to get better. To take more direction from his assistants and really think about what we can do to go another level.If he sits content with what we did this year and thinks what we're doing isn't far off winning a comp we're done for. On a final note in my opinion his son needs to be developed as a lock , he doesnt have the skills, foot speed or capability of playing as a half. If BA really wants him to get a spot in our strongest 17 it should be as a guy who can play in the middle and fill in as a half if theres an in game emergency. Our utility has got to be better than 1 position Jake.
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Hiring Barrett is a step in the right direction.
Really? From what I can tell BA is not open to new ideas or having a plan b, so it doesn't really matter who we hire as an assistant - it's my way or the highway..
Will be interesting to see if we can spot barrett's influence next year.
Well he is going out of his comfort zone to bring in Barrett, why would Barrett come if he didn't have control of attack the way he wants to do it? Of course BA will say to Barrett a certain ideology of how he wants our attack to be but will then let Barrett implement that as best he can.
Madge would be great for defence but also as a second voice for Brad, that someone to lean on.
Barrett could've easily have gone to St. George Illawarra as an assistant with a good chance Hook gets sacked and he jumps into the interim role. But he chose Parramatta
LB, agree completely with you.
A lot of the narrative around Barrett & Madge is solely focussed on their negative traits. Likewise BA at times.
But all 3 have differing & impressive skillsets too.
Brad is clearly a good coach & the players like playing for him. He has weaknesses, like we all do, but he also has strengths that don't seem to attract much credit.
With Barrett, you've got someone who has actually played at every level himself - a voice of experience we currently lack with BA as he hasn't played the game at elite levels. Is he a first grade coach? Probably not, at least yet, that should not detract from his potential & experience as an assistant though where he has done a good job previously - very different jobs.
Then with Madge you have a harder edge that again maybe BA lacks a little, plus he's obviously won a Premiership as a coach. Another vital piece of the experience puzzle we haven't currently got.
Obviously we don't know if these 3 very different minds / personalities can or will together, however the potential is huge. We gain experienced voices in areas BA probably lacks.
Like you, I am very hopeful the Eels can pull this coup off & a big credit to the club if we do.
There is still a lot of chatter that we are closing to signing Maguire as an assitant coach.
Dogs have been chasing him hard but heard we are now the front runners.
Not sure how to take this but I guess having a premiership winning coach as an assistant isn't a bad idea.
that would be enormous.
We arent a billion miles off. Whether BA is the one who can get us the next little step is debatable but bringing in a few high quality pieces to make a few tweaks might be the answer. We can't rest on this season it has to be built upon. We're in the 2nd to 6th rung on teams .. any of which could finish 2nd in any given year. We have a great opportunity and salary cap room to build.
I thought Maguire was off to the Raiders next year to assist Ricky Sticky
He's been made an offer, hasn't accepted anything:
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/09/27/canberra-have-made-an-offer-...
I'd say he'd take the Eels gig over the Raiders - more chance of him getting the top job eventually. No chance of Ricky going anywhere soon.
But will BA implement any of his idea's? I don't know BA from a bar of soap but looking on from the outside, BA seems to be very limited when it comes to implementing anything outside his coaching philosophy (which seems to be pretty one dimensional).
It depends what he is hired to do.
It reminds me a lot of the qld set up when they dominated NSW for 8 years.
Like BA, Mal is a great man manager but tactically bereft of ideas but had quality assistant coaches who ran the attack and defence.
With BA as the man manager, Barrett coaching the attack and Maguire coaching the defence it would bring us a massive step closer to a premiership.
I don't hate BA and praise him hugely for getting us to the GF but I don't think he has the tactical skill set to get the win in the big game. That's were the likes of Barret and Maguire can step us up a notch.
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