Eels Blogs

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          Alfred Mateo > Adam Magrath April 2, 2026 at 10:01am

          I'm stating the obvious, but our defence is the biggest letdown this year. Even conceding 20 against Saints who are a rabble in attack is unacceptable. The tries we are conceding are way too soft and the majority are coming defending on our try line which is even more concerning. 
          I was at the Bris v Parra game and there is no doubt Pezet is getting targeted. Unfortunately the defenders either side of him are overcompensating which is leaving gaps
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            Adam Magrath > Alfred Mateo April 2, 2026 at 10:29am

            I was at that game as well, nothing better than sitting amongst a heap of broncos fans in your eels gear and leaving with a win. Catching the train afterwards isn't much fun 
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            Nightmare Off-Season > Alfred Mateo April 2, 2026 at 10:53am

            

            Nailed it with ‘over-compensating’ Alfred, although Kelma was poor defensively last week, he had to cover Moses’ man more than once as Mitch was pushed off (Papalli targeted him).

            Kutouga has had a lot of work to do due to Pezet, and it's not just our halves, Ryley has struggled so far in 2026 also.

             

            Often gaps are created on our edges when the middle is being steamrolled, the edges shift in to cover, & players are scrambling to get back & into any kind of position.

            Over compensating weaknesses, new combinations, the speed of the ruck, and fatigue, and we are fighting an uphill battle that is starting in the middle currently, imo. 
            

             

            Opposition tries look like poor defence / missed tackles, and in some cases true, but if we look at whats happened 2-3 plays beforehand, it’s often easy to see why a gap has opened up.

             

            The Eels don’t currently have a genuine starting front rower.

             

            Paulo is well past starting, as RCG was years ago, but would be fantastic off the bench for us where he could be used more in attack (short passes / running at edges) as opposed to being used as a battering ram against fresh oppositions.

             

            Walker is not a starting 13, he’s not a defensive player suited to that role, but is incredible off the bench for us in that distributing / attacking role.

             

            Imo, its all snowballing from our middle being dominated, and as soon as that momentum turns (interchanges) we seem to be fighting back into games to our credit (excluding the Panthers).

             

            But it’s unsustainable, and games are already over against good teams.

             

            Defence obviously the huge retraction this year, but its appearing to be from roster more so than changes in defensive structure? Just opinion.
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  Coryn Hughes April 2, 2026 at 11:18am

  The question is why are some teams a hell of alot better defending the ruck than what we are.

  Part of it undoubtedly is talent but there's technique coaching and other mentionables.Some teams have been good at defending the ruck for years and yet here we are.Why is the answer we as a club and fans don't have an answer for.I've always thought well no that edge defense starts from the inside out.The obvious linspeed and inside pressure are variables that help the edge immeasurably but I go back to first up contact that's where all this trouble starts at the initial collision that's where we are getting found out right now.

  St George really exposed it as they were one out down the pipe running hard and were like they've done all year trying to wear teams out.