I'm going to try to be succinct in this blog.
To my way of thinking there is only one significant change from last year. That change is that we have a greater potency in our attack.
Unfortunately, the aspect that has not changed is our inability to deal with adversity. I have blogged on this failure in the past.
There is no other team in the competition that fails as badly as Parramatta in this area of mental toughness. The away game scenario highlights this to a tee. The bounce of the ball, the 50/50 calls, the crowd. All of these are challenges away from home that every team generally faces. How do we handle it? Appallingly!!!
Yes we have injuries. But look at the Gold Coast and the Sharks. They have had horrible injury issues. They may not have the same number of wins as the Eels but they are not copping the floggings like we are.
Until our coach can correct The Eels' attitude when confronted by challenges and adversity, then there is very little difference to the past couple of years. I hope that things turn around in the next few weeks, but as a member and a lifelong Eels fan, the effort from last week has left me angered and embarrassed. After recent seasons, we deserve much more than this.
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x 2 - I have blogged ad nauseam of Parra's poor "on field" Leadership. Parra ARE mentally fragile, and are great "front runners" but often fall in a heap when under pressure - turnovers and penalties against are symptomatic of our mental fragility
However, the difference between 2013 and 2014 is that it is obvious that Parra now has the coaches, players to possibly "Learn to Win"
Last year, forget it....we were just wondering around in a dark room desperately feeling for a "light switch" that did not even exist - in otherwords, were were HOPE-less in 2013
I think if you look at our injury issues, we've actually lost a lot of the players that the others players would turn to for resolve, namely Nathan Peats and Manu Ma'u. From everything I've seen those are the two who have that never say die attitute.
It's worth pointing out that the only "blow-out" where Peats finished a game was the North Queensland loss and even in that game we did make a comback. You take him out and then Ma'u and you leave a big hole in the side. I think Will Hopoate would be up there for mental toughness as well.
The club is developing a pretty decent core of players right now and I think we can start to look beyond just playing ability when we go into our future recruitment. I think BA and DA have pretty similar ideas as to the type of men they are want in the side and the likes of the players I mentioned will set an example for the players coming into the side to follow.
A coach can only do so much in terms of attitude - the senior players really do set the example and we've not had many players of the Peats and Ma'u ilk. Like I've said, we need to build on that foundation now and before we even consider bringing someone into the club we want players who demonstrate that same competitive hunger.
I went to my doctor today, who is a very funny and knowledge little Indian bloke.
He loves all sport especially cricket and unfortunately follows the Broncos.
However he made an interesting point, he told me that the reason there is so many injuries in Rugby League is because the players over train especially in the weight room building up muscle.
He said that there is no muscle flexibility in the players body and when two players collide it muscle on muscle.
He said too little body fat can result in major leg injuries.
I thought what he told me was very informative
He was probably spot on Mick, i tend to agree with him.
I only say this looking back to our first flogging against the Roosters. Although we were almost at full strength, and only missing Peats, we capitulated. The signs were there but we just made excuses like its still early in the year, we have a young side, it was the premiers and we missed Peats. C'mon enough excuses.
I had high hopes this year and I hoped BA with an improved squad could silence a few critucs but alas it seems as though many, including myself were wrong.
Frank, we have issues but we are far from "completely shit".
All of the excuses are excuses, but they are justifiable excuses. We're coming from the position of wooden spooners we're integrating new players into key positions and we've massively over-achieved this year. It's worth remembering we're sitting in equal seventh position. If you were asked at the start of the year, if after two thirds of the competition, would you take sitting on the same amount of points as the 7th-ranked team, would you have said yes. I don't think there would be a single person on this site who wouldn't have taken that result.
We have shown that when we put our best team of the park, we are competitive with any team in the competition, that's a phenomenal achievement in itself. We're dealing with the legacy of having a roster that needs some further improvement, and some youngsters who are finding their way into the side. We've managed to work around halves who have some serious issues and aren't even close to the top halves pairings in the competition.
It would be a real shame, even if we do struggle in the back-end if this season gets characterised as another failure because it's already been a success in so many ways.
Quite frankly, anyone who hoped for any better let their unicorn get away from them and developed unrealistic expectations on the back of us over-achieving when we were at full-strength.
x 2 - that is a fair call and the "re-building" still needs to continue
However, it still needs to be admitted that Parra has a "soft" underbelly. The way they fall apart for abnormally large periods of play is bewildering - this had been systemic from Round 2 and has not changed other than larger scorelines put up against Parra that have been depleted with injuries
The fact that Parra has played so well at times - despite being our own worst enemy can be seen as "encouraging"
The unusual dilemma that faces Parra, the team with the second worst "points against" Total - is in fact NOT Parra's defense, but rather Parramatta's inability to play SMART "basic" football
......complete your sets, not giveawy "stupid" penalties and turnovers, have a "plan" on 6th tackle, cause a line drop out more than twice a season (sarcastic), have kicks that actually pressure defenders
That's all the EASY stuff right there - and Parra can't do them
And yet - when healthy, Parra excels at the "hard stuff" - scoring when they "need" to and scoring long range Try's
Parra have the cart before the horse in some respects, this makes our future even more exciting.
BA must be aware that Parra's attention to "detail" in the BASICS is our most profound weakness, yet this is the EASIEST to remedy
I'm with you, although I have given up on season 2014, I have been encouraged with the progress and direction
I actually thought we had better depth than a lot of other teams this year with the young forwards coming into the team surprising many including myself.
I was excited to see how much depth we had with all the injuries of late and it would appear absolutely fark all.
Why don't we have young backs being blooded?
We have some exciting young forwards but we rely on Morgan and Kelly as fill in backs.
We need a Robson type half as back up, no frills, cheap, versatile and talented.
I was a Morgs lover over the past few years but he just isn't NRL standard it seems. Big heart and fit but absolutely lost amongst the big boys.
For sure we have improved in some aspects, mostly in attack (I said we were completely shit last year and only marginally better this year) but the fact remains we couldn't get any worse than last year, even if we tried. Additionally we have a far superior roster and a supposedly better coach, so hand on your heart, who on this site honestly expected us NOT to improve? Not many I has it a guess.
There is still plenty of time to see if indeed we can improve but as I suspect, I think they will continue to implode as seen many times this year already.
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