if we compare our victories this year against the two teams that were suppose to be our biggest threat in the first 5rounds (melbourne and raiders), we have outplayed penrith against both these opposition heavyweights.
against melbourne it went all the way to the 80th minute for both parra and penrith, with parra beating melbourne 16-12. Parra had the lead for the majority of the this game but melbourne took the lead with approx 10mins to go and a magical kick from mitchell mosses and catch by sivo sealed the victory.
on the other hand, penrith were abit more lucky with there victory only winning due to a selfish play by justin olam causing the storm to fall. They won in the end 12-10.
our performance against raiders was a great indication of where we are at, the week before penrith slaughtered the raiders 30-10 in what most people was expecting to be a close game. Alot of people put penrith on another level compared to the rest of the competition. But when you compare our performance against raiders just the week after we can gain a clear picture that we can definatly match it with penrith, our performance against another heavyweight team was way better as we outscored penrith. we won 35-10 compared to penriths 30-10 and we did it in canberra
im not saying we are better then penrith and we probably wont know untill round 16 if we are. All im saying is the indications are there that we could be the real hidden threat that everyone is overlooking. Penrith have all the attention and cannot replicate the season they had last year it will take to much energy out of them, our forward pack is much stronger then the bunnies forward pack, Raiders are not coping with the speed of the game, Roosters cannot win with rookie halves and melbourne have weeknesses this year that can be exploited with george jenning and reimis smith.
what are your thoughts when comparing us to the likes of penrith, rabbits, melbourne, roosters and raiders? do you believe there is a smokey team that can also be tossed up as contenders in 2021?
Replies
We will be as polished by finals time it's only round 6
BA has mentioned that they are trying not to peak early this year and fall flat come semis. So BA expects us to hit another gear the closer we get to the finals, I hope it goes through as planned.
Yes Blaze we are up to it . However when it counts, particularly against the top teams , we have to play at least as good as we did on Saturday night v Canberra. Significantly IMO , that last effort confirms that we are capable of beating any team on the day .
It's only round 6 so I feel that the true differences will be showed up from mid season on.
If sides work us out I have concerns that BA won't be able to adapt. We've been out smarted a few times tactically in recent history and I feel that BA struggles with a plan B. He generally has the same plan A but when that goes to shit, there's no plan B. So it's not the squad I'm concerned about it's the tactics and use of our bench which may prove our achilles
Yeah I understand, we didn't really rectify our edge defence last year even though the issue was spotted early in the year. Our ability to rectify a weakness that might pop up during the year is a concern.
I don't mind BA as a coach but his loyalty to certain players and unwillingness to drop underperforming players could be a weakness.
That is my concern too Frank; we need a Plan B when teams do something different. This is what stuffed us last year besides bad defence out wide and on edge. We need to be up tempo each week; and play for 80
We have the squad this year. It's a very long season so who knows. But we're a legit chance this year. One big criticism of the Eels has been our ability to smash sides below us but struggle against other Top sides. Well we've now beaten Storm and beaten The Raiders in Canberra. Pretty good credentials so far.
do you want to be polished in round6?
I called Penrith pretenders last year and they still are, they don't have the middles to win the comp.The storm and Rabbitohs are the only two teams we have to worry about
Tend to agree.
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