Ok so we all know that a team that holds the footy and completes high and all those other cliches has more chance of winning the game. Right? You dont have to be a first grade coach to know that. Even an under 15 coach teaches his players to complete their sets and hold onto the ball. Why the U15's coach is even telling his players to run hard when you have the ball because if you run hard you are going to put the other team on the back foot and the holes will open up. Perhaps the 15's coach will even tell his players to start fast and not let the other team get away. And dont forget to make your tackles and all that.. Sound like familar cliches. Indeed they are and for good reason.
But do you know what? I reckon our best footy is when we actually play a bit and as we start to do some 'good things' the confidence increases and they try a few more things and the runs get harder and the balls stick and the tries start coming thick and fast. And befrore you know you have completed at 85% and your up 18-2.
But I've seen everytime we make a few mistakes and play a bit sideways the week before the message the next week is just play high percentage footy, dont prmote the ball. And it sounds great because its the cliche we know that works all the way from under 15's right? Kick to the corners and run hard but guess what. ...it doesnt produce any confidence and if it doesnt work then panic sets in and the players play the last 20 throwing passes not out of confidence but panic.
Brad Arthur has got to release these guys to play not just high completion footy but eyes up footy and when a few passes stick the confidence will go up and like against the Roosters in the first half we will see a team that can beat the best. We have the team, we have shown it. Oh we can play and there is plenty of points in the team. But if we just play high completiton footy for high completion footy's sake we dont have a chance against the Panthers, the Bunnies, the Broncos and all the rest. We have skill, look at our tries this year. But you have to have some courage to use those skills sometimes because there is a risk as well as a reward.
The Eels team that we see in these remaining rounds wont simply rest on the 17 on the paddock but on the message of 'fear' or the message of 'confidence' to play what they see that they get from their coach. Time is running out. It's over to you BA.
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The new Eels coach is watching closely. Watch this space
Welcome aboard Phil, hows the lips today?
The lips have been in interviews all day, i called it, JAC fastest man in the world. King Gus strikes again
Agreed but again that has to be the coaches message and Im not sure it is.
We are honestly one of the most boring and predictable teams to watch in attack. The only ha;f of football they have played where I thought our attack was enjoyable to watch was the first half against the Roosters. In the second half we went back to our one-out hit-ups and lost it 12-00. The funny part was the media conference when Brad was happier about the second half when we played to the game plan.
WTF Brad. It's things like this that make me think he has coached this sort of play out of the team. I used to cringe at our block plays out wide but even they seem to have stopped.
Agreed. Whenever we are playing good footy it's like he says right now reign it in and we end up making it a close game. We never put teams to the sword because we go into our shells. That comes from the coaches message and the confidence he gives to the team.
SEQld Eel it worked in 2009 when we had nothing to lose as there was no way we were making the finals.
Off loads galore and Hayne went crazy.
It might be just the gameplan that unlocks someone like Dylan Brown to go on a Hayne like run.
Can't be worse that how we are playing now as I'm convinced we are not going to make the 8
X a billion been saying this for days
even if it's under a caretaker coach so we don't have to make any rash decisions or Mary ??
You're right Mannah-Brow I thought we were good in the second half against the saints as well when we started throwing the ball around and players with a bit of skill like Cartwright was in the game.
Cartwright is the player you want if you are going with an attacking game plan but not a defensive one which is why he is out of favour with the coach
This certainly makes a lot of sense, but I suspect there is a fair amount of balancing in order to get this right, The key players need to know when to play eyes up footy and when to take the high percentages. You are right that if we have not mastered that yet, there is little time left in the regular season to try this.
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