24 hours ago, I was so hopeful. I seriously thought we could push for a finals spot and be a serious darkhorse.
I didn't think we'd beat Melbourne, but I thought we would put up a very good fight and come away with positives despite the loss. After the first 10 minutes, I was as hopeful as ever, which was mainly due to that Sean Russell try with 12 men. That was short lived.
Players like Ryley Smith, Pezet, Simmonsson, Jack Williams, even Brian Kelly I was very excited to see. These players (apart from Kelly) had strong seasons last year and I couldn't wait to see how they developed. I know it's early days, but they all seemed to have gone backwards, especially Ryley who was virtually a speed bump.
with that said, do we have any hope for 2026. I know it's early days but that is not a performance you put in the back of the mind. It was one that exposed so many issues.
However, it would not surprise me in the slightest for us to come away with a win next week, and we are all back on the Bandwagon
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4 th year running we've started the year on the back foot, yes it's a long season, but 52 points conceded in the first rd with a -48 f/a. It's over for the 4th in a row, what's Brisbane gna do to us next week?
Unfortunately this season is over. After just one round.
You can't be -48 after the first round and be taken seriously in the NRL. It will take us a couple of months to even get back to a positive differential even if we string together some good wins. Meanwhile the front runners will continue to pile on the points. We're already relying on miracles simply to be competitive.
Same old same old. It makes it difficult to keep interested.
The Eels in 1982 lost by 20 points to Manly who beat them 3 times that year but the Eels beat them in the Grand Final. They were also beaten by the Bulldogs by 22 points in 1986 but won the premiership
Honestly, I felt like we were done last night. I was absolutely ropable.
But after calming down and being a little more reflective rather than reactive, remember we started shit last year while missing Moses and had a NSW Cup team, and then came home strong after Origin only just missing the 8.
It's Round 1, we haven't completely shit the bed just yet. We will come back from this and pick up a bit of form a little faster than we did last year. We just have a tough opening to the season.
Yes, but last year we had Dylan Brown ( who has great defence) and there was Lomax as well who made a big difference. I hope the Eels can turn this around. It's possible
Sounds weird but not a lot has changed for me.
We were never a chance of genuinely competing for a Premiership in 2026 the moment DB left and we failed to replace him (Galvin, anyone else who’s an actual 5/8th).
No team has won a Premiership with a rookie 5/8th / halfback in over 20 years.
I felt 6th-8th would be a success this season & still believe thats more than possible.
It’s one game, albeit one shit game.
The Eels went from last with the 2nd worst (?) defence in the league, to 11th with a top 4 defence over the final 8 weeks or so last season.
The transformation was pretty incredible.
Beating the Roosters, the Warriors (in NZ), and the eventual premiers the Broncos in some absolutely brilliant & courageous wins.
That Warriors win especially was one of the toughest Eels wins I’d seen in a long time.
I still believe in Ryles, and he’s proven he can turn this team around.
They will give us a lot to cheer about this season, and while it may not be with the top echelon, and we might have to witness some horseshit along the way, its far from over.
The players & coaches won’t give up after one week.
We’ll bounce back, hang in there.
The rules allow these blowouts. Playing with 12 for 20mins, 6 against, most on 4th or 5th tackle. No team can come back from that, especially when a team as good as Melbourne have 10 and 12 tackle sets. Playing catch up footy just compounded the errors. Next week against the Broncos will be our make or break game.
I had us finishing 12th-16th and last night reaffirmed that.
We have a quality halfback and the rest of the team are just average Joe's.
We have a average rookie coach and our front office has to be one of the worst in the NRL.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if we got the spoon this year.
Yes I know last night was shit. But lets face it, it's Round 1 against Melbourne in Melbourne. No other team has managed to beat them, and on top of the 2 sin bins, the 6 agains, having no match fitness, and the use of Joash instead of forward sealed our fate. To write off the whole season after that is an over reaction.
Whether we lose by 1 point or 50, it's still only 2 competition points. Obviously, these guys weren't prepared physically or mentally at what was thrown at them. They reflect on the prep as Ryles said, move on from it and learn what you can do better.
Still a young team with a bunch of unknowns in there to boot. They will get better, lets wait and see what happens next week.
I don't know. I must admit i find this hard to take, immediately after a performance like that.
Does it show any distress or embarrassment. Those are two things i'd like to see, surely players that want to compete for a premiership are a little more downcast then this.
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