Eels Blogs

Eels Round 21 - Key Moments and Key Players

Posted by sixtiesboy on August 4, 2015 at 7:47am
The loss was disappointing but not devastating. I couldn't fault the effort but there were moments and players that led to the loss.Firstly, there was a vast difference in the talent of the halves. Rather than being personally insulting, I'll try to look at what we got from our halves.Luke Kelly played as the dominant half. He has no problem with doing this or over calling a halves partner. The problem becomes his preponderance to play to the right, away from Semi. Furthermore, his passing game did not open up opportunities. In fact there were times when his choice to feign then pass shut down a better option. I'd give Kelly's long kicking game a pass, and his high kicks weren't far off the mark. However, his short kicks did not match the Titans ability for restarts.Joseph Paulo is sadly out of his depth in this position. His passes to the right were floating shockers that never put his players in better positions. Although Ma'u should have taken the pass that led to Robert's try, what was the pass from Paulo going to achieve, other than setting up an opportunity for the recipient to get creamed.Reece Robinson is a good winger who has some positional issues at fullback. For mine, there are moments when he is about 10 to 15 metres away from where he needs to be. It's not all of the time but he has been caught out in key moments in games that have been costly. The flurry of tries from kicks in the first Cowboys game highlighted this to me, and again last night he was caught out a couple of times, leading to one try.Goal kicking was also an issue. We're behind the 8 ball when we jump by 4 points instead of 6.Now to the moments.Firstly the Gower dropped ball. This was a 12 point turn around as the Titans scored in the 7 tackle restart. How costly were those 12 points in the final wash-up?The Titans' 50/50 try call. Our players should have done a better job and I wouldn't argue too much with the call. However, other similar tries have been disallowed and it was a key moment.The penalty against Semi. This was ridiculous! The Titans didn't score from the penalty but the incorrect penalty firstly prevented a 7 tackle restart and also added to the defensive load. I'll add my bit about the refereeing a bit further on.The Manu Ma'u dropped ball. I've covered this already but it was a moment that pretty much put the game out of reach.Now to the refereeing. To say that this was substandard is quite the understatement. I'm not going to list it as the reason for a loss, but Peranara allowed Bird to influence decision making all night. His calls were weak and at times incorrect.As far as positives are concerned, I thought that Faraimo had a good match. I don't believe that this bloke has the pace for the wing at NRL level, and he gets found out of position at times. What I can't fault is the power in his runs or his effort.Álvaro has shown that he is worth retaining. His hit ups are similar to Mannah and you know that he'll be solid in the middle.Tepai and Junior did a great job bending the line during the match and must be applauded. Peats was full of energy and deserves better halves to work with.Where to from here?Hopefully no more injuries. The entire club is decimated.For the critics calling for change, the results justify your feelings. However, I don't agree as we need to appreciate just how decimated our roster is. I can't recall a year like it, because the injuries don't just run through the NRL team. It's club wide. A couple of blogs have already explored this in detail. There are key personnel missing, at the same time. Apart from Semi and an out of position Robbo, we virtually fielded a Wenty backline. I believe that BA extracted effort from them last night. I also believe that if Norman had been fit, even with all of the other injuries, we could have taken that game.If Norman and Taka return this week, we can get past Penrith. The key reason for this is it brings our left side backs into play. Norman has the presence to prevent Kelly's dominant calls and Taka creates opportunities for Semi.
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Replies

  • Davos Seaworth August 4, 2015 at 7:57am
    Hi that's quite an impressive analysis, here's my version.

    We are f@cked.
    • sixtiesboy > Davos Seaworth August 4, 2015 at 8:03am
      Appreciate the feedback.
    • Wile E. Coyote > Davos Seaworth August 4, 2015 at 4:41pm
      Nothing wrong with being f'ed every now and then
  • Clive August 4, 2015 at 8:01am

    Without the Sandow/ Norman halves pairing that is about as good as we can expect. Norman will add a little but Luke Kelly is such a plodder that we now have zero attack. Our best attacking option last night was Jnr Paulo which is just sad. Atleast now we stick to Brad's game plan for the full 80minutes haha.

    • sixtiesboy > Clive August 4, 2015 at 8:09am
      I agree with all of your comments bar the last sentence. You can't expect any coach to turn NSW Cup players into a winning combination if some of those players are the halves. When we saw the final listed teams last night, how many here expected a 30 point flogging?
    • hindy > Clive August 4, 2015 at 9:02am
      Sixties what I think Clive is implying is that BA pushed sandow to play structured so he would be satisfied with plodder now. Mate if sandow was there we win that game, and for people saying plodder is a better defender please he is a turnstile!
    • Sticks and Stones > Clive August 4, 2015 at 11:32am
      Sixties hit the nail on the head...kelly with a nrl standard backline wouldnt look so out of place and would be a solid fill in. Kelly with all bar one in the backline that should be playing reserves. You can see the result.
  • Sir Col "THE NODDY MUSHROOM" August 4, 2015 at 8:05am

    Had to laugh at Joey and Sterlo on MMM

    They said with Henry Paranoid as ref at least the game would flow and there would be very few penalties - Paranoid then blows THREE penalties in the first 2 minutes of the game and never put his whistle away after that.

    Henry Paranoid is now a fully qualified NRL FG ref making up rules as he goes along to favour the team he has been told has to win.

    Titans drop the ball in the tackle = penalty AGAINST the Eels.

    Eels get stripped in 3 man tackle = knock on against the Eels.

    We tackle a Titans player = Penalty for stopping him from scoring.

    BUT - in all fairness I must admit we really did give him a lot of help to blow his whistle.

    As for the decimation of our team - the replacements last night were our BETTER players and we use a goal kicker who is kicking at 48% when we have a guy who kicks at 60% in the team.

    Good blog 60s - I have your Unicorn milk and Mushroom smoothies in the blender and will deliver more tomorrow.

    • sixtiesboy > Sir Col "THE NODDY MUSHROOM" August 4, 2015 at 8:16am
      Thanks Sir Col. If you had heard my thoughts before kick off, you'd know I'm no unicorn. Faraimo and Toutai did a good job with zero quality ball. They brought energy to the team. However, Taka creates for Semi. With his withdrawal, Morgan was shifted to Semis side. Morgan does not possess a great passing game at the best of times. Last night he did well to catch and brace for impact, such was the quality of ball coming that side.
  • paul taylor August 4, 2015 at 8:07am

    Mate great summary. For me in a nutshell :

    • Kelly does not add an ounce of attack to the side. Cant create before the line and when he decides to run does not have pace or skills to break defence open like other halves. He was run over the top a number of times. He is a poor man's version of sandow IMO.
    • Seffa - ditto.  His passing game is woeful. Attracts no defenders, creates no indecision in opposition, neither passes before the line or passes with depth. Hospital passes and plenty of them.
    • Morgan - limited catch and run skill set. Cant pass or set up his wingers. Unable to make good decisions in defence if multiple decoy runners coming at him.  Hasnt the skill set to create angles or open up defenders. 
    • Our Forwards IMO hold their own.  Junior is developing the best of anyone. Love him.  Gower is injured and not having the same impact. MANNAH has improved over the 2nd part of the season.  Manu is a beast and tries his heart out week and week out.  PEATS improving each week and DEGOISE has the best line speed and low tackling in the team.  PAULI is very average IMO. He is lazy and a terrible defender. I havent seen anything that makes me thing he is a long term keeper. 

    Long couple of weeks. Norman will help but our weaknesses out wide remain. 

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