Tonight we see two injury plagued teams go head to head at Commbank Stadium in the Eels vs the Broncos. Both starting halfbacks will be missing and the Eel's best this year in King Gutho. The Eels are coming off the bye and should be up for this game..., should be.
Carty is back and most interesting will be to see how Talagi goes after extending with the Eels and in the fullback position. Look for BA to have his contract extended by 5 years if we get up.
So, who wins and by what margin?
MOM?
GO YOU EELS!!!
Replies
Talagi was good fongi, especially his movements and vision. Always a running threat . Has that ability to find the gap and has good strength for his age. Stopped Cobbo in his tracks a couple of times.
Hopefully he stays.
Yep he surprised the hell out of me.
Well done to the young kid.....he might've just bought himself a Roosters contract offer Fongie?
x 2, Frank. Overjoyed to be wrong about Talagi. He did well tonight. Hope he keeps it up & improves. Great step. I like how he takes the line on. Some errors but that's to be expected. Good to see some more youth in the team. Was expecting a far bigger loss, too.
I agree Frank, I think the Roosters would have circled his name. And with there coaching system Blaize we know he will benefit big time.
The problem is that the mistakes the team is making is usually made by the experienced players. The team looks like they have just been thrown together and haven't played together whereas they have been playing together for years.
I don't know what they do at training but they need to change it.
We played well.
Talagi very raw and error prone but he has talent. He's still a season away though he has some very poor parts to his game. There is no chance he will be our week in week out fullback next season. He's a good understudy.
look the reality is with Moses we probably win tonight. He's back next week so let's see how our next month of footy pans out. I just hope he isn't being rushed back to early.
I thought our outside backs did a better job returning the footy tonight. Overall we had superior field position all game really. We just had no polish to our end of sets or passing movements without Moses
Has the torch been passed from Gutho to Talagi? Yeh it has. Let's face that fact.
Like everything in life and in Rugby League most issues are shades of grey. Many here will call BA and MON all sorts of names and deride literally anything about them. There's a lot to like about this squad, about the style of play etc, about the pathways etc. There's also a lot not to like. BA has some great attributes and some not so great. Nothing in NRL is black and white. (Only a Sith deals in absolutes)
I hate to sound like BA but the effort was indeed there. The boys played with intensity, in horrendous conditions. Bombed tries and dropped balls were the difference.
It doesn't change anything for me but it makes me optimistic for the future. BA is a good coach and has done a good job but this side desperately needs a new voice. There's enough talent here to do something significant. There's no need to burn down the entire place like some demand.
I never expected the Eels to win tonight but they played significantly better than I expected. Sure they could have done more around the ruck considering the conditions hence why was Hands not on the field....I could go on.
There's a soul in this team. It needs a new voice to unleash it's potential.
Agree muttman, imagine what Bennet could do with this squad with his selected assistant's and a couple of recruits.
I also think we should leave talagi at fullback and here is an old nugget from Phil from years ago, we should move gutho to 9!
In all seriousness he will give us so much more out of 9 thatn lussick, he can tackle so he already matches lussick, can dart out when required and can kick... or has that ship sailed ?
I dont think gutho is a centre, a centre has to have either speed or power or a step and offload and gutho has none of those attributes. The only other option is wing which is not ideal for his knees but he can then help talagi and he will do a shit load more than sivo at half the muscle mass
I think the Eels put in a big effort tonight in shit conditions for both teams.
The Eels won the forwards battle which gave our attack the upper hand. Think Hopgood at first reciever was working directing our attack, a few errors and dropped balls killed us.
Running forwards at the posts and then swing wide left or right is the fundamentals of attacking footy. Barrett needs to now tweak it a bit with the 1 chimming in, angle runner, dummy runner and the cut out ball and the basic inside ball. Practice this at training till it is perfect.
Blaize T had a great game, close to best onfield. Eels lock him in. The More he is exposed to FG the better he will become. Gym work and experience this kid has alot of upside.
Full credit to Brad and the team, didn't look like a team running near the bottom of the ladder.
Whoever is coaching next year has some hard decisions to make with our first 17 and the top 30, remembering the calls they make could make or break carrees.
How would Penisini feel playing wing and gutho to centre if Blaize moves to fullback. What to do with Lane, boot Lussick. Will a new coach improve Sivo.
For mine Gutho, Lane and the 9 will be the challenge, and last night's game in attack and defence needs to be the starting point.
Last night we looked like a good footy team lacking a bit of polish and maybe a few players below par. Carty starts Lane to the bench, Hands starts and MA on the bench, not sure on MA but let's find out.
-
29
-
30
-
31
-
32
-
33
of 33 Next