I felt the Eels were very fortunate to get the win tonight against Manly. The Eels 2nd half was very poor in many areas! Defensively not as good as last 2 weeks plus some very stupid errors by Gutho, Ferguson, Sivo, Blake and a couple of others. I still think Ray Stone would have been a better inclusion although Kafuasi has picked up some valuable experience. Their were a few dubious ref calls going against both teams. The Eels really need to learn how to put teams away and not allow the opposition back into the game by stupid errors. Top 3 players in the Eels side tonight were:
3 points - Mahoney outstanding all night.
2 points - Jennings
1 point - Paulo - best ofvthe forwards.
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the field goal was to early for me but we won the only thing that matters
Monts I'm going in going to have to call you a dope here . Parra were lucky to to win but the eels defended many sets on their line and defend many stupid errors they made where last they would not of .
Even if thr try was awarded and manly won the game Parra showed a number of improvements from the team as a whole and individual players from last year . Next week is another test .
Exactly!
Thats ok Frankie no worries mate. I'm probably being a bit hard on the Eels but their defense although good it wasn't great! There silly errors almost cost them the game..Ferguson's attempt to intercept wasn't necessary. He should have held his line and tackled and then the Eels would have had the ball instead of giving Manly another set of six in the Eels half with only a couple of minutes left. Ferguson can have some silly plays in his game and that's why the Roosters got rid of him.
If you look back the Teams that have good seasons, and even those that actually win the GF, have wins like that scattered throughout their season.
It's good to win like that sometimes because it will feel like a loss and should mean they aren't complacent for next week.
I thought their forwards got on top (in part due to superior wrestling) and the Australia halfback should really have shown more. Just my opinion.
Under fatigue in the second half we made some dumb decisions and went away from what was working. It gave Manly a sniff.
I'm sure the boys know it too. Importantly we come away with the points and no injuries.
I thought our defence overall was excellent
Did we win, shut the hell up then, not great but 4 from4 we will learn
We lost some composure in the second half the gutho chip and chase was an example moses was in position for a kick and it should gone to him for a kick to the corner.
Defence was very good all night a year ago we would of lost that game
true, yes we le some tries in, but overall we matched them. the great test was assed
I'm in the centre.
Frankie's right there has been some improvements to the on-goal defence, some good cover and desperation defence. We also showed we have a lot of individual brilliance in our team.
But, tbh, some aspects of our defence concern me. Our high missed tackle counts (46-34) is reminiscent of last year, where we lost the missed tackle counts in three of four games. We were one of the worse in the comp for missed tackles, second worse.
Last year, I flagged it as an issue back in R6, after our demolition of the Tigers and people tossed it aside as irrelevant, then. The problem is: it creates a vicious cycle, not just an increased likelihood to leak points, start losing the ruck and momentum - when facing good teams. It means someone else is going to have to make up those missed tackles (we made more tackles than Manly 349-313) despite having more possession (35-31 sets). More fatigue. And fatigue is going to be a very significant currency in today's game.
It also corrodes confidence, making it more likely we'll crack under pressure as the game wears on: Moses' taking a field goal seems to suggest he was worried about us being able to hold Manly off!
Another downside is that, just like last year - if it isn't remedied - we're going to see some heavy losses when we face extreme adversity and have an inconsistent team, from time to time.
IMO.
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