Eels Blogs

The simple answer, we made the Grand Final in 2009. 

Now for us to wind our minds back to the first half of 2009.

I must admit that I didn't see the first half of 2009. I was living in Kazakhstan from January until the middle of July and even though they had some kind of broadband internet, the speed and quality weren't high enough for me to stream games.

I do have strong memories of Parra playing woefully and in some ways I was glad that I was thousands of kilometers away and unable to watch the boys losing. The 1eyedeel website kept me up to date with what was happening and I recall a number of frustrated venting sessions similar to what I have read last night and today.

We were playing poorly. We had no structure and a very boring attack. We weren't turning up for games and we were getting beaten comprehensively.

Sound familiar?

Here's how the first half of the year looked....

Round 1 - Loss v Warriors 18-26

Round 2 - Win v Bunnies 14-8

Round 3 - Win v Raiders 18-16

Round 4 - Loss v Roosters 6-24

Round 5 - Loss v Dragons 8-22

Round 6 - Loss v Bulldogs 18-48

Round 7 - Loss v Broncos 8-40

Round 8 - Win v Cowboys 28-18

Round 9 - Bye

Round 10 - Loss v Manly 10-34

Round 11 - Draw v Bunnies 16-16

Round 12 - Loss v Sharks 10-13

After this loss I posted on Facebook "All hail the new worst team in the NRL, the Parramatta Eels". Weller Hauraki commented on my post (to my great surprise) "Do you think you could have done better?". I actually considered replying that I couldn't do any worse!

Round 13 - Win v Knights 20-18

Round 14 - Loss v Tigers 6-23

Round 15 - Bye

Round 16 - Win v Broncos 21-14

Round 17 - Loss v Panthers 38-34

Round 18 - Loss v Titans 12-18

It was Round 19 that we fought hard to beat Melbourne on a Monday night and the roll began.

After 18 rounds we had 5 wins, 10 losses, 1 draw and 2 byes. Our for and against was -129.

Although we were 2-2 after 4 rounds in 2009, we were playing like a team without any direction. We were losing games that we should have won on form and playing very poorly.

Something happened during that season to absolutely turn our team around and 2009 is now remembered as one of our best seasons in a long time.

There is hope.  Right now I'm struggling to see how we can even win one game this year. I sat at the Stadium with my kids last night watching an absolutely woeful performance. To make it worse I had an obnoxious Panthers fan sitting behind me rubbing in how absolutely hopeless we were.

We have some quality players and those who know coaching say that we have a quality coach.

Be angry. Vent your frustration. But don't lose heart just yet.