I am nearly certain the reason we are not in the top 8 is because we have Jarryd Hayne in our team.
We all know he is the best rugby league player since... ever in my opinion. He is a Michael Jordon of the Rugby world.
And therein lies the problem.
The media has drummed him up into a super hero poster boy, the constant barrage of Hayne Plane this and Hayne Train that has got every other marque player in the League jealous as hell of the attention, and out to prove they are as good, or to line him up.
I dont know if it is just me, but every team we have played , except for possibly the Dogs and Newcastle (We just cant win a wet game) this year seems to save there best performance plus 20% for our eels. Even Cronnula played out of their skin against us. Scott prince looked like he was on crack during his MOM interview!
No wonder really, because they know the media spot light will be on the game big time, they must be scared shitless of the embarrassment a win by the eels will heap upon them through the Telecrap. The adrenalin of trying to beat Hayne has turned nearly every team we play into wired, gut busting freaks!!
Until the lime-light and JH Novelty wears off a bit, I think we are in for a tough ride.
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Hayne is not the one to blame the reason we find ourselvs in the predicament we do and the reasons for this are:
1) Our forwards in the first half of the year were as soft as marshmallows without getting any hard yards. This basically commenced from the time Shacks got injured and Justin Poore took ages to find his feet at a new club.
2) Despite the combinations that have been tried with Morts/ Robbo/ Keating our halves combintations have been amysmal all year and they have not taken on the line or given quality ball to the outside men.
3) Our kicking has been ineffective with too many bombs without chases, long kicks over the deadball line & no 40/20's to speak of that we could build pressure on the opposition with back to back sets.
4) Too much one out play that meant we could not post any points or trouble the scoreboard. In a lot of games we have conceeding the first try or two to the opposition we are have been trying to play catch-up football and with our attack completely out of sync this was never going to happen.
4) No support play of any description. Even in the last few weeks playing hot potato and with Mateo trying his best with arms waiving about in all directions but there is no one around to take pass to to make a decent break down field.
5) The loss of some key personnel to what we had last year. We have missed the "metre stealer" Kingston's cheeky darts from dummy half to get on a roll, get the defence on the back foot. Lowire has also been a loss as he was a great defender around the ruck.
6) Wingers taking the pressure off the forwards. Last year it was noticable that after a long kick down field the likes of Grothe and Burt were in the thick of the action taking the first few hitups. Really cannot blame Grothe as he has been injured a lot this year but really Burt could have been more active in this department.
7) Players minds on contracts next year. It is clearly evident that the likes of Mateo/ Inu & Keating have had on their minds what is going to happen with them next year instead of knuckling down/ playing well & performing that would have given DA, the coaching staff and Board no option other than to given them extended contracts because they deserve to stay and are worth their salt to the team.
We should count our lucky stars Hayne has done what he has this year with his try assist/ cut out passes etc. as without him I would hate to see home many games we would have won if at all as no one else has been there to step up and do anything in attack. We would be lucky to be even ahead of the Sharkies now how bad a thought is that!
If anyone needs further evidence it isn't Haynes fault this year take a look at the Manly game where he single-handedly got us out of the shit and over the line when we were 20-0 down in Round 2
Every time they got caught in the in-goal was because they were LAZY! So many times they made average kicks great by sauntering along instead of displaying some urgency! Both these blokes have got a strong penchant for the fancy stuff and not the in the trench work at times. Really, I think the good teams in the NRL now know this and exploit it extremely well..
Even though Mateo tried his guts out, looked dangerous and lacked some support, he also squandered some chances by only looking to the inside. Half a dozen times we had overlaps against the Titans and Mateo went back inside...oops. Our whole team look like we have forgotten how to score points without it being through an off load or a special play. The old draw and pass seems to be a lost art at times. Jono Wright has forgotten that he has a winger.
lol if the OP was being sarcastic, at least write it at the end!!!!!!
You might remember when Lockyer first started to get noticed at fb the same thing happened.
Bennett however was capable of keeping his team grounded and on the job.
Who do you think we should sell JH to?
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