Fellow Blue N Gold Soldiers, it is a little too early to tell if KK and Morts will steer our ship to a premiership this year but in my heart and soul i believe we can win the comp in 2010.
There have been a lot of blogs and posts surrounding the halves and we were all intrigued on which direction the coaching staff were going to go with the 6 and 7. I think the answer for 2010 has now been put into place and in my opinion was probably always going to be this combo this year, however, we all know Ando wanted to give Robbo first crack because of his efforts in 2009 and the fact that we made the GF with Robbo and Morts.
It seems as though so far Robbo has made a new home in the number 9 jersey and i hope he continues to perform for the team. You got to give the guy credit, he plays his butt off every week and i think he is more suited to the 9 or as a utility. Using him somwehere in the 17 is probably a good idea and a good reward for his work ethic.
Now back to the new halves combo. So we have played 2 games with KK and Morts and we are 1 loss and 1 win and our for and against is + 4. The positives are that we played a lot better against Canberra than we had in the previous weeks to Sharks and Tigers and last weeks performance in the second half against Souths was extremely promising. Sure it looked disjointed in the first half but once we started rolling in the second half the team reminded me of 2009.
We have scored an average of 18 points in the 2 games with the new combo and have conceeded 16 points on average. Our defence in patches is disappointing but when we knuckle down we shut teams out for huge periods. It seems as though our second half defensive performances have been top notch and our attack also fires in the second half as well. So what we need to concentrate on is our first half performances and to try and lead at half time. I believe this will happen by cutting out the silly penalties and dropped balls and more game time with the current team gelling and working on combinations offensively and defensively.
The point of the blog is to say that i think we have turned the corner and i am excited at the opportunity of these young guys playing in the halves together for the rest of the season. I have been saying that our halves need to be solid and consistent and provide the platform for the rest of the team to take over. If KK and Morts can do that each week we will win a lot of games and will hopefully hit red hot form at the back end of the year and take this comp in 2010.
Lets be positive that we are now sorting out the team and finding some form to build on and give these guys the chance to show us what they are made of. I can't believe they are only 20 and 21 but that doesn't worry me, if anything i am excited that if this pair continue to improve and hit form WOW WE ARE IN FOR A RIDE.
SO PUMP UP FELLOW EELS BECAUSE I THINK WE ARE ABOUT TO GET GOING RIGHT NOW.
We can beat the Cowboys and Dogs which will be 3 straight going into the bye and 4 from 8 which should put us into the top 8 on points. That will be a good turn around from our poor start.
Then on that form we can concentrate on playing consistent and i can just see the boys getting better and better each week and crack the top 4 by the end of the season and revenge the defeat of last year with Hindy and Caylo holding up that elusive dream that we are parying for.
THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE EEL, BELIEVE IN IT AND IT MAY JUST COME TRUE.
P.S. - THE HAYNE TRAIN HASN'T EVEN HIT HIS FORM YET AND I THINK HE WILL VERY SOON AND WHEN HE DOES THIS TEAM WILL LIFT TO A WHOLE NOTHER LEVEL.
"WE FOLLOW NO OTHER, WE SUPPORT NO OTHER AND WE BLEED NO OTHER THAN THE MIGHT BLUE AND GOLD"
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