I think the loss comes down to 2 main things.
- accountablity which is on BA and the players. It would not surpise me one bit that when we verse Panthers later that we some how win. Why? It is because our players are good. But it seems like they chose when they want to play. Dylan and Hopgood are the only 2 players that tried for 80 minutes. Everyone else gave up at some point during the game. This is unacceptable as a professional athelte. You play for yourself, your teammates, your club and your fans. If you do not want to give 100% than fuck right off. So than BA needs to hold the players accountable. He called them soft publically for the first time and still this week they play worse. So the players do not respond to BA. They are just happy to be paid. This would never happen under Belamy etc. The option of dropping poor players is where the second man issues starts.
- roster management: This is not just BA. This is the senior management off the club. We have invested soo much into our forwards and our forward depth that our 1-7 have absolutely minimal quality depth. Yes the club did the correct thing of removing a couple of deadwood, but we have not replaced them yet. So we currently only have 27 players in the top 30 with 5 of them injured (Dunster, Moses, Doorey, Cartwright, Mataele). So that means we only have 22 players right now to select our 17. Ik yes we have development/supplementary contract players as well, but in an ideal world, you do not use them.
Lets look at our outside backs. Right now Harper and Cini is the only genuine outside back we have too call up on. Harper is a back up at best while Cini is not even reserve grade quality. As such, the club has resorted to picking an injured Sivo over him. This brain dead thinking at the top has left us in this position. It seems like we have indentified it as we are looking at Lomax and have looked at others recently. However, idk wtf is happening because no one ends up joining us. Is it the club, the coach or the mone we offer, who knows. Russel is a back up player too while Simmo is hot and cold. So Penisini is our only genuine first grade 2-5 player. Hurry the fuck up and find a couple of good outside backs whether that is at another club or in England or in Fiji. Because I can tell you now that with AMS and Richie doing their ACL, do not expect a gun outside back to be ready any time soon from our juniors. The ones in cup and flegg are horrible and we only have one decent one in SG Ball.
Lets look at our spine. We have no proper back up to Gutho and Moses. I understand and love that the club are bringing throughthe juniors. But if you are relying on Sanders and Talagi to be your back up haves when both of them are SG ball graduates from last year, the club is just asking for trouble. I do not care how talented they are, always have an experienced half as a back up like the Panthers do. Use that player until the juniors are ready. In such a critical position, you must have quality depth but nope the club disappoints us again. Asi is more of a utlity than a proper half and it shows as he has been played at fullback, centre, 5/8 and halfback in reserve grade.
Our hooker depth is alright. Lussick needs a spell. Than we have Hands and last option MA.
While our forward pack is great, they do not provide value for money. The amount of money invested in their means we should not lose a single contest down the middle. However, we still do because they are soft at times. Players like Lane are coming back from injury as a shadow of their former self while Matto plays like a pussy and chooses when to be play good (when needing a contract). BA has a great history with forwards. Plus we have plenty of gun juniors that are forwards coming through. So the club need to wake up. Use the junior system and BA's skills to develop our forwards on cheap deals and than going to the market to buy quality outside backs since that is a spot we are struggling desperately.
Just look how Panthers started their dynasty. Their juniors were stacked filled without outside backs. However, they were struggling in the forwards. So they went an bought Kikau, Sorenson, Capewell, etc until their junior forwards were ready. Now they have an overload of talent coming through the juniors that whenver a player leaves, they have a gun waiting to take their spot.
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Great points EA, but I think your second point about the makeup of the roster nullifies the first point about accountability. As you pointed out we currently have 23 players to choose from, and at least 3-4 of those guys are not NRL quality. The players know this and is probably why most feel comfortable in their position. BA can't threaten to drop them to Reserve Grade because it's simply not possible.
I do agree that we need some experienced backups to nurture our juniors as they make their way up through the grades. Imagine if we had a good experienced halfback whos job it was to nurture our 19 year old halves? We would be much better off all round, and he could be called upon to fill in for Moses when he went down. Is such a player available? Maybe not, but that should have been the question to Mitchell Pearce as he retired.
BA has never been able to make the hard descisions but in saying that, he has with blooding Talagi and that isn't working out so well.
The Eels need to have a system (not a 17 man NRL team) with ready replacements who are capable of stepping up and doing a job. That along with constantly putting pressure on the actual first grade squad members and keeping them accountable.
The Eels have had a number of good players come through but have never had a constant conveyer belt like system, and with the second largest nursery there is no excusses for us not having that. Too many other clubs have our backyard talent going great guns at their clubs instead of our club. That is all on our management/board, coaches and scouting staff.
It's unfortunate to say, but the Eels need some real cut throats on the board and in the coaching ranks who can make the tough and hard, but necessary decisions.
There is only one reason a club as big as the Eels hasn't won in 30+yrs and it starts and ends with the top. Put the wright people in place at the top who only understand winning and the rest will follow. Put people who are about anything esle than that and the Eels will be there and about but never actually there.
Last paragraph what you've described there is exactly what Man U are doing under new minority ownership who've fixed the off field decision makers with the best possibly available then they start on a new sporting structure which hopefully leads them back to the promise land.
I don't think you can compare Parramatta and Manchester United though lol. Despite what the media and fans say or complain about Manchester United, they have still won things since Ferguson left (Two league cups, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup), they have also appeared in other finals, it's just because they haven't won the Premier League in eleven years, by their lofty standards that is a disaster.
That's not what I'm getting at it's the process it's like what Matthew Clarke mentioned it all starts from the top.
Previous Utd management just ran through coaches and spent money pretending firing a manager/coach and paying top $$$ on the transfer market and wages was a fix.
What INEOS are doing is improving the sporting structure and the minds behind recruitment and alike to improve the product on the field.
Around here it's just fire the coach without any sought of plan above or around it that's key.Jack Gibson mentioned this winning premiership is as much done off the field as it is on.You got to have a plan and smart guys implementing it.
Gutho gives a hundred percent every game he leaves nothing in the tank
start by buying a leader. Someone that for 1-2 years is our captain and sets the standard. As much as well all support Gutho, his does not speak like a formidable leader.
We don't need to buy one, he's already in our side - Hopgood.
Now BA has copped it left and right last night and today. Is it deserved, i think some of it is yeah. More so the attitude in the press conference that annoyed me more. He goes on all week about them being soft last week and they knew it and they dealt with it to have them play worse. Too perform worse but to reply that they werent soft is pathetic really. Though what surprised me the most was the response from TCT. I will start by saying i like TCT, i visit their site regularly and enjoy a lot of their content. But i would be lying if i felt annoyed at the honestly lack of talk or responsibility on BA, there was none at all. They make it broad saying the coaching staff take the blame but no single mention of BA's presser being underwhelming at best. Comment made that the team did not give their all but next sentence they say about BA's effort comment that it was more so lack of focus, referring to the effort was there but not the focus. I am confused by this as i am not sure you can not give your all but have good effort. Added to that was a comment that when someone backed BA they replied if they were BA they would walk since he doesn't get the respect from fans for what he has done etc, then proceeded to say Stuart quit due to the pressure of the club and SK the same. That is where i dropped off, i admire their love of the club and backing of the coach, where i believe he is a great coach you do not get to a GF being anything less. But Stuart's decision was for family as well, while SK was sacked no ifs or buts he was sacked for performance, it was reported he quit but 9 wins from 41 games at the time he resigned but you cannot tell me he wasn't pushed. It was a respectful way of going about it. Then Anderson was sacked, Hagan quit due to health reasons and pressures fair but they are acting as if all the coaches quit for the pressure but BA has held strong. But to simple give an answer where it's like maybe BA should just leave as he will never be appreciated is a bit ridiculous. It is fine to hold him accountable and still support him 100% that is very possible. But cannot put wool over the eyes of us and make us believe the comments BA made in the presser, along with him calling them out and getting a worse performance from it is not concerning. I still like TCT and respect their work and they do better overall blogs than most to anyone on this site, but come on.
I think with accountability you left out Gutherson, he gives 100 percent every game. Before the season started and going back to last year the depth and quality of the backs was a question many fans were asking about. At the start of the season I knew that if any of the backs went down injured, we would be in trouble as in the NSW Cup we've got Cini who isn't a good player, Dunster who is injury prone, Arthur Miller-Stephen and Richard Penisini both out for the entire season and the rest are probably not ready for the NRL. If you couple that with some of the forwards, Ky Rodwell left, Doorey is out for a few months.
I think the players in the first grade side know that their positions are safe no matter what happens with performances as there is no real threat of being demoted for some of them. I wouldn't really use Penrith as an example, this is their golden era where all their once in a lifetime players are coming through at the same time, prior to 2020 there was no indication that Penrith would win three in a row, they spent most of 2019 on the bottom of the ladder, the three years that preceded that were a second week exit from the finals where they never looked like a contender. This whole Penrith thing is an anomaly to me. It goes against everything I remember being growing up.
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