For me, this was the most disapointing element of the game. Our pack still lacks that intimidation factor and without Fuifui starting, our pack just had noting to stop the Dragons roll. If Justin Poore wanted to make an early impression on his former partner in crime, might 1Eyed advise that he put some intensity into his early tackles rather than the grubby little elbow that resulted in the first penalty and further exacerbated the Eels poor start.
Daniel Anderson desperately needs to address the mindset behind that lax first set of six. The Eels seem to have the need to work themselves into a match. They use second-phase play to get the opposition onto the back-foot and then they start coming at you. Without that second-phase play, they are a very ordinary football team. If they cannot compete without it, which means far more aggression in their tackling and better line-speed, then they will always be subject to this match plan. Melbourne did likewise in the grand-final. Out-muscle early, hope for some early points to come from the pressure and then just hold on for dear life, which you can do by slowing the match down as much as possible.
Fuifui Moimoi has to start. Having watched the game, I would start Fuifui in the second row and start Feleti Mateo on the bench. As much as I love and admire Feleti he is not an aggressive player and we simply need more aggression from our forwards. The Dragons made us look soft again. Set Fuifui loose for the first 18 minutes or so and then bring Mateo on as the first change.
If you look at the stats, its plain to see how much the Dragons forwards dominated. Michael Weyman led the way making 145 metres from 17 runs, which is an average of 8.5m per hitup. Indeed, almost every Dragon forward averaged over 8 metres per hitup, while ours struggled to make much more than 6 metres. Where pre-match I suggested the Eels had an advantage off the bench, it was the Dragon's bench pair of Merrin and Saffy who had the biggest impact on the game both averaging more than 9 metres per run. Merrin is a true talent - the Dragons won't miss Poore at all.
Which is not to be overly critical of Poore, but his reduced impact shows how important it is for forwards to hunt as a pack. And how you need at least one forward to start the roll by bending back the opposition defence. Weyman is that man for the Dragons. Fuifui is the only player in our side capable of doing likewise. It would be nice to use him off the bench, but frankly its just so much more important he helps us to start well. Daniel Anderson will look back at this game and realise that by benching Fuifui he significantly contributed to this opening, and in retrospect it didn't give due credit to the Dragons pack and what a foundation that were capable of starting providing.
The playmakers
Daniel Mortimer had a howler. His kicking was poor, he came up with a couple of undisciplined plays, his defence contributed to the second try and he failed to assert himself. But he needs to be our number seven and he needs to be our number seven next week.
Mortimer and the club have committed to each other. Let's make this week the end of the foreplay and now just consummate the bloody thing. The interchange of halves just didn't work. We had worked out way back into the match coming up to half-way and then early in the second half Daniel Anderson made the decision to bring Kris Keating on and move Robson to hooker. It really took away from our momentum. We had consecutive poor kicks from each of them. Robson and Keating both failed to clear the ruck and Mortimer kicked directly down Boyd's throat and sent him on a 30 metre gallop.
I still don't know what position Keating was player, I'm not sure if he did either. All the interchange succeeded in doing was disrupting any flow we had.
By moving Mortimer to halfback, Anderson can swap and change between the Keating brothers and Robson, as he wishes without having this kind of impact on the side. The team can focus its direction around Mortimer for the full 80 minutes. For anyone who likes to argue that you don't mess around with your halves, this game is as much evidence as you need.
Six for us, is only a supporting position because Jarryd Hayne remains our most important and dynamic playmaker. However, what we need is stability at seven. Jeff Robson gave us that last year even if it left us without much penetration around the ruck. Kris Keating would give us more attacking flair, but Anderson doesn't appear to have the confidence to give him that role. Mortimer is probably not ready for the responsibility, but he's surprised before with this ability to step-up, so it's time to bite the bullet.
Ill-discipline
Parramatta fans were ready to lynch Tony Archer but really the Eels only had themselves to blame. Hands on the ball and silly little penalties like that given by Poore and Robson kept us being pushed two steps back every time we made a step forward.
We don't need this crap. We are a fabulous defensive side and we should be backing ourselves to hold out the opposition, rather than looking for a sneaky dropped ball. I don't want to see this side give away any penalties because as they showed again, even when they lose in terms of metres and possession as long they get a reasonable crack at the ball they can still score enough points to win.
Penalties kill you more than any other element of the game. Not only does it allow the opposition to get a good crack at you in their quarter but it always means you're working the ball out of your end. Anderson should be gutted at the amount of stupid penalties we gave away but it's something I expect he'll address pretty quickly.
Cause for optimism
The fact that we were in this game all the way to the end is, to be frank, quite extraordinary. We had no platform to work from, a messy halves combination but yet we were able to conjure as many tries as the Dragons did.
All of those elements that made us a success last year are still there, but better. Timana Tahu is going to be a sensation. Kris Inu is looking good again. Burt and Grothe played fantastic games and Feleti Mateo offloaded at will gain. Most importantly, Jarryd Hayne will be just as dangerous as ever. Every time we broke the line, Hayne was intrinsically involved in the play. He's going to have another great year, and we'll do great things again off the back of that.
The Eels are such a difficult team to beat because they seldom conceded many tries but always have enough attack to bag a few. That guarantees they will win many more games than they lose. That was what took us on that winning streak last year and it is going to take a very good performance to knock us off in any game again this year. Unfortunately, that was what exactly the Dragons delivered. They played a near perfect game, with a clever game plan and they only just managed to hold on for the win.
We've got a few things to sort out, and the Shane Shackleton loss is a big blow. However, Eels fans should not be any less optimistic about our chances for this match. 2010 is going to be a good year.
Replies
As for penalties, DA should be disciplining the team on that this week. Goal for next week should be getting less than 5 penalties in the match.
I think Shane Shackleton will be back in 3 months hopefully. We'll wait and see.
But, being the coach he is.. I know that Daniel Anderson will address our weak points to the players and work out a plan,but gee guys, its only round one !!!
Things will get better...
As sterlo said the next day on the radio - ( i forget what program) - the dragons won't beat parra again this year on that evidence.
I have always thought that our problem is going to be our halves this year. I know not many agree but I will say it one more time anyway, I think Mateo 6 and Mortimer 7, Keating off the interchange bencheroo with a clearly defined hooking role and Robson carving it up for wenty.
I would hate to be Anderson, the halfs paring is really our weakest point. Not that anyone who is playing there isn't any good, just who to run with on a regular basis.
Mk needs to work on his dumby half role a little, he wasn't bad on Friday but he isn't quite kevin kingston. Our fifth tackle options were a little rusty and our kicking wasn't great either, nothing about our game was terrible though. Parra just need a few games under their belt and away we will go :)
- Hayne seems to be getting caught out of position a little bit (Even Grothe had something to say about that) and I would like to see that they work on that. Although, I must say that Dragons played him out of position very well; and
- Cayless - he hits up hard and makes good metres but he is not inspiring to me . This comment is not a result of him dropping the ball either. i must admit though this could just be me being hard on him.
I usually am very critical of the Eels because I hate losing but honestly their performance overall was awesome and I am looking forward to next week. it will be our first win and an awesome one at that.....
Solid Review mate and I agree that I was more encouraged by our display rather discouraged. It's the first game of the season and we wern't showing that level of Football till atleast round 14-15 last season so we are already way ahead of where we were. Hopefully injuries will be minimal and we can maintain that. Can't wait to see how we are going in a months time.
I also agree with your discussion on the halves. If Daniel Mortimer is viewed as the long term number 7, then put him there now. There was a bit of confusion there the other night about who was playing where. Put him at 7 with Keating at 6. While I am yet to be convinced about KK, let's give him a go and let him sink or swim. Dependable Robson on the bench coming on to play where needed should work. I understand the rationale about Mateo playing at 6, where he has more room to move. However, with Shackleton out for an extended period, he needs to be in the backrow.
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