Daniel Anderson spoke through the week about addressing the poor start that the team has become renowned for but they will be even more renowned for it after tonight when once again they gave up the first couple of tries.
The first was a copy book try that has time and time again proved effective against the Eels. Benji Marshall took the ball to the line on the fringes and rather than pass for his outside men he sliced a grubber in behind Eric Grothe. Jarryd Hayne was just marginally out of position and Lote Tuquiri beat him for the ball to touch down for an opening try just 7 minutes in. Marshall failed to convert from out wide and once again the Eels had set themselves up to chase.
If Daniel Anderson had intended to fire his team up for an early effort it didn't work, because the Eels were again looking flat. And so it didn't really surprise when they scored again off a little grubber kick from Tim Moltzen, which didn't seem overly threatening. However, Feleti Mateo showed a lack of urgency and was bumped off the ball by Blake Ayshford, who touched down just inside the touch line. Fortunately, Marshall missed a relatively simply conversion and so the lead was extended just to eight.
The Eels didn't get much better in the back end of the half and if anything it looked like the Tigers were likely to go in. The only flash of inspiration for the Eels came from a chip and chase from Jarryd Hayne that somehow ended up back in his grasp. He offloaded to Joel Reddy who had Eric Grothe on his outside but the pass wan't a good one and Grothe couldn't hold it. To make up for his earlier missed conversion, somewhat, Marshall snapped a late field goal and the Eels went into oranges trialing nine to nil, the second consecutive match they have failed to score a point in the first half.
Despite the poor first half, an early score in the second half would have gone a long way to nullifying the score. However, the Eels seemed to believe that a nine point deficit wasn't enough of a challenge and Benji Marshall went over just six minutes into the half and for the first time in the night converted his try.
So we sat and we waited for the Eels comeback to begin. And it did. Jeff Robson kicked across field and Joel Reddy leapt for a magnificent catch and touch down. The Jarryd Hayne sent a fantastic cut-out pass to a flying Timana Tahu who sent Krisnan Inu over in the corner. Inu converted both and we were now just three points behind at 15 to 12.
However, tonight the Eels just seemed to expect that they would run away with it. But unlike Manly last week, the Tigers knucked down and a brilliant grubbed by Robbie Farah was touched down brilliantly inches inside the touchline behind Tuquiri. And then Marshall punctuated the victory by racing away and running almost the length of the park for the final points and a 23 to 12 win.
Daniel Anderson must be close to necking himself. This side just refuses to play any football until it has its back to the wall. Last year, Anderson said he reckoned the team had gotten rid of its "enigma" tag. Well, I'm sorry boys but you've got it fairly slapped across your forehead again.
Replies
Tigers had depth...they had support..im scratching my head.
Mateo made a break towards the death and he was alive for what seemed like an age and no one was within a bulls roar.
In 2001 when we made that charge we had lads coming from everywhere in support..im talking everywhere if someone made half a break he had options.
Im not giving up but we need to start to complete sets...priority
Improve our kicking game a shitload ...2nd priority
Support each other...3rd priority
I have another 100 prioritys but with the talent we have ...do those 3 and we willl start winning with ease.
One positive is most of the tigers tries came from kicks which can be hard to defend. The tries that didn't come from kicks were from some benji magic and lazy cover, most notably from ben smith. His fitness will improve. I thought our line held up ok against an attack that spreads the ball and asks a lot of questions.
Bottom line is the errors killed us, we will improve I promise.
P.s. MK looked good in the first half, give him a break this week.
Incidentally, do you not agree with anything I've said? Just curious.
Tigers didn't beat us on ability tonight. They beat us with enthusiasm. They came to play, we didn't.
Our harves combination of Robson and Keating showed very little leadership in attack. We simply rely on Hayne too much to make things happen. We are really lacking a quality Halfback. I personally hope we haven't dropped out of the race for Thurston.
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