Eels Blogs

Well that was something to witness. A chance to show credentials and get into the top 4, if Melbourne lost to Souths, and show the league we are ready to go come finals. Go away to Wyong, regroup, do honesty session and unwind as a group to mentally recharge. Coming off two average performances, waiting for the big teams to show our 110% energy. And this is what we showed for it, wow ok well Brisbane are the real deal, though we knew that coming in. Put it simply it wasn't good enough tonight, though i will say, and not saying this to be sarcastic either, the effort was there in the second half. Question remains to me though, and it wont get answered, is was the effort in the second half for BA or themselves? or both?

Anyway let's look at the stats, coming into the game as Daz posted in his pre-game blog as amazing as it is, both teams were pretty even with us holding better stats in more areas. Last night, the stats were similar surprisingly. Watch from 15mins onwards in the first half and turned it off after the 50 min mark you would say Brisbane dominated, they did but not in stats. Possession was even at 50% each, completion rate was one area where we were dreadful, 74%. The weather was not kind and Brisbane did have mistakes earlier on, 83%, but to win you need the ball, errors and not completing sets leads to giving the ball away, football 101 it is simple. A big area we pride ourselves on is run metres, we 24 more runs than Brisbane last night and only had 19 more metres in general. Tackle breaks were close with Brisbane having 29 to our 27, while Brisbane also having 4 line-breaks to our 3. We had a faster play the ball speed, which i believe came from being behind and us realising using momentum can work in attack by getting play moving, i nearly fell off my chair seeing our play the ball speed was 0.08 second faster. We also had more offloads with 16 to their 10. Surprisingly our tackle effeciency was better, 88% to their 86%, but more missed tackles with 29 to their 27.

Errors are a big factor in these stats, 16 to their 8. While the refs were blamed, and though they did not have a great game by any means, they were not the issue of why we lost. we received 7 penalties to their 2 and also 2 ruck infringements to their none. Brisbane at times were bringing us back into the game, that stems from their inexperience as an outfit yet, but we didn't capitalise.

Final point, controversial one. The Waqa Blake no-try call was correct. Makatoa took Reynolds out, it was leaning towards inside shoulder but not enough to evade Reynolds, Reynolds was shuffling to the side to cover, did he milk it a little? I mean yeah perhaps but still Makatoa didn't slow down at all. Hate me all you want, that is just my opinion.

Most Impressive:

Reagan Campbell-Gillard: A tiny bright spot, RCG was not bad. 142 metres for 4 tackle breaks. I mean it is more a "Least disappointing" entry. But was not enough to get us on the front foot.

Oregon Kaufusi charge down: Changed momentum and got us back into the game leading to Sivo's second. Nice chase by Oggy also to get the ball.

Most Disappointing: 

Reed Mahoney: He was just bland and boring tonight, missing tackles and getting dominated through the middle, falling off tackles like a leaf falls off your shoulder in Autumn. The conditions granted didn't position Mahoney well but his kicking game would have been used well in that weather but saw one kick in the first half that looked like a 40/20 attempt and went straight down the throat of Niu on 4th tackle. Wasn't needed, kicking on the forth have to kick better than that.

Will Penisini: This hurts me as i felt he was in a special year, he looked out of his league last night. Does that mean he wont be a great player? No of course not, he is not even 20 until next week, he is still a toddler in a development sense. He is seriously lacking confidence. Compared to 2021 where he shut out Olam, Crichton and Best in a month of football, he looked like a star. Not sure if wear and tear of week in week out first grade is taking it's toll or the combination with Simonsson just is not clicking or simply confidence is not there. Either way i wouldn't drop him back to cup as it would develop him i think persevering in NRL is much better for his development at this stage, confidence will plummet in Cup. But then again a stint in cup with Opacic coming in might stable things up. It just hurt seeing Lee and Oates just read him in attack 9/10 times, times where there was an overlap and Will just couldn't get the ball to Simonsson, the backhand offload that went forward and out of play and the pass back in by Simonsson that was dropped and the sin bin. It hurt more cause i really like Penisini and think he is a kid of the future, but seeing a kid with such low confidence who beat himself up after every mistake just made things worse.

Isaiah Papali'i statue on the Haas try: Was he thinking of the horrors awaiting him at Concord when Haas ran? Cause his attempt to get him was abysmal and unlike Ice. If he is keen to stay he definately didn't help his cause, as that play made him fit in with the Wests Tigers. Overall Ice was Ok i guess, he looked fatigued late in the game but kept going. Though that attempt was bad, could've slowed down Haas and stopped a try, play to the whistle.

Ryan Matterson: He has had a few weeks off and is learning the Lock forward position but is anyone else thinking if Matto is comfy now with his 2.4mil? Just looked like a normal Lock forward out there, nothing compared to mid-season where he was making metres with his eyes closed. 

Oregon Kaufusi: Poor bloke, it gets to the point where im surprised people don't call me out for bullying him even though i praised him earlier, as many here know i have never really been a fan of Oggy. I think he is an OK squad player, but is too hot and cold for my liking. To me, he will be a player that had the skills and size to play Origin but never reaches that potential. Anyway last few weeks he was actually pretty good, last night when needed for impact off the bench well, 11 runs 78 metres. Not good enough, i understand the rest of the team was not great either, not from lack of trying but he is our first forward in the rotation to come on, either him or Niukore and added no impact at all.

Maika Sivo: From man of the match to on here, Sivo wasn't awful, hell he scored a brace but it was more so what he could have done. You look at Oates and Periera for Brisbane, late in the first half they were starting Brisbane's sets well and creating momentum, having Haas, Carrigan and Flegler leaning off those carries. Early on Sivo had them, but when needed in this weather through the middle it went missing. 11 runs for 91 metres. I understand he is still recovering from an ACL, it takes time to get full confidence in your knee, but Sivo is a winger similar to Oates and Periera and was simply outplayed by a mile. Cobbo wasn't there and was not missed.

BA's bench: Been a common criticism, but playing 2 of your players on the bench for a combined 15 mins? Telling me Makatoa at 15mins is more valuable than Brown? But whatever, beating a dead horse with commenting this.

That is it til next friday, good lord help us. We've done it before after an embarrassing loss, NQ beat us 35-4 and we back up to beat Penrith in Penrith. But after losing a game against a good team at home would have hurt us. Team changes, well no injuries as far as i know so more likely he keeps same 17 allowing them to redeem themselves. What i would do? Well not mass changes, but Maka and JA off the bench adding Rodwell and Brown, or even give El-Zakham a start in the top grade. Ogden and Cartwright are around also. He will name the same 17 though.

Side note i will not discuss about BA's sacking or if he should be, all of us including myself have been suckered into the talk. The sensible thing to do is let the year play out, when our season finishes then we pass judgement where we see fit. We can comment on performance or coaching options but i will not get into should he or shouldn't he be.

Extra side note, i was with a mate at the game last night he is a Penrith fan, he said to me at half-time he would just talk to Ciraldo now and get him over or move BA on after the game. What does that achieve? Whether you want a coach gone or not, you wait til the end of the year, unless there is a sure fire coaching candidate you desperately want. If Ciraldo is as keen on the Eels job as rumoured he would have one eye on it and waiting til September to decide, but if he jumps for Canterbury then so be it. But what does moving BA on now or talking to other coaches now achieve with 6 games left and semi's coming up? Nothing, it effectively ends your season. Whether people agree or not, the season is still going, we are still in the 8 a chance to stay in there and play semi's. Though unlikely we techinically can still win the comp, we wont but gotta be in the 8 to do it and as we speak and by the end of Round 19 we will still be in the 8. Why ruin that and any chance of seeing a very late surge by talking to coaches? They can keep an eye on coaches but i really believe if we have a coaching vacancy we will be a very attractive position to go into so no concerns there. 

Let BA see the year out and see if he can pulls us out of it, he has before, as soon as last year he did. So though i more likely think we are heading towards a slide, a win cures everything and could we do the impossible and beat Penrith? If we come out flat like we did v Brisbane, we wont have 36 points put on us, we will have a lot more that is for sure. If there is a game out of the remaining BA would try to have us on song for it is this one, RCG will be on against his former club, as would Waqa. We can hope and pray, weirder things have happened but something is going on and it is not looking good at the moment, a flogging v Penrith and i will say that is game over for the year and see the year out as best we can.