Masterful, is how i explain what i witnessed on Friday night. It was majestic, well planned, beautiful, poetic and phenomenal. Just pure class and great performances on the screen. That is Oppenheimer i am talking about, not the piece of s*** i witnessed once i got home, what the f*** was that.
The first 10mins we looked good, full of energy, line speed was great too. Then Hughes made half a break on that left edge of ours and momentum swung leading to us not being able to regain it. We went from being on top to being quite pathetic. Seems we are in the mindset of "Well we are low on players so that is it" when it gets tough. I am not putting this on BA, not even Barrett as our attack overall is a top 2 unit. Antonelli however i will discuss soon. But simply we lost the middle, as seen with the decision to put Ofahengaue into the middle this week as he is a better defender, same with Lussick who has more experience in the middle also at Hooker.
Stats: 50% possession shared overshadowed by their 86% completions to our 74%. That has been a focal point of our season, not being able to complete at a high rate. We are a momentum team, a team that relies on routine and control in order to be good, if we do not hold onto the ball well obviously you lose momentum and control. Melbourne had 239 more metres on only 30 more runs, while we conceded 43 missed tackles to their 26. 11 line-breaks to 6 in favour of Melbourne, 14 offloads each. We also had 11 errors to 6. For those blaming Klein, we conceded 3 penalties to their 4, while Melbourne conceded more repeat sets 6 to 4. So Melbourne were penalised more, just think of that.
Most Impressive:
Sean Russell: Just tries hard, terrific try and nearly did it again straight after. Russell might be out of the squad in 2024 if we buy a Centre or Winger, which i believe is the case. So he may be up against some competition with either a new signing or Simonsson in pre-season. Russell will eventually end up on top. He did not do anything wrong on Friday nor has he for a while. Is nothing special, nor will he don any rep jerseys, but he is a goer and you need them in your squad. Would benefit by putting on around 5-8kg in off-season.
J'Maine Hopgood: Scored a great try and made 58 tackles with only 2 missed. He is the somewhat bright spot of a dismal season.
Luca Moretti: Just run hard and tackle hard son. Picked up a try in the process.
Oppenheimer: It is great, go and see it. Cillian Murphy is amazing and Robert Downey Jr. deserves his third Oscar nomination. Thought towards the end "How are Parra going i wonder" Glad i didn't stay at home instead.
Most Disappointing:
Waqa Blake: It is like giving a guy serving 100 consectutive life sentences another 50 years, just leave him alone in his punishment. Blake has played his game in the NRL i believe now AMS is named over him and thank god. Eddie Jones is desperate but surely not that desperate. Dropping two sitters. Alone that is dreadful. 3 errors, missing more tackles than he made and making 83 metres on 13 runs. Considering Russell made 1 metre less on 4 less runs and is around 10-15kg lighter. Just pathetic, shouldn't even be in NSW cup, should give a junior a go instead. He doesn't care, he knows he's leaving at the end of the year and has checked out.
Andrew Davey: Only 4 runs in 61 minutes, not good enough simply. Even then he made 26 metres. He was brought to the club as depth in the back-row plus his defence, though 25 tackles with 3 missed does not show a player with a strength in defence. He is 32 in November, with 2024 being possibly his last year in the NRL and i think his age is showing. He is a nice guy but have to call it as i see it. Perhaps being that bench player will help prolong him for the future and make him more affective.
Daejarn Asi: At times was like he was playing on the moon, went through his process at a slow pace, got caught so many times with ball in hand stifling our attack. Defence wise he was soft, Melbourne attacked him with their back-rowers and he never recovered. Seems since the Warriors game confidence has been absent. Dylan back helps alot and Asi goes back to learn some more in Cup.
Ofahiki Ogden: Did not lay the perform with starting, he had an opportunity, particularly that an extra bench spot was available, to keep a spot in the 17 til RCG is back. Granted he has limited minutes though is that down to BA not really seeing Ogden as impact? Or simply he is not good enough in certain sections of the game? Or just someone to have to take the brunt of a fit defence and allow others to take advantage of a tired defence? Either way i could see Ogden's club option being picked up for 2024 as he is good depth but that will be his last in the blue and gold.
Bailey Simonsson: Was not awful and was not helped by others, but he still did not play great. 10 tackles though missed 4, again Davey, Asi and Blake did not help but still could have done better in certain scenario's. Seems to have taken a hit in attack by being looked at as the saviour on that left side.
Steve Antonelli and BA: This is in reference to our defence. Antonelli was the ruck coach for Souths last year and is now assisting BA in defence. Either BA steps away and brings in a new defensive assistant to help Antonelli, bit like Barrett with attack with Murphy. Or BA moves Antonelli in perhaps NSW cup and gets someone in to help him. Either way it is not working and has not worked in a long time. To win a comp you need a top 3 defence, we only had that once in 2020 with Arthur. 2020 attack was our issue, we have now fixed that, now it is time for a defensive overhaul. We looked soft, jumbled, confused and understrengthed in defence. Of course, having 3/4 of your left side taken out by injury does not help but at the same time they should not be that bad either. Constantly when a team makes a break it always seems we are scattering back hanging on by a thread, always. It adds fatigue and bad structures, see how Josh King simply barged over due to low numbers on the line. BA needs to overhaul the defence, quickly.
Fans that blame the ref: It is a good sign on social media posts to see who watches the game week in and week out and those who only see scores and watch once in a while. Those who comment "Thanks to the ref" irritate me as the players are at fault for this loss. Not saying refs have been amazing but Klein was fine on Friday night, we were dreadful. Watch the game and do not blame the refs unless you have watched it.
Now into the final month, could be a good thing as it has been a taxing year, a break to regroup for management could be great. Now if we do not make the 8, does not mean we are out of contention next year. Teams have finished outside the 8 and won the comp the following year; to name a few Penrith 03', Wests 05', Roosters 13'. Roosters finished 2nd last in 2016 and finished 1st in 2017. It can happen.
Once RCG, Lane and Sivo are back, it is a damn good side. Dragons is winnable, very winnable. Broncos and Penrith not so much. Roosters is give or take. Though Dragons is a must win on ifs or buts about it.
I would have done team changes of course, but i would have said only Brown for Asi and Greig for perhaps Moretti. But Davey to bench, Hands and Ogden dropped is a big call but i am not mad about the calls either.
Enjoy your week, god save the Eels.
Replies
Possession , field position , Penalties and 6 agains were all pretty even , the stat that is glaring is the fact the eels had 38 tackles inside the storm 20 and the storm had 23 inside the eels 20 yet Parra still got pumped.
Despite even possession and 38 tackles inside the storm 20 Mitch Moses yet again was predictable and offered little in attack , you would expect a $1.3m playmaker to at least keep his team in the game but he was useless , Hughes on the other hand was the total opposite .
Moses was more marked because there was nothing happening on the left side did you miss that bit Frankie or is the pitchfork out for Moses.
Just saying iMoses and the Eels have had the wood over the Storm in the recent past also.
You can go through dozens and dozens of games over the years where Parramatta have had a heap of possession and tackles inside the opposition 20 and Moses has done SFA so it's not like its just a one off thing so what were the excuses in those games ?
Parramatta don't have the the wood on them this year or in finals games do they ?
So your now saying since Moses arrived from the Tigers in 2017 he and the team haven't improved out of sight as a player and a team ?
Go have a look over the years at our history against Melbourne and look at it now outside of the last game Parra have more than exercised that demon.
Look at last year in a must win to make the top 4 we beat them then.Parra have improved out of sight against the Storm in the last 2-3 seasons.
No, what I said was that despite Parramatta having a even share of possession and 38 tackles inside the storm's 20 Mitch Moses as chief playmaker did nothing with it and couldn't even keep his team in the game .
Then you dribbled making excuses for his inability to create anything despite his teem having so much possession tackles inside the opposition 20 to which i said there are dozens and dozens of games over the years where Parramatta has had a heap of possession and tackles inside the opposition 20 and Moses failed to create anything .
Because you couldn't disprove what I said you then dribbled and turned it into a " so you're saying Moses and Parramatta haven't improved since he arrived in 2017 " thing .
Then you dribbled about Parra having the wood on the storm which has absolutely SFA with what my criticism of Moses was in the first place and I said they don't have the wood on them this year or in semi finals and then you dribbled some more.
No, what I said was that despite Parramatta having a even share of possession and 38 tackles inside the storm's 20 Mitch Moses as chief playmaker did nothing with it and couldn't even keep his team in the game .
Then you dribbled making excuses for his inability to create anything despite his teem having so much possession tackles inside the opposition 20 to which i said there are dozens and dozens of games over the years where Parramatta has had a heap of possession and tackles inside the opposition 20 and Moses failed to create anything .
This means nothing if you have no threat on the other side.If you actually watched the game and saw Moses being locked in on that side how is having that much pill making a difference.
If you bothered listening to Bellamy before the game which of course you didn't he mentioned 2 people they had to stop now you guess what 2 people they were.They knew they had no left side attack so they slowed the ruck and stacked on the right side.But you'd no this if you pull your head out of your ring and get past the stats.You think they tell the whole story do you or just the one you want told.
Dont worry I know your another clown who knows sweet fark all about the game also if your relying on stats and not taking in the whole picture here.
Thank you Coryn for putting FF in his rightful place.....the debate should not be in existence as regardless of how much possession you have in the opposition 20, if you have no one capable of being set up, then it becomes a moot point! In making that statement of course you are giving no credit to the oppposition defence.
Now if Moses was playing for Storm against the Parramatta defence, how many points would Storm have scored?
You see Frankie it is basic questions and answers that belie everything you say with your vitrolic about individuals. Its really disappointing because when you are a natural leader as you can be, you offer so much more to this site, being an arsehole does you no justice.
You and Wiz have the same problem, you guys critique everything but offer nothing in the way of solution.......the site continues to follow you both blindly....give them something worthwhile to work on.
PS If you think that BA, Moses, Gutho and Junior should be sacked, say so and then explain how you would replace them with better or more valuable to the team players, and also how you would recruit same.
I guess you can come up with a excuse for the dozens and dozens of other games over the years where despite Parramatta having all the possession and tackles inside the opposition 20 Moses as the chief playmaker failed to do anything .
You say stats don't always show the true picture and thats true but in most cases it does , when a playermaker has a lot of cracks at the opposition tryline yet fails to get points then that is a issue , next you will say that Mitch is a big match player who thrives under pressure .
Sorry to chime in and disagree here FF. By your argument of the half back taking full responsibility for lack of attacking playmaking doesnt make sense to me. If it was just the half that is responsible for it and no one else, shouldnt teams with more experienced halfbacks such as Manly and the Dragons be killing the league right now?
If the rest of the team dont do their part by putting themselves into scoring positions, what options does the half back have?
hows sam walker going....thought he was the next big thing and roosters were going to go on a rampage....i remember there was massive blog about how walker has done more in his 6 weeks than moses ever has - hows that going now?
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