Good lord, what a week can do. Go from two big wins and great performances, BA had saved his job and others were eching in how he would build our team for 2023, JA was a hero who might be a decent first grader, top 4 aspirations and consipiracy theories as to Penrith throwing a game to stop us to getting into the 4. Fast-forward to BA being sacked call, JA sucks, every player is rubbish, Papali'i should go to Wests, Mahoney should go to Canterbury, we will miss the 8 and season is over. As Rob Schneider called out in 'Waterboy' when Bobby Boucher said he would play the Bourbon Bowl "OH NO, WE SUCK AGAIN!!!!".
The sun still rose this morning and still have a game v Canterbury on Saturday afternoon and i have a blog to do, let's get through it. From the first set, i mentioned to the person i went to the game with "Is it me or do they look flat?" and they stayed that way for 95% of the game. We were murdered through the middle early, simple as that. Souths used Sele, Tatola and Murray to make inroads through the ruck by attacking our markers creating fatigue, creating room for Cook to run riot around the ruck and we couldn't keep up. That is on our forwards; RCG, Paulo, Matterson and Mahoney did not show up and take control in defence it was as simple as that, Souths were making it past the half-way mark easily, causing us to start our sets from our own 20 too many times. With a top 4 spot on the line, coming in with form, granted Moses was out yet Brown and Gutho did well without him, we did not even make a divot, besides Sivo's no try we didn't get close to scoring. Souths sort of did a Parramatta by staying in 1st gear and went through the motions in the second half, they knew they had the game, let us back in a little then go the job done late.
46% possession, it can be done but is bloody difficult to win games when you do not have the ball simple as that. One thing i will say, and mentioned it at half-time, if you watched the highlights and score of the 1st half you would think we were dreadful in stats, yet 5-4 were the errors in the 1st half, only 75% completion for us and 80% for Souths, Souths had their off moments too which is scary considering they put on 26 unaswered points. Souths made 500 more metres on only 29 more runs, 8 line-breaks to 2 and 33 tackles breaks to 15 is where we lost the game around the middle. Our play the ball speed was .20 seconds faster which baffled me as in the first half, Souths play the ball was a killer for us controlling the ruck. Defence wise, well Souths had 89% tackle effeciency and we had 87% which is not too bad, though 33 missed tackles to their 15 is not good enough and showed the difference that everyone would think seeing 26-0. 13 errors to 11 is what i was mentioning before where Souths were not fantastic for the whole game, and that is the scary part on our end, we were brought back into the game and failed to capaitlaise. Was that due to missing Moses? Not sure about that as we have seen Moses faulter in moments like that too, though i will say i think if Moses played last night, we would have scored at least one try.
Most Impressive:
Clint Gutherson: My man of the match, he tried, he tried to get something going. His defence in first 15mins saved us from being close to 30-0 at the break. Numerous times Souths were breaking past our middle and Gutherson was able to bring down the ball runner, even giving away a penalty to save a try with a dilberate push forward of the ball. Only 140 metres but Gutho can hold his head up high tonight, not a great game but not hard to be ok in that team last night.
The bench: One unit that showed up, each bench player made metres, Cartwright came on early and looked good, ran with purpose and looked for an offload when we were being too structured. BA used Cartwright how he should have been used. Kaufusi and Niukore ran hard, though not amazing they gave their all. Ogden coming on with only 8mins i will mention later, but he had 2 runs for 29 metres, nearly 15 metres per run. Better than what Makatoa has done, he should have been on earlier, nice start from the club debutant.
Shaun Lane: Didn't do alot wrong tonight, 178 metres off 17 runs and 42 tackles, Lane is just underrated at this point.
Most Disappointing:
Reed Mahoney: Now i do not think he was as bad as many say, made 65 tackles though was targeted, got some momentum going early in the 2nd half through running around the ruck, but it was more so that a player who is considered by another team to be worth around 600-650k a year just doesn't really do anything, in a game where our leader in Moses is out Mahoney needed to stand up and help. He has been poor all year. 5 try assists to 13 last year and he has played 4 more games than last year, missed 39 more tackles also, 2020 he made same amount of tackles roughly as this year and only missed 40 tackles. Mahoney is distracted, disinterested and going through the motions, so much for wanted to leave with a premiership the succulent chinese meal is on his mind.
Waqa Blake: Defensively poor, Penisini helped their too. But 86 metres on 11 runs for a winger? It is not good enough, considering we looked to him and Sivo to start our sets to form some momentum.
Jake Arthur: Poor bastard, i feel for him i really do, when he got a cheer from the crowd when his name was called i said good on him. Tonight, was out of his league, rushed by Souths defence causing him to zone out of the game, his kicking game early was out of depth he just couldn't seem to get into a rhythm. He had a really nice kick in the second half that bounced off the upright, but that was it. He tried but all he needed to do was leading them around the park and free up Dylan, early second half it was working then disappeared. JA might only have one more game before Moses is back let's hope he can have a decent game on Saturday, the kid and the club need it.
Isaiah Papali'i: Distracted, simple as that, the Wests decision with media eyeing him off has effected him. Apparently he made the call to honour the deal, his manager apparently said that, but if that is the case wouldn't he feel a weight off his shoulders? I do not know if to watch this space, if he said it to leave it til season is over and bring it back up i do not know. For those who say it was all media beat up about him backflipping, you do know he was interviewed and didn't deny backflipping, so how is that meda? Anyway, Papali'i was not there tonight, did make 49 tackles but 119 metres off 13 runs. He looked lazy and just lost tonight, the Wests decision has definately affected him.
Bench: So BA has two props on 700k each, only plays them for 42 and 39 mins? in a game where we were losing the ruck? Yes the bench were good, but no denying RCG and Paulo are better and could have gotten better from their second spell. Why name Ogden to give him 8 mins? Cartwright was fine but moving Papali'i to the middle instead of keeping him on the edge and bringing in Ogden? If he wanted Cartwright in for attack he could've given Papali'i a spell or Lane even. But we it is beating a dead horse with BA and the bench.
Two props: For two Origin props they were poor tonight granted, didn't get many minutes that is not on them but they could have been so much better. RCG 104 metres and Paulo 76. Not good enough.
Edges: Beating a horse to the point where it is that bruised you'd think it is three horses toppled on top of each other. That is all i will say.
That is it for another week and good lord the club have a decision to make if we keep going on this tradjectory. If we get knocked out in week 1 or dare i say week 2, BA calls will be out and the board will say he made the 8 yet have regressed or not improved, we have only lost 2 games in a row not 3, 4 or 5 even. It is a tough choice as if Papali'i is gone for 2023, our back-row depth looks very average, rebuild is looming to which a restart in front office and coaching staff is needed but will the board recognise that or will BA work his magic with a 5 year plan again? Can he pull us out? Well he did last year on short notice, but how they have such an active off-switch after 9 years with BA is concerning.
Canterbury coming off conceading 42 points travelling from Bundeburg to Auckland in the space of 4-5 days effected them, long turnaround to regroup they could be firing where we do not get up alot against lower teams. I am very concerned.
Go you Eels.
Replies
Most impressive. Kick off
Most unimpressive- all that happened afterwards
Easy one LB...
Actually... most disappointing... the Parramatta club... for continuing to flog the dead horse. We need massive change. I still believe we might have the squad... but only if they receive a kick up the arse, a few "I'm worth $1m" egos are pulled back in line, they are all held to account and we develop & execute gameplans that make sense... I don't think BA is capable of any of these things.
Sorry I forgot to say what changes there will be next week.
None, same 17 unless Moses is back
If we have another loss, I'd be ringing the changes and having a look at what hands, cini, russell, el-zakhem etc.. can do. What's the point of having them playing well in NSW Cup theoretically putting pressure on the nrl team, when the head coach won't consider using the cup players apart from the golden child (must be pretty demoralising for the players, whatever happened to being a development club?). Leads to complaceny in the team, cant think of a better example than mahoney, he has deserved to be consigned to cup for several months.
I think the fact that we have pretty much got top 8, baring Canberra winning all their remaining games, BA would rest them to finish the regular season v Melbourne, El-Zakham though should get a debut before seasons end.
Most impressive - none of it most disappointing - all of it.
Parra, number 1 I Talk the Talk the worst in Walk the Wale
Disappointing:
Kicking to an experienced winger, instead of testing a rookie winger, repeatedly getting the same result. Not exploiting a rookie half and winger defensively. Our middles getting dominated. Edge defence has not been fixed for 9 years.
Positives:
Gutho had his game face on and tried his guts out. Lane continues to impress would have liked him to get more quality ball.
Most impressive: Gutho! Saved at least three tries, never gave up, brought enthusiasm and energy. We need more of that from the rest of the team! Time for Brown to do a bit of that!
Least Impressive: BA. He planned the same game plan as if we had Moses in the team. We didn't. All the first half the ball was going JAs way. JA just doesn't not have the skills to be the primary play maker.
the manly game was the blue print: Play to Brown and let JA come into the game only when needed. Why we went away from that I'll never know. JAs fith tackle kicks looked like he aimed at the winger. Each one was caught on the full and they made easy ten meters before hitting a defender. Not to mention the two he kicked dead. JA has a decent grubber and short passing game and that's it: play to that. He is not a 5th tackle kicker.
I said the same thing regarding the game plan. First half we played way too much to that right edge whereas last week we moved the ball a lot better to both edges. Too predictable on last with JA getting heavy pressure. It seemed like the plan was to give Jake more responsibility but that's not what we did last week. He only got involved when we were in control and he iced it. Needed to go left earlier as Lane and Brown were looking dangerous and everything good we managed came down that edge.
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