Eels Blogs

Hello darkness my old friend, it is nice to see you again. How have you been? I have been better thank you for asking. It is not so much that we lost but how we lose that is the killer. We lost to Penrith in Round 2 and i felt fine after, as we gave our all despite luck going against us. Today i have an empty feeling and feel embarrassed as a fan of the club with all the comments from footy fans just simply laughing and hating on us. We are not well liked as a club, in fact we are hated. People more so wanted Parramatta to lose instead of Wests winning yesterday. Just a warning this one will be a long one, though some will say reactionary after a loss but it is the type of loss that shows signs that could accumulate into disaster if not careful. Wests were good but again it was more capitalising on the incompetence of the opposition. Their defence held strong on their own line but when you aren't making divots in attack it is not really an indication to how your defence is going. 

First of all, i want to start with BA's presser. It was the right response, but also lacked a one element, accountability from himself. He berated the squad as soft, rightfully so, but when questioned on the Hopgood move, which got us off to a bad start and had Hopgood chasing the game, he offered up a lame reason that didn't make sense but didn't say if he felt it worked or not. It obviously didn't but he just quickly moved on from that. I hope that is not BA deflecting the blame from himself onto the players as he needs some reflection on there too. He can redeem himself with his team list this afternoon. Another thing is Gutho saying we need to play our game. That comment really irks me, why? Perhaps it is because in the NRL there will be more games than not where you need to change tactics on the fly either due to injuries, sin bin or simply being outmatched. You need to adjust mid game, we have an issue of if things aren't going our way we get frustrated and just do whatever we can to catch up.  It is the same comments since 2020 "We need to play our own game" well you are not going to able to all the time so find a plan B incase.

Also, i want to discuss an area that is concerning and has been for a while but of course after a loss is appropriate but i think is relevant. Comments have been made, by BA as well, we took Wests too lightly. Now to take a team lightly requires two thoughts of thinking. First one being the team you are playing is not very good and the second you are a top team expected to win most games you play. In what world did we see Wests game last week, granted a lot of things went their way with Cronulla having one on the bench for example, and think oh we can sleepwalk and just do what we need to and get by let's get it out of the way and move onto Canberra. It is arrogance, sorry but that falls on BA. It is something that has been mentioned in the past on radio programs that the squad carry themselves around the joint like they own it. BA has created a good culture at Parramatta, but this is something far to similar to previous years that he has refused to acknowledge, and continues to. I have said for a while that the players do not actually care about the fans or club. Of course there are mercinaries in the game that sell their skills for money and they play for the highest bidder and give the service they are being paid for with no loyalty. But when you look at Penrith or Souths or Brisbane, you see the players are a part of the club and embrace the fans. For us, it is a chore. Yesterday, they would have been more upset letting their mates down, than the club and fans, not all players but most are more caring about the boys than the club and fans. This is where getting someone like a Wayne Bennett to tell them they have no right to act the way they do. Only player in the squad and staff that has won a premiership is Matterson, that is it. It is a nitpick but it really irks me and annoys me to my core. BA said we took them likely, it is laziness and arrogance. It is like we get bored against lower teams and get up for big teams.

Stats: 53% possession, including 57% in 1st half and had 6 points to show for it. Pathetic simple as that, if anyone here doesn't like me saying that well it is my opinion. Completions 79% to 81% so both teams had errors in them. 1836 metres on 183 runs, averaging 10 metres per run while Wests had 1627 from 161 runs, slightly more average metres. Line-breaks split 4 a piece. While our play the ball speed was slower than Wests by 0.09 of a second. I am surprised out play the ball speed is so slow.....oh wait it always has been. Defensively we had 24 missed tackles to their 30. Our tackle effeciency was better at 88% to their 86%. One stat that is fascnating is kick metres to kicks, we had 17 kicks for only 439 metres, while Wests had 18 for 625 metres. Granted some of our kicks were on Wests line so metres are less but a fascinating stat for our halves. We had more errors, 13 to 10, while conceading less penalties 10 to 2. Also played 10 minutes with an extra man. Not as lopsided as many would think but we did have the better stats. Also, Wests only used two reserve players, Kepaoa and Sullivan did not get onto the field and yet they looked fitter than us. 

Most Impressive:

Will Penisini: Best in our team i thought. TCT said both tries were on his side, the Bula try was not really on him so i don't blame him for that. But in attack he looked the most dangerous. Not too much to say in a loss like this but he was good overall. I will say Russell will be dreading winter as he would be getting frostbite sitting out on the wing getting hardly any ball all night.

Blaize Talagi: Again, for what it is worth he was ok. He looked good in patches and think he is going to be a fine kid. Had a poor attempt on the Galvin break but overall he was ok and looks promising. 110 metres off 9 runs.

Clint Gutherson: He looks hurt and not sure what it is but today he looked nearly back to his best. He came in and organised and he needed to. He nearly got us the win himself with his kicking.

Luca Moretti: 56 metres off 4 runs but only 22 metres. Enough said.

Honorable mention: My skin for recovering well today from the 60 minutes of non stop sun. 

Most Disappointing:

Morgan Harper: It is like an episode of scooby-doo, take off the mask of a villain to reveal their true self. It was a poor game from Harper, the left side attack didn't even trust him enough in order to get quick passes to Sivo in attack. He had a nice play in the lead up to the Sivo try but other than that a poor game for Harper. 15 runs for 89 metres, 4 errors and a mistake that led to the field goal. In the words of the late great former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green once said in a press conference "They were who we thought they were" Instead it is "He is who we thought he was".

Ryan Matterson: Him going to St. George Illawarra in a swap for Lomax is looking good at the moment. He looked disinterested and weak. Started the game and looked out of touch. 3 errors and only 8 runs in 52 minutes. Just not good enough for a player on roughly $600k a year and known as one of our better forwards and experienced forwards. Just not good enough, particularly when he has ball playing ability to assist Brown and Talagi.

Dylan Brown organising: He played well in the second half in his old role as a running 6. But we had Talagi as a running 6 also and Brown had the 7 on his back. The expectation is to organise. I did not expect him to organise like Moses, but with his experience i expect a little better. Particularly the lack of organisation and communication at the end of sets where we got tackled on the last. Just not acceptable. Brown was not awful, just didn't do the job that was needed. It will get better, hopefully.

Joey Lussick: Pretty much thought he was passing to a midget one play, then a giant the next. Never seen a dummy half throw so many wayward passes so often. It can really slow down your attack and when we have no Moses it is important to get the ball into the hands of Brown and Talagi as quick as you can. There was a play where Hopgood had Moretti on a short ball it was lined up and Hopgood got a bad pass causing him to stop and take the run. Utoikamanu just dominated him in the middle and it was disappointing. Hands came on and was more stable but offers no real creativity. Lussick has played big minutes last fortnight but bit soon to fatiguing now, though it was a big game v Manly.

Brad Arthur: Moving Hopgood to the bench when he is a starter was a dumb decision. Even dumber was starting Paulo when we are not having Moses, so keep what is working as much as you can. The game plan went out the window and them going away from what BA wanted is not something that should be happening in year 11. We were under prepared, we looked off and quite lethargic. Just not what we should look like particularly with Moses out we need to be on to make up for him not being there.

Ok that is all for now as i want this out and to move on, i had more to say but i am over it. I will say Wests was a must win as i felt we wouldn't do well in Canberra. Now Canberra is a must win in order to set ourselves up for when Moses is back. If we don't win, fear we could be in real trouble when we really shouldnt' be. 

Team changes, i can only see Simonsson in for Harper and perhaps Greig for Hands but BA would keep most of the 17 in tact to give them that chance to redeem themselves.

So enjoy your week where you can, god bless and dear lord save Parramatta, we bloody need it.