Like all I was disgusted with last Fridays performances, no help from the referee but overall we were very flat and disappointing. A lot of you seem quick to write us off completely after the dismal effort, I'm not one of them
Cast you mind back to 2009, we were in a similar red hot run of form and we came up against a Dragons side leading the competition in the final round of the season. I remember heading out there to Kogarah with real excitement that we would put them in their place and continue our charge towards the premiership. How wrong was I, we got demolished 37-0 and I was left completely shattered that our season was seemingly completely derailed from one pathetic showing. A week later we were to meet the same team again at the same ground. What possible hope could we have? Well the eels had other ideas and a Jarryd Hayne inspired masterclass ensured we pulled off one of the great upsets I can recall from the Eels, going on to win 25-12 and continuing our incredible charge to the grand final. That side had pulled incredible motivation from being humiliated a week earlier and ambushed the Dragons in a game I will remember forever. The whole team played inspired that day and were a completely different outfit to the team from a week earlier.
For me Friday night was the exact same wake up call we needed, that we received in 2009. It hurts to get embarrassed as we were on Friday. We went into that game with the wrong mindset, we believed we were better than the opposition and could cruise to the 2 points. The moment you let your guard down, you get knocked down. This eels team will learn greatly from last Friday nights game and be assured they won't go into any more games this season with complacency. Expect to see the eels season resurrect this Thursday and I for one have every faith we have the side to give this premiership a real shake. This was the wake up call we needed, enjoy the ride from here on in
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Let's wait to see how we respond to an out of form Titans with a lot of bad press surrounding them this week.
My main point is that you can turn it around from 1 week to the next, its all about attitude. I don't for a second believe that we tried to lose that game intentionally in 2009. I do believe that our motivation level was many levels higher the following week. This side has been playing well but sometimes you can get a little too comfortable in the results you are achieving and the intensity drops off. We won't have that problem this week
So are you going to say that we intentionally lost our games in the early part of the seaon that year aswell? I don't think we threw that game at all but I am positive we didn't go in to it with the intensity needed, knowing that our massive game was the following week. If this eels side plays at 100% we can match it with anyone. Last Fridays loss was the catalyst we needed to switch us back to 100% from here on in
We would've finished 7th instead of 8th had we won that final round game and we would've cost the Dragons a minor premiership. The game had little bearing for us though because regardless we would've met the Dragons that following week. I don't think our guys last Friday played like it mattered and the result showed. I do think we will play like it matters after that major slip up, Thursday will tell a lot of where we're at
Yeah - we didn't throw the game - but Saints would have had to play VERY badly to have lost.
Anderson was of the opinion that our confidence at the time was undentable and he firmly believed that we would be at a distinct advantage going into a semi against the Dragqueens having lost to them the week prior (rather than winning). He believed that a win by the Dragons gave the coach (Bennett) far less to work on during the lead up to the semi and made his (Bennett's) game prep and game plan alot harder to prepare. Ando felt that the Dragons were one dimensional in pretty much every facet of play and that a percieved dominant performance by them in that game would merely steel Bennett's resolve to continue with the same style - which had shown cracks in previous weeks.
I didn't get this straight from the horses' mouth, but the person that relayed it to me certainly did :)
One things for sure - this 2017 team of ours has a problem with complacency at times.
What a great day that was!
1st v 8th.
Ive been going to parra games for almost 30 years now and till this day i say that was the best performance iv'e ever seen parra play.
It was a very hot day and i remember arriving at kogarah very subdued almost anticipating that this would be our final game.
The dragons peppered our line for the opening 25 minutes but kept shutting them down.
Then all of a sudden we scored 2 tries in succession and i knew it was going to be a special day.
The final 30 mins and again st,george went raid after raid until grothe took that intercept and took off full boar like he never had before.
In the closing stages burt sealed it with a 40m plus field goal which im sure he'd never be able again to kick a drop goal like he did that one.
Finally Hayne finished it off with that miraculous try that still gets shown on highlights reels were he beat around 8 players then celebrated by giving dragons fans the shoosh signal.
What a day!
ask your self, why was semi let go to figi to marry and come back thursday ,he played a bad game, its crazy parra let him go...
semi fires the eels fire, will smith was poor hes no fullback ,and hes other winger was bombed all night.
lots went down we had little ball in the 2nd half we where at the back of the posts , and never saw parra down there much.
i dont know the stats for the game , but i would say parra had about 38%only.. not enough for parra to win.
will smith getting the sin bin , was the turning point ,they scored 2 trys in that 10 mins.
parra got court out twice this season with a game like this, the roosters and cowboys , i think newcastle saw the video of that game no doubt, and used the same tactics, bomb the winger and will smith.. if brad arthur and hes traners where smart , in the warm up newcastle had about 10 balls ,with there player spead out, they bombed each other for maybe 8 mins, my son said then, o no, they are going to bomb will smith , he was right.
i see ARNOLD says cooper cronk is coming as brads asst coach, what a laugh.
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