1. Make the 8.
If we don't make the 8, we obviously have no chance of winning the premiership. We can play it safe and be in the top 4 or we could be a dark horse and sit in 5th-8th. Personally I prefer 5th-8th, despite it being more scary. Being 5th-8th usually means you play football each week for the finals before you can make the GF which is what our team should do.
2. Avoid the injuries.
It's very obvious but I hate to say it that it means not putting our bodies on the line if it can be very dangerous. Injuries will be a major factor that determines whether we can make the 8 or not. I worried about injuries at the end of last year, noting that we lacked depth after getting rid of so many players. This looks to be true for the forwards and halves and as we've lost Shackleton already, we're forced to look to our Wenty forwards and I can say none of them are outstanding. Pele has size but no fitness or speed. Tim Robinson looks promising but is not aggresive enough to make the cut. We've seen Oake and Horo and they aren't extremely terrible but they are not solid. We have depth in the backs but I don't think we need to worry about that too much.
3. Improve our fitness.
Our team is clearly not as fit as last year. In fact a lot less. Our goal line defence is still good but notice how our defence lets our opponents make easy metres. We lack the fitness to continue making big hits on defence after 20 minutes. Hindy seems to have gained a few kilos and is not as fit as last year, no longer averaging his 40 tackles a game and that's partly because of his wrist injury. The team needs to put in the hard work over the next few weeks and work on their fitness, but with what seems like easy games, their intensity in fitness training will die off.
4. Peaking and playing with the right intensity at the right time.
We need to surprise the opponents. Watch as the Dragons choke again this year. They never peak at the right time. The Storm always peak perfectly and that's how they've had their success. The perfect time to peak is GF time. That means around round 23 we need to start going on a streak to the GF.
5. Stay calm and avoid the pressure from the media.
This is easier said than done. The team seems to be able to lose games when they are favourites very easily. I think this is because of pressure from the media and the stupid Daily Telegraph hyping our team up and putting them under pressure to win. Oscar was the perfect motivation for our team to win on Friday and I think some of them felt to pressured to perform well. The Tigers were better on the day but we could have easily done better if we didn't make as many errors.
6. Secret Weapon.
I think we really need a secret weapon this year. Tom Humble may be the key when it gets to finals time. The other person is Inu. Inu is the next most talented player behind Hayne but I have to say his kicking ability and potential is greater than Hayne's. You only have to look back to 2007 to see him kicking for himself and scoring to remember his brilliance. He's still got that ability. He just needs practice. Hayne as a 5/8 was not a failed experiment. Hayne gained fitness and kicking skills from it. Inu needs to train and work on his kicking ability. He could potentially be sending up really high bombs for Grothe, Reddy, Tahu, Smith, Hayne or himself to finish on the 5th tackle. He could be kicking grubbers as good as Thurston or Lockyer. Inu has been overrated in previous seasons and underestimated in this season. It's his time to shine and take pressure off our halves and off Hayne. He is a genuine option to consider that DA hasn't looked at. Time to get Andrew Johns to train Inu in kicking.
7. Attitude.
This is very important but I think some of you worry about this slightly too much. When the time comes at the end of the year, we will want it enough. We want to win it for Cayless, Hindmarsh and Burt. They deserve a premiership. The Parramatta Eels deserve a premiership. We as fans deserve a premiership.
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It all comes down to work ethic, match fitness and attitude
I think we will see a much stronger eels outfit develop over the next 2-3 games, and have no doubt come round 7-8 we will be firing and much more consistent than at present
In terms of a 'secret weapon', well it aint a secret but our weapon is still Haynesy.
We don't need another X factor, what we need is to take some pressure of Hayne by developing some structure and control into our game. Imagine how good we would be if we had Hayne feeding off a team that was already capable of controlling/wining a game, rather than relying on him to do it all himself?
'Don't put your body on the line, dog it till round 23 and use Inu - the true superstar of the club - more because he's better than Hayne.'
Fitness is a fair point. It's not good but this overall, would be a bad approach.
The first 20 rounds of the season should be treated like a marathon, then leading into the finals we should be sprinting to the GF. Everything should step up a gear and the players should ride the momentum.
I understand what you're saying but players should always have the fire in their belly and being pushed, coaxed, cajoled and manipulated by the coaching staff to provide even better performances as the season goes on instead of tapering off.
I think it's much more complicated than you make out.
And yes I like your marathon analogy. We shouldn't be sprinting early on, we should be sprinting at the end.
Of course we shouldn't taper off but we should save our best so that we can win the GF. That is the ultimate goal.
It's not much more complicated than I make out. Everything is only as complicated as you want it to be.
Injuries is going to be ultra important to us. If we lose Hayne, we're gone. That's a big risk for any club - Newcastle were the same and more often than not they didn't have Johns on the field when they needed him and they could never bring home another premiership. Same goes for Fuifui. We won't make the eight if either of those players gets an extended injury based on what we've seen so far.
I think we've got some players lagging in fitness. You have to question the merit of the second tier international games when it means a player like Feleti can't train properly until the start of the year and I think he's clearly behind the eight ball.
Most of all, I think we just need to get our halves right. If Mortimer and Keating gel and become attacking weapons in they're own right, we'll win the comp. I have no doubt about that. I have more doubt as to whether they can to that level this year. But I don't think any team can have passengers in the halves and win the competition.