My thoughts on this Grand Final. I thought at the start of the game and in the early stages we went set to set with Penrith but their play the balls and their forwards made more impact. I really thought if we were any chance in the game we had to score the first try or get a couple of tries to try and stun Penrith. When it got to 18-0 it were pretty much game over at that point. We had a couple of dodgy calls go against us in the first half and Leota did two high tackles which were not picked up but that isn't really any excuse. I think it weren't until the 39th minute that we got a set of six in their danger zone. Once again we went tryless in the first half, we haven't scored a try in the first half of a grand final since 1983.
Second half was more of the same from Penrith, they scored a dodgy try from To'o, everyone on the Channel 9 team said it were no try including Matt Thompson who is a Penrith supporter. We had a chance to score when it were 22-0, Sivo dropped it over the line and then we made a break through Simonsson, in my opinion he should of kicked it past Edwards and chased it, Edwards was always going to tackle him 1-1. Penrith scored not long after that. Nearly all the calls and captains challenges went Penriths way in that second half as well. There was one call where Nathan Cleary stripped the ball and it went forwards but the bunker said it didn't.
We scored two late tries through Gutherson and Arthur to make it 28-12. For the third grand final in a row we actually outscored the opposition in the second half. I don't think we played particularly bad to be fair, we only made a couple of errors but we had hardly any field position, I think we had maybe five sets near their goal line for the entire game. Penrith pretty much only made 2-3 errors all game from my count.
The game plan and kicking from Moses wasn't that great, why did he continually kick to To'o or Edwards on the full?. Why not kick to Staines who is tiny and inexperienced compared to them?. If Cleary was playing for us he would of kicked at Staines all night.
I feel sorry for the Parramatta fans who went to the game and spent a lot of their hard earned money to watch that. I think because we had hardly any ball or had no real chances down their end, Penrith took the crowd out of the game, I couldn't hear our fans at all.
I honestly feel that I will probably die before we win a premiership, I am getting older now (35 years old). Its just shite year after year seeing other teams get to lift that trophy and to have that lap of honour, when is it going to be our turn?. I have seen other clubs I support in different codes and in Super League win trophies and to have those moments but there will always be an empty feeling in my life as long as Parramatta go without winning the Grand Final. I wasn't really expecting us to win tonight, Penrith were overwhelming favourites for a reason but I was hoping for a much closer game, a bit more excitement and a better experience for the fans.
If we go by History, we won't be in a grand final for a long time now, it were 15 years between 1986-2001, eight for the next one and 13 for this game to come around. I will always support Parramatta but they make it very very hard.
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Very comments and fair assessment. That was a footballing blackout. We were swamped
Good comments, well said. Always next year.
We matched them early and looked good, but we were dominated in the middle, RCG and Paulo. Though felt RCG was good early on. Bench offered no impact unfortunately.
Hopgood looks the goods so hopefully he can give us something.
I am confident we can get there again in 2023, we can match teams like Penrith but maybe the lights were a tad too bright and BA just didn't get the week right as we looked nervous and a little bit under done.
I feel your pain brother, I wish to god we would just win one grand final.
i wish we could just come into a grand final and score first or actually look like we're in the game.
MY heart wanted us to win, my head said we had no chance
We lack the line speed, fitness and aggression to play Brad's forwards game. Brad kept saying our props are on big money so big minutes, opposition don't care what money your on.
To play to Brad's plan you need big aggressive bench players with strong defence, they don't need to be great in attack but damage in defence.
I doubt any side would have beaten the Riff tonite. Still think we would have been better of playing Matto and Junior wide and let them ball play. We were never going to out last the Riff playing a forwards game in the middle. Always next year.
Panthers won all 4 grades. They started developing juniors many years ago. They are a young side but losing a few players.
Parra needs to follow the same long term plan for growth to build a strong club for the future - the Eels have the best junior base out there, which gives us the ingredients not available to most clubs.
Penrith have the best junior base we are miles behind we aren't producing anything close to qhat they do
While I was growing up I saw Parramatta win a lot of lower grade premierships but it never translated to the NRL level. We have a big junior area ourselves and lots of juniors, it's just getting them juniors who are successful to then bring it to the NRL team.
Fair thoughts mate.
Ive gone from taking it pretty well last night, to being pretty angry today, angry about so many things parra related.
I just want to stand up and fight, i just want to finally be winners and hold my head up high.
Im fucking so sick of nearly getting there, im sick of this club not aiming for the stars and being ahead of the curve, just gutted, but ready to fight another day.
Im hurting for all eels fans, im even hurting for fans like the TCT, i dont know why because they idolise BA and Jake, they are part of the problem, but i still feel sorry for them because i know they are die hard fans.
Think im on the 4th stage of grief.
I went to a GPS school that had the highest standards of Rugby in the country, i understand very high standards and not making excuses.
Being a boarding school, i lived those standards for 6 years, very high discipline expectations and standards, NOBODY was content or proud of defeat, winning was the absolute only option and a culture was in place to make that happen.
There was never ever excuses, never, you must be above excuses
I lost 1 game in 6 years as a testiment to those standards, it was the same over every grade.
Supporting the eels is just so hard, our standards are so fucking low, and they are so obviously low to somebody who has been in a system with a very high bar like Joeys was back then.
Whats really sad is many eels fans dont know what high standards are, they simply dont understand sadly.
I just feel like im a loser supporting parra and im helpless to act, the standards of the club and many of its supporters are just so low, so unprofessional it hurts.
but i aint fucking going anywhere, im in for life.
I agree with many of comments here . This really hurts. We were never allowed to be in that game from opening minute. When your playing a team like Penrith you need them to be down and us to be up . Our very best doesn't beat the very best if penrith . To ever win we needed luck , greater than 55% ball and to have camped inside the panthers end for blocks of the game.
no other team beats Penrith yesterday ., how you stop this conveyor belt of winning is anyones guess. To have such dominance across every team and level is testament to what they have built there .
We are Already behind the mark with recruitment . Hopgood could be the next issah yeo . Everything points that. He is tough , winner, leader , great workload . He knows what winning is and what is needed.
it starts again next March . We have no alternative buy roll up our sleeves and give it a red hot go !