Unfortunately so many players need to be dropped after this performance. Lets go down the list.
- Russel - How tf he didnt score that is beyond me. I actually believe he is a goot footy player but has no atheletic ability which means he gets exposed at NRL standards. He is like the opposite of W Blake who was blessed with so much Athletic ability but had zero footy skills.
- Harper - he was not bad tonight and actually had good carrys in the first half. But he simply needs to make more ball and all tackles when we are scrambling in defence. Probably unfair to drop him considering are replacements are worse.
- Asi - he will get rested anyway but the pass to Lane, 20m restart, tackle on Isaako (put his body in a horrible position).
- This is where we start the proper horrible pefromances which is the forward pack who are meant to be one of the best in the comp:
- Lussick: I will put my hand up and saying I thought he would be a good signing but fuck me ded he only had a good 2 weeks. He never puts our forwards on the front foot by drawing markers like top tier dummy halves. His crash balls and attempts from DH are useless. He offers worst first contact in defence than Mahoney. He is left on the floor so much, makes no attemtp to return to defensive lines and allows quick play the balls. Part of this is on BA for not having Hands on the bench. 35 tackles with 5 missed and 5 inffective.
- Carty - his worst pefromance in the blue and gold. Carty of the gold cost titans. Errors in attack and afraid to tackle in defence. It must be the injury to his ribs surely because at the start of the season he was folding people. His defence on kick returns was so bad he made Fuller looking like prime Inglis. His effort when Dolphins kept scoring was hopless. No effort to control the ruck or make tackles. Let him recover or if he is fine drop him to reggies after that.
- Moretti - when your role is to have a quick stint of impact you cannot be dropping the ball and missing tackles.
- Hopgood - first poor game in an eels jersey in defence. He put in the effort but just mssed 3 tackles and 3 ineffective tackles. Obviously would not drop him.
- Just quickly. I looked at Matto's number in defence and they were actually good. So was he poor in defence?
- When addressig the forward pack as a whole ther ability to control the ruck in the second half was horrible. If you watch it, our markers are called not square so many times because we simply could not win a tackle. So with the markers ruled out of the play they just kept attacking behind the play the ball with JMK and we got fucked from their with poor efforts. I thought Carty and Moretti were poorin this part
- Our attack was pedestrian. I want to blame DB but after knowing BA and than hearing Barret at halftime I think it is the coaching staff. It looks like they did not expect many points in the game. So were they directing DB to follow a horrible game plan. Cause DB barely ran and our ruck speed in attack was poor as we spread the bal of slow play the balls. Oly danger we had was off ofloads.
- Depending on the performances in NSW Cup, I would be going with
- Gutho
- Russel
- Penisni
- Harper (move Simmo to centre and Sivo to wing if Sivo somehow finds form)
- Simmo
- DB
- Sanders
- RCG
- Hands (give Lussick a game or two in NSW Cup. Than I would be using Hands and Lussick combo for the rest of the year with Hands on the bench. Neither are capable of playing 80mins every week. Hands will be fine playng 80min against Manly since Manly attack on the edges and DH normally get less tackles against them)
- Joe O
- Tualagi
- Lane
- Hopgood
- Matto
- Paulo
- Doorey
- Talagi (I think carrying an outside back against Manly is critical. They attack out wide so need some cover their).
Replies
Thanks for posting these pictures. I was absolutely livid with Russell's finishing effort. When you're entire full time job is being an NRL right winger it's a minimum expectation that you are competent in finishing off tries. It's literally your main job. You have all off season and most of the week to practice this stuff. It's unacceptable. Based on that finish alone I'd send Russell back to Reggie's. Pathetic.
Rouse Hill rhinos ba bush coach junior development there. Rails run into fg right there
Last night showed what a lot of us have been thinking-we're unfit. Saints are winning games on the back of superior fitness and strength. All their players said it was the hardest off season they had been a part of but they are reaping the benefits now.
So what questions are being asked of our fitness and performance coaches. Based on the results of our reserves and Flegg it's evident that this is an issue throughout the club.
Attitude will come on the back of fitness and strength-knowing you are fitter than the opposition and will beat them when they run out of puff. Dragons did exactly the same against the Warriors in the game before.
Yes BA is cooked but he also clearly has the wrong people in the fitness, conditioning and defence roles
We are unfit but effort and drive is worse to be lacking. We lacked both.
I've seen enough other games to be convinced it's not a fitness thing. All these guys are measured on a bunch of fitness metrics. Having said that, I do think our game plan uses too much petrol. It's inefficient.
I was astounded to hear the half time report that BA was happy and wanted a steady as she goes grinding effort in the second half. I get the rationale but that is THE toughest possible way to get the win in those conditions. One out hit ups by our middles, one safety-first shift and then kick to the corners and wait for errors from the Phins. It blew our middles apart. Lussick could barely breath. After 50 minutes of that the Eels had nothing left in the tank.
Contrast that to the Dolphins. Given the conditions they decided to have their little men sniff around the ruck and off quick play the balls. Very simple but very smart. Their bench players just ripped through the middle aiming at behind the play the ball. The Eels couldn't hang on.
BA was out coached. Simple as that.
I wonder if spending the week up there and training in those conditions has a detrimental effect. The last 3 or so games up there the opposition has finished all over the top of us, we get to about the 50 minute mark and we are drained. It takes more than a few days to acclimatise to weather conditions that you are not use to, if anything I would bet it would have a negative impact on your stamina after training in it for a few days
We have to do it for marketing purposes. We've sold our rights to do what's right for the team. BA showed his preferred approach against the cowboys in the prelims , fly in fly out before you body gets too effected by the climate. But who'd even think that was a Eels home game , it was DullPhins cheers galore. It's time we ditch this stupid NT partnership. We might get some coin for the short term, but at what cost ? If we miss the semis , we lose not only the income from being alive in September , but how many sponsors and fans are lost too. Even future potential signings .
The funny thing is the qld teams have more support up there than we do, it's just another away game. Fuck it off.
The amount of effort Gutho puts in is insane! He's like Cameron Murray from Souths, it's round 6 but looks like he's just finished round 26. Only a matter of time his body shuts down.
Shaun Lane
Matto
Russell even though I don't mind his work bringing the ball out.
Lussick this is more on the coach and his selection policy.Too much work in the middle the games to quick for him.
I thought Simonsson Penisini Hopgood DB Morretti and RCG tried hard but again it's fragmented and individual.I struggle to see what they really are trying to achieve with the ball outside of a flat line attack.
Right now I'd promote our most athletic youngsters and give them a go.
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