Eels Blogs

Niukore bloke has been smashing it for us this year. I think its fair to say that he would be in the starting lineup for many teams. Whenever Nathan Brown has been suspended he has really stood up. I fear Niukore could be leaving us soon. He is only 23 years old and will be looking to cement a starting spot. However eels starting fowards and backrowers are all signed in long term and are young as well, so he may have to look elsewhere for a starting position.  

Also our foward pack has really good depth now. Davey doesnt look out of place in first grade and probably wont even make our bench at full strength as Niukore, Kafusi and Evans are all ahead of him and BA will probabaly pefer Stone or Taka over Davey due to their versatility. Though having the likes of Davey, Taka / Stone, Utoikamnu and Gower as backup in the fowards and backrows is still very good since injuries are always likely to happen. I doubt Evans will be at the club next year as he could probably get a starting spot on another team or get more money from the SL.

Our team is probably just lacking quality replacements at halfback and in the backline. Field is actually a good enough replacement in the halves, however only if Dylan Brown gets injuried. Field and Brown are both runners, young footballers and are also not ready to lead and control a first grade line up. This is nothing against them, more so them being very young. Our five-eight backups are actually very good as Will Smith, Salmon, Davies, Taka and Field are all good enough as running five-eights to suit the controlling and vocal nature of Moses. So I recon eels could afford to loose Smith or Salmon and maybe buy an experienced and controlling halfback to play reserve grade as a back up incase Moses is injured or in future years if he plays origin during the season. The need for a backup half back was cleary seen in the knights and manly game where the teams could actually defend unlike the cowboys. In the Manly game Brown ran too much because thats the basis of his game, and Field looked a bit shy and thus our team lacked structure and control in attack. It is too much responsibility on Gutho to do everything in the absence of Moses.

Our backline depth is also a bit questionable, I think everyone was a bit too critical over G Jennings in the Manly game. He hasnt played in so long and it was only one mistake albeit in a crictical time. Besides him, Rankin and Taka we really have no depth in the backline because I think Dunster is not ready for first grade yet. I think Dunster is our long term replacement when Fergo retries. Speaking off Fergo, how good was his no - try. Hopefully he gets one soon. I think him at centre and Blake on the wing could maybe change that a bit because Blake relies on his speed and footwork. He lacks a pass like Michael Jennings has for Sivo. Fergo has a handy ofload if Blake is on his wing but I dont think Blake can do the acrobatic finishes like Fergo. I think maybe they could do something where inside opponents 20M fergo plays wing and Blake centre and than everywhere else in attack Blake plays wing and Fergo plays centre. This could be handy cause Blake can use his pace if there is an overlap and he is in the clear. Although I feel like he has lost some of his blistering pace because I thought at panthers he was very very fast. Back to our backline depth, clubs like dragons and dogs have a lot of decent backline players who probably wont be resigned. So we could just buy 1 or 2 and train them hard and play them in reserve grade as back ups to our backline. Also with M Jennings, anyone know who our long term replacement is for him since he is at the end of his career despite his stunning form. I really fear when he retires Sivo's defence will become poor. I dont now if people have realised, but when Jennings wasnt playing a couple games last year, many tries were scored down his end because Sivo becomes a bit clueless without any guidance. 

Anyway, all in all, we are in a good position for this year. I think our club will only get better and better in the next few years as our team is still very young espicially our spine.