I have watched all of our games this season, and most Eels games for as long as I can remember, and I believe our current game plan is flawed and is the major reason we aren't consistent. Especially agains good oposition.
Now I am no expert and this is just my opinion, but I did play the game for a number of years in my teens and have watched it for many more so believe I do have an idea of how the game is played and what it takes to win. I have been a BA supporter for a long time (not originally though wanting Taylor to get the gig) and this is not a sack BA blog but I do think it is time for the Eels to look for another coach after this season. For as long as BA has coached the Eels, we have had a very basic and structured game plan and have rarely ever deviated from it. Our game plan has been run hard, tackle hard, chase and compete for kicks and complete our sets, which is the fundamentals of all League game plans. All teams need this as the basis of a teams game plan but it needs to be added to or even heavily added to depending on your team.
#1 One out from the ruck plays only work when you have a dominant Forward Pack who can regularly chew up the meters.
Our Forward pack is a lot better than it was last season but is not up there with the best of them, and particularly when we are under pressure from teams such as the Storm who choke other teams out of a game with constant pressure. The Eels need to invest in, and coach and mentor our Forwards to be able to hit the line, spin and look for and offload against teams who are moving up fast from the line and wrapping up the plays before an offload can be achieved. Teams like the Storm move up quick off the line, tackle in numbers, have a very compressed defensive line and, who unfortunately for us last night and other teams, also scramble and slide very well. What they do best is they are always working as a team and move together in a line in both attack and defense. The Storm and the Roosters are the best at that and that is why they are consistenly in the finals. Now I am not saying the Eels don't have any Forwards who can't offload but they were being swamped by the Storm's forwards very quickly and weren't able to get many offloads because they didn't hit and spin. It is made all the harder trying ot offload when you are rapped up because you didn't hit and spin and are trying to pass a ball backwards while facing forwards. Junior and Mau are our best Forward offloaders but we need more.
Currently, the Eels do not have enough BIG Forwards who can regularly bend the line against teams like the Storm and Roosters causing those teams to be on the back foot. Because of this, the Eels need to get regular offloads to try to create second phase plays where the oppossing team has 3 or 4 players caught up in an ineffective tackle and the Eels are now only down one player, who is caught up in the same tackle, and are now able to run at the line with more players than the other team, causing an overlap somewhere or simply identifying the holes in the oppossing teams defensive line.
It has been a very long time since we had a BIG aggressive Forward pack that regularly puts oppossing teams on the back foot and having to constantly scramble in defence. Without that, second phase play is the only way we will be able to beat teams like the Storm and Roosters.
#2 Secons phase plays and moving together as a Team in both defence and attack!!!
The Eels are at their best in unstructured, broken down, second phase play. We always have been one of the teams who do it best but don't do it anywhere near enough anymore. If you look at our 09 highlights, the main reason we ended up doing so well that year was because the team thought their season was over and they just went out and played care free football. Every play they were looking to offload and gues what, there was always another player or two or more pussing up with them wanting to get the ball, go for a run and pass to someone else when they could. It was hot potatoe style footy. Now this is not the best game plan and I don't recomend it in every game, but it worked in pretty much every game in 09 when the run started because of the above. If we are loosing and simply can't out play a team with structure, why wouldn't we just go with having a crack at something else like throw the ball around and just go for it? We are loosing anyway and the structured style isn't working.
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting the result to be different is the defintion of insanity. Obviously start with structured plays but when it isn't working, change it up. We lost by 30+ points last night, would loosing by 40, 50 60+ have really made much more of a difference? I personally think once you are 20+ points behind it's all the same thing, you are getting flogged!!!
#3 Applying pressure with better kicking options.
Now unfortunately this will be aimed mostly at Mitch Moses. I think he is a good half, that he gets re-signed by the Eels for around $600/$650K and has the potential to be a great half but needs to fix this part of his game to go to the great level. Mitch plays well when the team is playing well but as soon as the team is on the back foot, he really struggles as do most players but that is the difference between the good and the great. Players like, Johns, Lewis, Lockeyer and Thurston, could almost single handedly turn a match around when their team was under pressure. I can't remeber Wally doing a lot of kicking but I remember him being one of the best I have ever seen. Getting back to my point, kicking played a major part in the pre-mentioned players turning around their loosing sides fortunes and ending up the winning team.
Currently, what I almost always see from Mitch is him putting up bombs. What frustrates me the most, is he regularly does it from within our own half when we are under pressure. If our team is under pressure and we are struggling to get out of our own half, putting up a bomb is almost always the worst option. Our Forwards are getting dominated and the entire team has likely been tackling their arses off. Other than a few of the fitter players, no one is going to chase the kick which means the oppossing team will get the ball around their 20-40m mark, only have to get past one or two players and all of a sudden then are running through a broken defensive line and past tired players. Mitch really needs to learn to kick early in the tackle count and simply slow down the pace of the game. If you have to, kick on the second or third tackle. As long as it goes over the side line, its all good and the wingers and fullback of the oppossing team likely weren't anticipating it. Fourth tackle onwards they will be. Even if it goes over the deadball line, it will somewhat slow it down and our players can all move in that direction in a cohesive defensive line. Kicking over the dead ball line is the leats prefurred option, putting it over the side line would be better as then a scrumb would have to be formed. Putting a struggling team under more pressure to chase a kick isn't what it is needed. Cronk, Keary, and other great half regularly kick early and put it over the side line when under pressure. It gives their team a small break and time to set a defensive line. You can also simply get a ball rolling end on end into space, instead of putting up a bomb. It can be just as difficult to catch a bouncing ball as a falling one at times.
Now the kicking can't all be put on Mitch though. Currently, any team playing against the Eels knows to simply target Mitch when they think the ball is going to be kicke. The Eels need to have multiple members on our team who can kick and that way the oppossing teams cannot simply target one player and put him under immense pressure. We still need options other that Brown as well. I don't like the idea of a regular kicker. It should be the player who is in the best postion to put in a good kick that takes it. If you have multiple otions on the filed it will have the opostion in tw, three or four minds about what is about to happen.
It is my opinion that the above are our most pressing issues. Feel free to tell me how much I don't know and don't understand the game as after watching last nights game, I am up for a good war of words as smashing up my house or someone else isn't an option :)
Replies
I agree with most of this! I think this is the first season our attack has had much width in the BA era. A lot of that comes down to Mahoney and his ability to actually throw consistently accurate wide passes.
I worry how BA is handling him though. Given he was a development player coming into the season I have no doubt Brad was going to start with Kaysa. He refuses to play Reed 80 mins, even if it means him only coming off for 10mins but doesnt have anyone he can move to 9... and last night.. wtf was that?
'Protecting' him from the initial 15 mins sting of the game... He has to be trusted to handle it. He's given no indications in the past that he flat out cant and it really hurt our fluency and took too much juice out of Gutho early. With all the running a 1 does at the back, why not have him do the running of a dummy half as well. That coaching decision was inept and as bad as when he played Kenny Edwards at 9 back in the day and we got lapped by 50 by the Roosters. The club needs to be very wary about their next move here.
I genuinely think 2 of the biggest improvements to our team have been Reed (attack) and Sivo (defence ). i also think there’s evidence BA planned to go with Kaysa and George Jennings . George was woeful defensively last year . There was a game against Souths where he let in 4 try’s himself . Somehow he got rewarded with our back of the year .
When Edwards and Ma'u were our second rowers we attacked wider than any team. That's why we were decent in 2016 and '17. Last year it fell apart because the refs cracked down on the ruck and ignored teams standing offside out wide. It killed us.
And if an edge defender looks like he is letting in tries it's because he was outnumbered. The problem there is too much compression in the middle of defence.
OR like George, he has no idea when to come in and when to stay out. If I remember correctly he actually had to be swapped to the other side of the field mid game, maybe the first unplanned / unforced in game player adjustment of the BA era. He is useless defensively.
The width of Mahoneys passes mean we consistently get out wide and cover the width of the field quicker. That has been the single biggest improvement in our attack in the last 5 years. Lanes ability to hit a hole has also helped as opposed to Manu who usually runs at people and drops like a sack of shit.
Ma'u (and Edwards) were given early ball when we played that style. Like old school inside centres. It worked prior to 2018. Now we use our second rowers to hit gaps and run decoys, like Souths last year.
If BA doesn’t want Mahoney to play that long he should’ve brought Smith in. He was on the extended. No point of a full forward bench if Mannah is gonna be completely invisible (how inspirational is he btw? Yikes)
Mannah was still carrying his injury.