I check this site every day for new stories on our beloved Eels. There's a lot of facts, gossip and opinions. It can all get a bit mixed up at times... but here I am. Stayed up all night, 6:30am and I can't stop thinking about the Eels...
What happened to them? Why are we doing so badly this year? We supposedly have this great coach and an all new team with different structures in place, a great pre-season which included an amazing trip to the USA... but what's going on?
The last couple of days I've been thinking about how losing key players can drain the rest of the team of confidence and energy. In particular, I'm talking about the Bulldogs on the weekend. I know not many people would rate the Dragons as finals contenders this year, though they do have a solid team which is basically at full strength. Many have tipped the Dogs to do well this year. They certainly have a good team and even with their current players who are out - they still have a very strong team. But on the weekend it seemed as though the Dogs were just not capable of scoring or much else... it's like none of them got enough sleep the night before. Sure, they lost Graham, Klemmer, Morris and one or two others, but they had capable backups. It looked to me that having players out drained the rest of the team of confidence and energy. Also a key point is that players get a feel for each other and working as a team. Having backup players means you need to understand how they play and make sure you're communicating well etc.... everything gets a little chaken up.
Another example is Manly right now. Jamie Lyon has been out for some time, Matai has had trouble with injury, Mateo is out and so are several others. I don't follow Manly that closely, but I know Toovey has been commenting on how many injured players they. It kinda messes up all the pre-season training and working with the same guys in the same positions in the team, not to mention the general shake up of losing players and getting new ones like Mason etc.
Finally, we are the best example. Having lost Radradra, Junior Paulo and Taka for extended periods, not to mention Champion and Edwards for the season. Basically what I'm getting at, is we had this core playing group - we had the team all worked out. They did the whole pre-season together, did an amazing training/ bonding trip to the USA and everything was good to go. I knew Taka was going to be in the starting team this year, because he was room mates with Hoppa on the USA trip. You could tell how much we had improved as a team after smashing Manly in Round 1. Manly were favorites to win that game. Even Choc had a good game, though many are now having a go at his recent form. Since then, we've lost both wingers and centers and our best impact player off the bench in Junior Paulo. Obviously the replacement players weren't as good, but you really see the lack of drive and desre for the win - especially in games against the Warriors, Tigers and Titans.
It seems to me as though the lost confidence is due to a number of factors. For starters, the team has lost players which they had an instinctive feel for - having trained all pre-season, they worked well as a unit, as a team. We now have replacement players who the core group sometimes seem reluctant to have involved or pass to. The game against the Titans, I spent the whole time waiting for a back line movement. Just spread out and pass it all the way to the wingers, come on! Faraimo hardly touched the ball all game. It was almost as though (in the last few weeks) they've been reluctant to pass the ball all the way out or give them high kicks in the corner. The second point was going to be the new players, which the core group don't gell with, but I pretty much just covered that haha... anyway, finally - the players just seem to believe that they are not capable. It's as though they've accepted that the team is screwed and with half the players out they aren't in contention for the win... no matter who they play. You can sort of see it from how they just play 'flat' and just go through the motions of running it up, bad last tackle choices and then making a stack of errors, like dropping the ball. Do players always drop the ball, or is it just our guys because their mind is not on the present moment... they're elsewhere or thinking about what they can do to possibly not lose, but not necessarily win... Oh damn, I just dropped the ball again, because I was thinking about how hard the tackle on me was going to be. Well it's not so bad, we're used to losing anyway, right?
Anyway, apologies for the long winded post & if it dragged on a little! Kinda just thinking out loud about our lack of confidence and how closely it may relate to the shake up in the team. Especially when we think about the Dogs woeful performance on the weekend and the terrible recent form of Manly with key players out. Think back to how well we worked as a unit before Champion's season ended, as that seemed to be the beginning of it all...
Interested to hear your thoughts !
Replies
Listened to Green on the radio re the Cowboys turn around.
He mentioned it was a confidence thing + all the team showing some desperation in defense.
So I think you are correct in what you say, but additional to that is desperation. How desperate are the players to will? Sometimes I think they look at it as a game (which it is for us, the fans), but for them its their livelihood and as such there should be more desperation. the whole team needs to be at that same place of desperation also, its no good having half the team desperate and the other half playing a game. That where the coach and the experienced guys need to get the others on the same page.
"We've lost 2 in a row, we are desperate to beat the knights or some of you will be going back to Wenty and may not get another chance in FG. Do you all understand?"
I think you've hit the nail on the head GP but I also think it's the coaching staff's responsibility to have involved those "second tier" players in the training & development such that they can step in and adequately cover the missing players.
Don't get me wrong, I think we have been decimated by injury - far too many far too soon in the year. In fact, I felt a little bit of vomit come up when I heard about Kenny Edwards. I full on blew chunks when I heard one of the commentators on the TV talk about how hard things were for the bulldogs in dealing with their players being out (BTW that wasn't a high shot by Tyson Frizell - Browne fell into it and he also deserved it because of the jersey he was wearing.)
The truth is the team is the full squad not just the 17 that get a jersey on this week or the other. If they don't put the effort in on the field that's something the team deserve derision and scorn over. If players are playing and don't know how to get set up for runs from the play book - that's the coaching team's fault.
I didn't get to this weeks' game but the reports I've received lead me to think that I'd be a poompteenth off booing them from the field. They've gotta get their poo in a pile (note I didn't say shit together because that would be rude) and quick.
The Dogs are a case in point for sure. Ditto Penrith who are now officially in deep trouble with injuries
I was almost going to mention Penrith as another example, but they only missing player I'm aware of is Soward (haven't been keeping up to date with them either). He makes a huge difference for them and there has been talk of rushing him back, as though he's going to save the team and lift them to victory.