For the past couple of years there has been two Parramatta teams. There is the Parramatta team that plays at Parramatta Stadium
This side is close to being a top-eight team. Competitive in every encounter, this side has a pretty fair win/loss ratio, defends bravely and for the most part plays out the full eighty minutes. When they go down, they go down fighting.
Then there is the Parramatta side which travels away from Parramatta Stadium. This side is the worst team in the competition. It regularly gets panelled and even when its competitive, it loses focus and concentration for large parts of the game and subsequently almost never wins.
Strangely enough, this side has the same players, same coach. And even after a change of players and change of coach from year-to-year, we see this phenomenon continue.
The irony is we've all wanted for Parramatta Stadium to become a fortress. And while I wouldn't go that far, the Eels always perform credibly at home. You can (and I have) made good money betting on this side at home. However, it's almost like that the side has a dependency on the crowd to get them revved up for matches, and to keep their heads in the game. Away from home you get persistent early lack of intensity and significant periods of poor concentration.
I know Ricky has a big thing about doing the right thing by your supporters, and its part of what I see the club is trying to do with its culture, but the boys needs to do it for each other. If your going to be a consistent football team, home and away, you need to be able to motivate each other, hang touch together and fight tooth and nail for your brothers. That's where the motivation has to lie.
Ricky brought in a sports psychologist this year, and without question, this needs to be something that has to be addressed. If you compare results between away and home records, the differences are absolutely stark (would love for someone to do a for and against comparison if you're kicking around with nothing to do). Performing on the road as well as you do as home, is purely a mental thing.
This week's game, marks a significant opportunity for Parramatta to get an away from Parra win up. I'd suggest it's going to feel closer to playing like Parra then other other venue, as there should be a dramatic bias in the crowd support. As such, it is probably not going to be a good indicator as to whether this team can perform without the crowd support. But it can probably be viewed as a key stepping stone, the opportunity to get a win away from the Stadium, that can be built upon so that we can see the same team run out every week, regardless of where they are playing.
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Agree Phil.
1 thing I had to read twice though was the line, "hang touch together" hahaha. I assuming you are not talking about post game showers, but if you are I believe Reni may be leaving his leadership skills for this activity.
phil one of the major reasons why we perform a lot better at home as against elsewhere is that we need nearly eveything to go our way to be competitive in a game.
That is everything from referees calls to even the bounce of the ball.
At home we are going to get better calls (there is no one that can tell me the home team doesn't usually get the rub of the green).
Also our kickers are gonig to have a better situational awareness in games becasue its a familiar field that leads to a few better kick options, maybe a lucky bomb or grubber try etc etc.
Also, I agree the crowd plays a part - in both influencing the ref and also revving up our players.
Basically though, its when you remove these things, that you see how poor parramatta are at the moment
Bloody doppelgangers
Nope, you needed to pay an extra $40 on top of your season ticket to get into this game.
5 years, 3 years definite, 2 years optional.
Yeah yeah, home, away, win, lose who cares. I need to give credit where credit is due and that's to the Penrith Panthers team, they have dug deep and performed outstanding in there last 3 or so games and have not only won but have won really well. I believe the panthers were sitting just below the eels on the ladder and have now passed us.
What they have done is given there fans something positive to talk about they have lifted the fans hopes and spirits and there playing roster is no better than ours. So why are they going so bloody well and don't give me this crap because its there opponents, we played the Dragons and got well beaten they played the Dragons and thumped them.
If I had a hat I would take it off to the Panthers and say well down lads you have done your fans proud.
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