A week is a long time in the competition this year. Saturday was a just one win, the smallest of margins in extra time, but an almighty stepforward from where we have come from in the first few rounds.
But rewind the clock, and it does show how many "fair weather flyer's" we have.
Now, I am not going to say "get that up you" but every little bitch and whinge about feelings did come out and who's to say they won't appear again. Well they might, yesterday may have been an Indian summer? Let's hope not or am I guilty of "optimism" and hope yet again: horrid ideas many on here seem to suffer from.
That's not the point, apart from sacking Ryles, his assistants, the GM, the CEO, the Chairman, the COE, the club, the ongoing "poor standards" of the board and anyone that would defend anything related to calibre of toilet paper to the location of the centre of excellence all got a look in. Attacking the Centre of Excellence was a new low, given it is an actual "highlight".
Alas, fans don't care about what it takes to run a $200m organization and run all the non-footy related activities in support or if we're kicking goals off-field or in grades below NRL. It's not their role, and most wouldn't have a clue how to run it, but they sure need a say in it.
Why is there no loyalty if your a fan? What makes us turn on ourselves so quickly? That is a question you can answer, but the response cannot be "poor me" we haven't won anything for 40 years.
Ok, lets be positive and reflect on yesterday.
My observations were in round one, the players and coaches had never met. They didn't know anyone and wondered what they were doing in a Melbourne Summer, when everyone else was at the beach.
Fast forward four weeks, and this same group were prepared to "die" for one and other.
If there are any religious people on here, hold your breath because you just witnessed "evolution" in a month. Pity, it couldn't be in seven days.
Just the same even in evolution we can have regression, but I want it both ways!
Footnote.
Congratulations to all those that stayed loyal and whilst acknowledging we have problems they stood firm. Especially Micky who I give a bit of hell to! But not on this matter, he stuck to his guns with a few others. Hector also comes to mind. And I want to acknowledge Bert too for telling us about Scott Wisemantel, because I did ask has anyone heard from the coaching staff. Nathan Brown also received a hiding for god knows what, he was ostrasized for being sacked from 3 jobs as a senior coach. Thee critic's of course losing sight of 80% of the asssistant coaches have been sacked (even Wayne Bennett has been sacked) on that basis of guilt were once senior coaches and have more football IQ than most, if not all of us .
Let's all go forward together, we play Canberra next game, lets see who can predict how many 100's of points we will lose by, that seems to be a common goal.
Ryley Smith: Another talent from the impressive Panther's production line and a multi-talented former Australian U19 representative in both cricket and rugby league.
One final thing, I think we have found a very special player in this kid. Ryley Smith. I will give you a few thoughts on him to keep the positives flowing.
Rylie Smith is fundamentally a better athlete than Reed Mahoney with has areobic ability to equal and even surpassing Gutho. He is a much more dangerous ball runner than Reed, and has the ability to be a very special player.
One further thing he is an Australian u/19 rep in both cricket and RL.
He was opening the batting in that level of cricket, given his stature and tenacity means to me that he is a thinker as well and developed spatial thinking.
I asked some cricket coaching people who I know deal at that level, about what he is like. I was told by people who know him he is one tough little bastard with a hell of a brain. That essentially, he would be good at any sport he plays and concentrates on.
Mark the words we have a winner here. Let's make sure he is signed now!
Replies
Great post Pops.
No, all our troubles haven't gone get, and wont totally be rectified this year..but we are getting better.
Our defence and trust in each other is building, our line speed and want to play direct is looking better. We still have rookie errors galore with a young side and we still give away too many soft penalties very early on in sets, or make mistakes after putting on points and hence relive the pressure.
That said the signs are positive. Smith is the real deal as is Longi albeit raw. Walker will prove to be a great signing especially when Moses returns. I like what Hawkins is doing, he a very solid back up half.
Thanks @Archie
You are always a voice of reason Archie, please post more often.....we always need such voices.
Pops, great work, some really good points as always, and nice post Archie also.
A long way to go for sure, but, positives continue, the results haven’t broken them.
Pops, you nailed so many but just want to mention the improvement in defence.
Our sliding & edge defence looks to have improved out of sight. Communication & patience out wide now?
We aren’t seeing the edges jam in without shutting down the play, or seeing wingers left with 3 on 1. It ‘feels’ different.
On top of that is the resilience. Last year the Eels dropped off a cliff after the 60th minute defensively, worst in the league.
There have been plenty of chances, like at 20-8 down yesterday, where the Eels could’ve lost their way as they did in 2024, but they didn’t.
Pops, guess when the last time the Eels came back from 12 points down in a second half to win was?
Round 01 2021, against the Broncos.
Despite the inexperience, new combinations, no Moses, the change at fullback (a key position in setting defences), yesterday was the first Eels team to come back from 12 points down in a second half & win in over 4 years.
There has to be something in that which speaks to mindset? Because as LB said (well said LB) that win wasn’t a fluke, it was builtt.
Pops, no illusions, we know we at the start of this road & the challenges will keep coming.
Next week important, looking forward to seeing how the team reacts to a win… and hopefully watching Ricky blame the ref for an Eels win.
Good work, Pops. Keep em coming.
Thanks for your encouragemet NOS, you are one of the best posters on here and I always appreciate your positiveness and your judgement.
That's a great stat Jesus 2021😬😬😱😱
It's crazy, Carlo.
Its not like they haven't had opportunities either, Eels have been trailing by 12 or more in the second half plenty of times in 4 years.
Has to speak to mentality, surely?
Ah! Bluey my friend.
Using the old saying "you wound up" as your voice broke...... what old saying is that, I dont know I just made it up?
I think the calling out players was not really mentioned in my blog, it was everything else but...true or false?
Back to the thrust of your thread, I think every thing can be criticised with subjectivity, I would be the biggest hipocrit in the world if I did not support that.
Criticism whilst subjective needs to have a voice of being constructive, the loyalty of our fans, specifically the haters group did not have a lot of being constuctive IMO. I would not call you out specifically Bluey but I think some blood in the water got your adenalin pumping just the same LOL
Needless I have /had given Dyllan B a "F" in every game up until yesterday and I would given Laney the same for his games.
I was extremely defensive to players I thought were trying, this included Junior who i though was good in every game (Storm aside for most everyone). I am certain that people follow others on here that talk about bad games, if you specifically watch a certain player (just like a jockey in a horse race) you will always see errors. None greater than our resident critic Wizard who makes up the errors to suit his monlogue. Nothing more so than Gutho yesterday when he berated his performance for St George as a player and a leader.
The best example of this is just everyone I know that does not carry a bias thinks that Guth is a great leader, all the commentators, fans, you name it..... exept on the 1EE because they have been listening to Wiz every year telling us why he is a bad leader....you know why Flanagan bought Guth, because he wanted a strong leader!
Who are you going to believe Wiz or Flanagan?
This whole process is a cancer on here!
Pops, sorry my post deletion. I was trying to reply to my own post. ie add to it, and my fingers hit the delete button by mistake. I stand by my post but I put so much thought into it, I just couldn't do it justice in an attempt to write it all again.
I understand how you feel this process is a cancer here. I hear you.
No worries Bluey, you are one of the great posters on the site. I know what you mean about writing something and you losing it. At my age I have the same problem with my memory LOL
Our troubles haven't gone. Some of our defending can still improve, and our attack still looks clunky.
And I doubt both would disappear soon, but you can see improvement there, or at least players trying to execute newer things.
I think we might catch fire this season, maybe towards the end of it, but if we do win next 2-3 games, I still imagine it will be through toughness and a few players rising above the rest and pulling everyone with them (like Juniour and Isaiah and Dylan Brown and Lomax have done yesterday). Add Moses to that 3-4 core top-notch players and we can still have a decent season.
Again, No point replacing Arthur if your new coach is gonna do the same. It would take us a while to unlearn Arthur-ball (I am not an Arthur basher btw he gave us plenty of good times just his time was up). Step by step.
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