Eels Blogs

Last week I headed a blog implying/saying, we made  mistake's lets move on.....I was a pessimist to an extent, but not suicidal. Just very critical of Pezet and the knock on effect in losing balance.

Yesterdays game against Penrith has a lot of physcological aspects to it/us.

I need to ask some questions, last year (second half) we had a defence that was testing every side including Penrith.

Interestingly the beginning of last year was not disimilar to this year, the question is what is the difference?

The common denominators were that Dyllan Brown was not really there in any dominant form at the end of the year, he was injured and being eased out.....so lets discount that.

Hopgood after moving to prop had a great year after a shaky start.....this is a factor defensively....he is the most tenancious and error free forward we have....This is a significant loss, that is not appreciated by the unwashed on here.

Now add on that Junior is by the standards he can play to, is not in that form, although not as bad as some make out. Finally this last one will upset some, but losing Lomax in the way we did had a detrimental effect on the confidence of this team. He did things in a competitive way that inspired, both players and supporters. A big error in letting him go the way we did (spilt milk now) but pertinent IMO.

Pezet has been well recorded by me and I don't want to sound like a broken record. I really didn't notice him much yesterday so I am loathe to be critical but you cannot mention last year without bringing him into the picture, that said I am interested to see everyone has him in next week's team as the experts on here rearrange the deck chairs. Kelly was OK yesterday and if you think about it, most Penrith tries came from within the 25 and it is was through our forwards. The rediculous tries came about from the super confidence that their forwards had created in that first 15/20 minutes. 

That dominance was enhanced by our poor handling, which in turn came from us going into a catch up mode before we needed to! That's where we failed! Our tackling technique was not in sync and had a real desperation rather than a hunting pack. This come's back to balance, we cannot afford Kelma (lateral defence wise) in this pack as he is a common to  the holes our opponents make. Williams needs to come onto that edge to provide lateral defence. We also have to look at the technical approach our full backs have/utilise in catching up and unders, they are skilful and there is no fullback in the comp that is foolproof, we just need to get it better. 

The commentators on Fox before the game yesterday made the point that Moses needed to stop nurse maiding Pezet and play his own game....he was better yesterday but is also rushing most things he is doing. There is no sign of Moses thinking 2/3 plays ahead.... some people do not realise, that this lack of vision is the real reason that Moses is not a great player, just a good one! Overated by many on this site.....could you imagine Cleary leading us around the park and losing his cool.....well put him in this Parra side and you just might. BUT realise he would at the end of the game going to the coach and working out the faults. NB In criticising Moses, I am being beligerent as I have always regarded him as one of my favourite players, but I have to be honest with what I see.

In business terms I used to hate it in corporate planning sessions when people talked about "we are no worse than anyone else", "yes we are" and we need to be better than others, Full Stop" that analogy comes over as I am writing this as a title for the blog, because our goals have to be higher and better, unless we persue excellence we can never improve....this brings me back to what I am saying about the coaches role in the undermentioned.

I could finish this blog now and leave it with that....but I have created an idealogy, not a solution.

Well what is the solution? firstly there is no magic formula....the reality is we have 17/19 players that have the same physical features as the opposition on any given day. I believe and think that the coach and his staff have to sit down with the first and second grade players and anyone else contemplated as a selection possibility in the near future and go back to "last year" and analyse the difference.

We showed yesterday we could be as effective in attack as any side and these opportunities actually came from our maligned backs.....what has happened to our running forwards?

Interimly we need to find out who is "out there" player wise and start hunting now before 30th June comes about....sooner the better.

PS The criticism of the coach, his staff, the front office, the GM Football and R&R all have relevance....it doesn't work sacking people unless you have better replacements, every decent Manager knows this, how you address it requires leadership.....who is going to provide it ......please answer without the rhetoric?