Bluey made a post about whether we are over the top in judging our current performance's based on where we are on the competition table.
Mmmmm. I think you are too pessimistic Bluey, and that's after my own tirade following the Canberra performance in Darwin.
I said at the time all I had left was hope - without a reason to support Ryles any further.
Hope is of course eternal, so nothing changes there. But I have seen a definte improvement in the teams performances and this can only be put down to Ryles and the strength of his perseverance.
So he has turned me around and am very comfortable being in that position than sitting on the sidelines and sniping him. We are also seeing some comforting vision of his assistants and the upsurge of our pathways, including the women as I believe a strong all round club is important at every level when it becomes to self belief.
Take the form lines between Dragons, Tigers and now Sharks and you could rationalise we could/would be competetive against any team in the comp. Throw in our game against the dogs and we are not far away, even if it turns out we have a middle of the road finishing position this year. I am even going to say we could have a big finish yet if injuries are kind to us.
If you add Lomax to that side on Friday, I have little doubt that we would have won. The Moses /Lomax combination has not been put in place yet and it is one of our weaknesses to say that we are not competitive chasing high kicks from Moses at present. It was a fluke that Russell kicked 3 out 3 on Friday night as well. When Lomax is playing that hope becomes delivered.
Finally, there is no doubt our forwards are our achillies heel at present. The short show that Samrani put on gives me some hope, while the exclusion of Cartright and Matterson is something I hope can be resolved. If those two were happy campers we would also be better.
So in general terms onward "Christian Soldiers" and don't write us off yet! If your not Christian don't worry, you will get over it! LOL
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Thanks Pops, I did. I'm wondering, why I still feel like shit 24 hours after we play. We are moving deck chairs around and i'm wondering if it's just an illusion. Sure it makes us feel better that we have this new coach , this new plan, this new begining, these new players. I want to feel uplifted and excited about our direction, and I'm now wondering if that "want" is clouding my judgement on what is going down in first grade. Last year we were terrible, we had the enigma BA in charge, however after 9 rounds we sat 12th. This year we sit equal 17th with a chance of being dead last after the Riff game today.
'Yep it's all going to take time - yada yada yada. I hear the argument, I also can see the pathways juniors are going great, our NSW Cup team ooops ! our over paid first graders playing reggie's team are all but leading the comp. I see that, but I also see our first grade squad sitting 17th, making the same old mistakes as ever. This weekend we could have got the chocolates, but again we didn't. I saw bustling runs by some forwards with no support, hands on hips centres, totally ignoring the fact that had they put the effort in support we could of scored a try. I saw origin players, play the ball incorrect. It's u/9's mistakes that I'm concerned about. The stupid penalties, the offside 6 agains, the amount of times i saw 1 and sometimes 2 of our players still lying on the ground after the tackle , leaving our line unmanned was unbeliveable. Our 5'8 just going missing at times, the dumb look on edge forward faces as the opposition race past them with a small weave. No im not getting carried away with our progress. I don't want to get it mixed up, the high of moving on from BA can be intoxicating and everything new can be exciting. I'm concerned our results and mistakes on the park are at best similar to last year and perhaps worse in some areas. For the life of me, as an old half back, I'm aghast at the amount of try scoring opportunities Penisni and Russell blow. Simply through not being able to recognise the opportunity, or lack of positioning, through to running lateral lines these two quell so many opportunities. I just shake my head time and time again. Points left to go begging. The big light for me has been Walker and Josh ado Carr with Iongi. These 3 have what it takes, unfortunately there are forwards and centres that are not up to standard, and are determined to bring mediocrity into every game. Its not good enough.
That's too esoteric for me Randolph, so I can only assume I am a pawn?
Back to you Bluey, as your "acting shrink" I am glad we sat down and had that talk, I feel that you got rid of a lot of shit.LOL
That said I will make a comment that is becoming more "rife" on here! ......that is we are very critical of our own because we are so obsessed with our micro analysis of everythimg we do.
I will take you back a step and that is for all the critique you made, my point is that how competetive we were notwithstanding your highlights package of critique.
I have watched a lot of horse racing, since I was 15 years old and in that time I have seen some terrible "rides", now these jockeys are professional's, riding beast's of between 450 to 600 kilo's, running at near top speed and navigating them at top speed is a wonderful skill, some of course more than other's.
Rugby League or even similar sports is not disimilar in many ways, they are running on to beasts that are roughly the human equivalent of a well trained animal. The collision and thinking process is not that different in many ways.
Yes mistakes get made, JAC's play the ball became a focus, the other dozen or so air swings not detected/enforced were not blamed or shamed. Likewise the missed tackles, dropped balls and the player impact that caused a ball to be dropped. If everyone played the perfect game it would be fcuking boring. I.e. who wants to see 30 perfect sets in a game? take away the errors and you take away the opportunity.
Bluey it is understandabe you are frustrated but the best ride doesn't always win the race, the position of the other jockeys had a lot to do with it...... how's that for getting off the beaten track! LOL (pun intended)
I get it Pops, i really do, I should be grateful like most here. I have very much been holding my cards very close these last 2 weeks. A comment here or there, but not much after that, solely because I want it to be true that we are improved in all those areas that make us competitive. But no matter how much I look at it, those silly little mistakes that I mention and attention to detail and the want to get back into the line or support the ball runner are still ad hoc. Those decisions are keeping us from winning, at the end of the day, to me it dosnt matter if we lose 27 games by 1 point or 27 games by 30 points each week. We are still behind what other teams are able to achieve on the field.
'I hope you and the majority here are right and we really pick it up in the second half of the year and start beating some teams, with better 1%ers getting done. I'm just not convinced that some of the current players with contracts are the right horse's to have in the stalls and lining up to race Metro and group races. They should be out beating others in the country races so to speak.
I want better, fundamentals within the team. The hunger and the drive matched with energy and skill. I'm not seeing that from too many players too me it's not even close, hence we sit bottom of the table.
Its ok mate, we are all in the same boat....note my comments on here made to Mutts about mistakes being interesting. i.e. rote learning is capable but not conducive to critical thinking....how many critical thinkers do we have in a game of football......and I can think of coaches in the same vein....unfortunately when thinking of coaches that do not display critical thinking I came up with BA....i wonder where JR will ultimately be when judgement day happens. LOL
onward "Christian Soldier
I'm optimistic about the style Ryles wants us to play. I think it's effective and suited to the modern game. There's energy and purpose about what we're doing, smart ball movement etc which is very promising however attention to detail needs to be A LOT better (offside from a kick? C'mon)
Now we need NRL quality at our edges and a couple of new middles. We also need to get a 6 for next year. So lots of R&R movements to happen before my unicorn returns. Get recruitment wrong and at best we bumble along without ever being a genuine premiership threat. Lots to do.
Mistakes are interesting Mutts. My mystery is why not collate a onging package of errors since the start of the season and play it back to them every monday morning. Things like that simple offside and one of my specials is running into the high kicks and jumping up to catch them to make them look spectacular. Ray Price hardly ever dropped a kick because he turned his back to the player and virtually they could not get access to the ball. We do have some that attempt this, but the judgement of when and how doesn't seem to be learnt. So many simple mistakes, if JAC watched that play the ball once every week, I bet you he would not repeat it......Christ we teach our kids the same way. Missed tackles is another obvious one and lets not talk about cover defence!
Face it most players are dumbassed and a dumbass can always be taught "rote".
Tell you what Mutts off topic I loved Shaun Johnson's commentary on how we were playing and he especially had some excellent comments on our halves.
After a decade under the bush coach many eels fans are still suffering from PTSD and can't let themselves think positively even when positives are obvious to see .
Also the fact that we have had so much false hope over many many years is a another barrier for fans to get excited over positive performances or improvements .
On a brighter note, Arnold has his first session with a team of mental health professionals tomorrow so let's wish the dope the best of luck .
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