I'm not sure some of you realise how horribly coached this team has been - in particular the last couple of seasons but in my opinion we've underachieved since 2018.
Some people have been living in absolute denial or forgotten what a well coached team looks like . Yes there are issues with the roster , but this is the roster BA wanted . It's power forward heavy and we rely less on our outside backs than any other team . Whilst the game moved to guys with leg speed and athletes doing yardage work out of the back field , we neglected our backs and kept buying forwards. Add to This :
- We've never had a solid defensive structure . It's struggled on the edges , at marker and that's been obvious but we also miss a shit tonne of tackles . Going into this season the absolute priority of our squad should've been developing a solid structure where every player knew their role . We went from conceding 24 a game to 30 a game off the back of the longest pre season out of any club. Ciraldo has developed a solid system in 18 months . BA didn't in 11 years . BA had the luxury of a bloke who can start opposition sets on their 10 off his boot and we're still leaking 30 a game .
- BAs been throwing in rookies who aren't prepared or ready for NRL. He used to be super conservative with brining kids in .. then he bought in Jake and friends and started chucking in blokes who were unprepared left and right . As opposed to developing guys and giving them jobs to do in first grade , he uses first grade as the job experience.
- Whilst still on Jake .. BA couldn't separate the job from his emotion. Crying like a blubbering mess when Jake scored on debut while a touching father and son moment what other coach does this ? BA has said a tonne of times since he was flicked debuting Jake was one of the biggest highlights of his 11 years . It may be nice for him to debut his unready , untalented son .. but he lost the ability to do his job first and managed to convict himself playing Jake at 7 , Mitch at 6 and DB at centre was a worthwhile option . When that backfired he decided to try make him a super sub in a run to a GF.
- his use of interchange has cost us games . Flogging guys till the tank is completely empty and leaving them on the field too long has wore our middles down over the season . His response ' we pay them the big money to they need to stay on the field ''... completely stupid.
- he let his personal feelings towards players stop him picking our strongest side .
- Youngsters in our team have been getting worse by the season and having trouble staying 'in' games . Dylan Brown has been coached 'just to run the football'' when you need at 900k half to be more.
- We've never developed a culture where our effort and professionalism were non negotiables . We had huge ups and downs within seasons and cost ourselves top 4 finishes.
- the complete disconnect between the side and the fans / media . We have absolutely slipped miles behind the rest of the league when it comes to this .
Need we go on . My point is a new coach was an absolute must . Whether Ryles is the right appointment or not we won't know until we see what he brings to the side but we've given ourselves a chance to get out of the Desd set stone ages in NRL coaching and really modernise what we're doing with a guy who can evaluate our roster fairly and to the standards of the modern game . BA had the absolute luxury of having an international front row , representiitive halves and stability in the roster . We were miles ahead of most other clubs with our roster but I feel we didn't get to where we could've . Not so much in terms of making a GF but the style we played , our defence especially .. was never really amosntt the elite of the competition .
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It's the guys who turn losses into wins.
Doesn't mean they do it every time , but they have the ability to regularly pull off a play themsleves or get their teams in positions to get the win. Thats not DB's game.
I feel Mitch has regularly got the Eels in a postiion to win since he's been back and has been let down by park footballers like Russell. He did enough to win that Newcastle game and put us in a position to win it 3 or 4x only to be let down by others. He had us in a position to take the lead late against the Roosters and Asi playing centre couldn't catch. Just because you are the marquee player doesn't mean you arent reliant on the teams structures and others in the team doing their jobs.
DB is no where near that time in his career. He's been coached to be a second fiddle. I honestly don't see him following BA - there's coaches around who will get much more out of himn. Hopefully Ryles is one.
I completely disagree with you re Moses this season .
We won rounds 1 and 3, he came back and we beat the Sharks.
I think he probably could've done more vs Dogs but we were in a position to win . Our edge defence with Asi at centre was once again the main issue.
He dragged us back into the game v Roosters with Asi and Russell once again offering nothing with or without the ball . He puts a kick in the ingoal for Asi to jump at with momentum to take the lead with 10 to go and he barely contests it but still manages to give up 7 tackles .
He dominates Origin ...
comes back and is the best player on the field in a loss to Knights . Scintillating individual try only for Sivo and Ruselll to give it straight back through their ineptitude.
Comes back against Souths in what should be a wet grind and watches Russell leak 4 trys and stand on the 9 metre line on a short drop out .
... he havent surrounded him with what he needs to ice wins . His job is to get us in a position for guys to do their job , as he did in origin . We have guys not doing their job .
When it comes to Dylan Brown he has been labelled a runner and a footballer by BA since day dot. We were always told he has trouble staying in games and Shaun Lane works well with him , 'we just want him to run the football " . Jake was bought in as the main playmaker whenever Mitch was out , Dylan was put in the centres , his edge wasn't built around his strengths ... if his strength is his running game why the hell does he have backrowers that don't even run a line like Shaun Lane next to him? Dylan , until this season .. wasn't developed to be a leading half . Moses goes down and he throws him in there and says do your best. He hasn't reached close to his celing .. you may disagree but to me he's still a guy who is unsure of his role in attack , fades in and out of games , doesn't always play eyes up and struggles without a dominant 7 with him . That's not a 900k a season half . It's up to Ryles and his people to really get DB going . Build a structure around his edge he thrives in and grow his game . If he doesn't evolve over the next 2 years then you'd happily let him go elsewhere . If he goes to Perth to play under BA it would be a step backwards in his career in my opinion . I think you will see a much better player develop under Ryles.
The players that have thrived under BA are no frills forwards and journeymen . Guys with different abilities and some X factor like Blake Ferguson , Waqa Blake , Bevan French etc were shells of themselves when they left. Dylan Brown and Will Penisni haven't evolved like they should've . Blaize was being developed as a utility back and has hit first grade not being ready to play any position . We were coached like a bush team mate . Run hard / tackle hard .. have a beer after .
We watch Penrith sign autographs for an hour after the game at commbank while our team go and have a beer . The club has fallen behind and BA has left a lot to be cleaned up.
Can't agree with much of what you've said mate .
We are so week defensively it makes it hard for Moses to ice games . We leak 30 points per game . The Roosters game is the perfect example of what I'm saying . From the 35th - 60th minutes we were completely on top of that game . We were dominating the field position , we were making 60-70 metres a set but we didn't have the strike to ice our opportunities.
What makes it worse is the Roosters only need 1 look at our edge and can crack it and score.. To me that doesn't reflect Moses ability to ice a game . We don't have any strike at all in our backline and we leak far too many points to chase.
We could play 13 v 12 and our outside backs would still create numbers in defence for the opposition . They are hopeless.
Im not saying BA has destroyed the development of every player that's played under him. There are many who have done well in the environment here but a lot of it was based on simplified footy . Running hard and straight , kicking long and deep and earning the right to use the footy. There's been many here who have played well and just as many who have gone backwards.
The development of our young players has stalled over the last 2 years . He wasn't getting that right .
As for the leadership and connection with the fans / community etc we are behind . You can say you saw DB down at the fence or whatever but compared to the other clubs our players treat that engagement as a chore. Many in the media talk of our players being unprofessional with them and these are all things that have been allowed to develop under BAs culture and leadership . Gutho is a popular member or our club and does all he can for us on the field week in week out but the culture of the club isn't as strong as the good clubs . If you argue it is I don't know what to tell you . Guys come off contract and want every cent they can get from the club .. as per captain Gutho . We have guys with player options all over the place . There will be a big shift under Ryles next year .. a big focus on developing a culture where we have greater connection with the community and our players aren't just all about themselves . BA has left it a mess .
who better than barrett but that hasnt worked
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