Eels Blogs

Once there was Chaos. The Earth (Gaia), the Underworld (Tartarus) and Desire (Eros) were born from the empty chaos. Gaia took Uranus (now retired near BlueBet) as her husband and mothered twelve Titans. Atlas (son of the Titan Iapetus and the nymph Klymene) would lead the Titans against the Olympians and lose. Zeus punished him. You know the myth: Atlas condemned to eternally hold the world on his shoulders. Or do you? In fact, Zeus commanded Atlas to stand at the western edge of Gaia, holding the heavens on his shoulders and preventing heaven and earth from resuming their ancient embrace. The Eels are Atlas. Fans of the Eels are Atlas. We are all Atlas. The Eels went to war with a few Olympians in 2022, including all of history since 1986, every commentator who said ‘BA can’t get them there’, but also some Storm, Raiders, Cowboys, Bunnies (still our kryptonite) and those loud-mouthed Panthers. Most of the Olympians were wrong, though Zeus (Panthers) got us (Atlas) in the end, condemning us all to hold up hope in a second placed exile. To be successful in 2023, the Eels will have to stand fast, Atlas-like, keeping doubt separate from effort. Meanwhile, Eels fans will feel the weight of the responsibility of knowing we must stand fast too. And so it begins. Welcome to Round 1.

Teams

Thursday 2 March, CommBank Stadium, Parramatta, 7:50pm (AEDT). Lands of the Barramattagal People. Referee: Ashley Klein.

Eels: 1. Clinton Gutherson 2. Maika Sivo 3. Viliami Penisini 4. Waqa Blake 5. Bailey Simonsson 6. Dylan Brown 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard 9. Josh Hodgson 10. Junior Paulo 11. Bryce Cartwright 12. Matt Doorey 13. J'maine Hopgood 14. Jirah Momoisea 15. Jack Murchie 16. Wiremu Greig 17. Makahesi Makatoa 18. Jakob Arthur 19. Ky Rodwell 20. Ofahiki Ogden 21. Mitch Rein 22. Isaac Lumelume.

Head coach: Brad I got them to the GF so STFU Arthur.

Storm: 1. Nick Meaney 2. William Warbrick 3. Reimis Smith 4. Young Tonumaipea 5. Xavier Coates 6. Cameron Munster 7. Jahrome Hughes 8. Nelson Asofa-Solomona 9. Harry Grant 10. Christian Welch 11. Trent Loiero 12. Eliesa Katoa 13. Josh King 14. Tyran Wishart 15. Alec Macdonald 16. Chris Lewis 17. Jordan Grant 18. Grant Anderson 19. Bronson Garlick 20. Sualauvi Faalogo 21. Joe Chan 22. Jonah Pezet.

Head coach: Bellyache.

Notes: both teams enter this match with similar changes from their last games and similar issues. Being Game 1, a few words about changes might be useful.

Both squads have injury concerns in the outside backs outside. The Eels were looking very thin with doubts about Sivo, Blake and Simonsson, all of whom nevertheless made round one (albeit with injury/trial-prep clouds over all three). Backup options were looking thin, with Russell suspended, and injury clouds hanging over Dunster and Cini (both named in the NSW Cup). It is a similar story at the Storm. Papenhaagendazs, Olam and Seve are all out, with the Storm running their backup fullback, backup centre, and a winger on debut. Neither teams, it seems, can afford mishaps in the outside backs.

Next, continuity is maximal in the halves and front-row for each squad. But each team has something a little new at hooker. At the Storm, Grant won’t be subbing out with Brandon Smith, who is off in salary sombrero land at the Roosters. How will Grant go with an 80-minute assignment? Ditto the Eels, who saw Mahoney take the money at the Dogs and now debut Hodgson in FG. With the mercurial JA not on the bench, should we expect to see Hodgson play 80 minutes, and can he do so?

Finally, the back row is new for each squad. The Eels have lost arguably one of the most dynamic back rows in recent memory: Lane (injured) and Papali’i (Tigers), with Matto (holidaying) and Niukore (Warriors) sharing lock, were tough defensively and excellent in attack. Can Bryce C, Justkeepswimming Doorey and Hopgood replicate that combination? The Storm have lost the Bromwich Bros and Felise Kaufusi. Rumour has it that Kenny B just did not want to get tackled by Mitchell Moses again. I cannot judge the Storm bench, mostly unfamiliar, but Bellyache has a reputation for having his bench players ‘just do their role’. Can the Eels’ bench, three middles and an edge backrower (Murchie), do the roles BA requires when the bookends (Paulo and RCG) come off? Astoundingly, the livewire utility JA is not at 14, depriving the squad of his well-known X-factor.

Observations from Last (not) Week

Eels (vs Panthers) . . . not our finest hour. Next.

Storm (vs Raiders) … yeah dumped those dull sparks out of the finals, thx Raiders.

Eels/Panthers highlights NO JUST HELL NO

Storm/Raiders highlights nah let’s do Eels beating Storm in R25 of 2022 HERE

Trial game form means not much at all, but the Eels played slow to lose to the Panthers and then played fast to trounce the Knights. The Storm were beaten by the Roosters and then beat the Warriors. As with the similarities between the Eels and Storm regarding backs, halves and front row, and back row, so too the trial games, it seems.

It’s on again.

Head-to-head, the Eels and Storm have played 42 times since 1998, the Eels winning 18 (43%) and the Storm 24 (57%). Yet if you let your mind wander back to 2009 and the cheats cheating, it has since then remained impossible for an Eels fan not to hate the Storm.

Unfortunately, for a while, the Eels kept hitting the Storm in big end-of-season games and falling flat.

Yet the Eels appear to have turned a corner. Remember Round 14 in 2022, after a lacklustre loss to the Dogs, and soon to Bunnies (R16) and Broncos (R19)? It was inconsistent, kind of par for the course in 2022. But the Eeels finished the season with convincing wins over Panthers, Manly, of course not Bunnies, Dogs, Broncos and … Storm. F*** you, storm in a teacup. Indeed after the Dogs debacle the Eels finished 2022 with 8/11 and 4/7 versus Top 8 teams, whereas the Storm stumbled, finishing 5/11 and 3/8 versus Top 8 teams. The Eels have been consistently flipping the old script and beating the Storm. Fingers crossed, ladies and gentleman.

Although everyone likes to say the Storm start every year close to top gear, the Eels are catching up in that department too. First, BA has a fair record against Bellyache. Nowadays the result could go either way.

BA is also tracking Bellyache’s ‘good season start’ statistic too. Not quite eighteen years in a row just yet, and BA has an opening win record of 78% to Bellyache’s 95%, but the Eels have won their past four opening season games.

Where the Eels have an advantage is having never lost to the Storm at Commbank/Spankwest.

The Bottom Line

Unlike Atlas, immobile, the Eels will need to be mobile. Recent success against the Storm has followed playing aggresively through the middle but also moving the Storm defenders arounbd, not letting them settle, via both short-side raids (Moses) and quick shifts across field (to Brown and Gutho), all the while running a few more decoy runs than the Eels might normally use. However they do it, the Eels have not played conservatively ball-in-hand against the Storm (certainly after passing the 40m line). Hopefully Sivo will assist in this regard.

With a new look backrow and outside backs that might be short of a gallop, the Eels will also need their returning spine to fire. But also, the Eels’ front row. In one stat from 2022, when Paulo ran for less than < 100 meters, we tended to lose. When both Paulo and RCG each pushed or exceeded 200 meters, we won.

What the Eels will need in 2023 is to retain all the courage and strength for which Atlas was known but ditch the gullibility. The gullibility of Atlas was displayed when Hercules tricked him into continuing the heavenly vigil. King Eurystheus had tasked Hercules with twelve labours to prove his worth, and the eleventh was to steal some golden apples from Hera’s Garden. Hera was the wife of Zeus, and hated Hercules, because Hercules was the product of the philandering of Zeus. The tricky Hercules convinced Atlas to steal the apples, holding the heavens and earth apart while Atlas was away and committing to helping with Atlas' plight. To share in the shouldering of the burden. When Atlas returned with the apples, Hercules promised he would continue to hold heaven and earth apart if Atlas could just resume the duty for a moment while he got a cushion to protect his shoulders. Hercules took off. Atlas was gullible.

Part of Atlas’ gullibility reflected a tiredness with the work itself, and a belief that short cuts are possible. The lesson for the Eels is that they will need to continue to relish the challenge. Atlas’ work is never done. Yet another part of Atlas’ gullibility was trusting the duplicitous Hercules. There was no issue with teamwork being a bad choice. #Teamworkmatters. But Atlas picked the wrong teammate. Similarly, the Eels will need to trust in teamwork. Cooper Cronk in a podcast talked about teams getting back up after a GF loss and needing to stow any egos and work as a team, trusting each other. Individuals thinking they can do it alone will most likely burn out, so building the trust needed for ‘team first’ is crucial. Atlas failed to put the work in to make sure he had a team. Did Atlas ever escape his duty? There is an alternative account where Perseus, pissed that Atlas would not offer him shelter and in fact called him a liar, uses Medusa’s head to turn Atlas into stone. But as Mount Atlas that effectively freed Atlas from the endless duty. Or put differently, if the Eels can just stare down the ugly beast, Panthers most likely but whomever else makes the 2023 GF with them, the Eels might become monumental.