This is the 7th annual Magic Round. The Caxton Carnival.
We’ve lost all but one.
Both teams are desperate to climb out of the bottom four. Both rebounded with wins last week.
Down on troops, we were gritty and brave to upset the then-high-flying Cowboys in a golden-point thriller.
Meanwhile, the Storm snapped a historic 7-match losing streak against the depleted Tigers, as expected. Redemption is on their menu. As are we.
We're on a 7-match losing streak against the Storm.
They have belted us in recent times and at our two previous Magic Round meets. 64-10. 48-16. Then there's also round one this year and the last. 52-4. 56-18. Patterns.
Can we pull off another David and Goliath against our bitter nemesis?
Team Lists
Eels 14th vs Storm 15th, Suncorp Stadium, Saturday, 16 May, 7:45pm AEST
Weather: Fine, good
TAB : Eels $3.15, Storm $1.37
Referees: Peter Gough (on-field), Dave Munro (touch judge), Chris Butler (Senior Review Official)
Eels: 1. Joash Papali’i 2. Brian Kelly 3. Jordan Samrani 4. Sean Russell 5. Josh Addo-Carr 6. Ronald Volkman 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Luca Moretti 9. Tallyn Da Silva 10. Junior Paulo 11. Kelma Tuilagi 12. Jack Williams 13. Jack de Belin
Bench: 14. Dylan Walker 15. Saxon Pryke 16. Toni Mataele 17. Charlie Guymer 18. Apa Twidle 19. Teancum Brown
Reserves: 20. Harrison Edwards
Cut: 21. Araz Nanva 22. Jonah Pezet
Head Coach: Jason Ryles
Storm: 1. Sualauvi Faalogo 2. William Warbrick 3. Jack Howarth 4. Nick Meaney 5. Moses Leo 6. Cameron Munster 7. Jahrome Hughes 8. Stefano Utoikamanu 9. Harry Grant 10. Josh King 11. Shawn Blore 12. Ativalu Lisati 13. Trent Loiero
Bench: 14. Trent Toelau 15. Cooper Clarke 16. Davvy Moale 17. Joe Chan 18. Stanley Huen 19. Preston Conn
Reserves: 20. Josiah Pahulu
Cut: 21. Manaia Waitere 22. Angus Hinchey
Head coach: Craig Bellamy
Stat Attack
Four Years ago. The Eels last beat the Storm in 2022.
Lost 7-straight against the Storm since then. Conceding 38 points per game.
Josh Addo-Carr is the leading current Magic Round try scorer with 8 tries.
Harry Grant has scored 10 tries in his last 8 games against the Eels.
Suncorp Horror Show
Lost 5 from 6 Magic Rounds. Conceding 36 points per game.
Five Years ago. 2021. That was the last time Eels have won at Suncorp against a team other than the Broncos.
Five Years ago. 2021. That was the Eels' last and only win against the Storm there.
Lost 3 from 4. Against the Storm there.
Concede 40 per game. Against the Storm there.
Lost 4 from our last 6 there. But we have won our last two games there. Both against the Broncos.
Fatigue is the game's fiat currency
Now greater than ever with the most points per game ever leaked in peak V'landyball. 2026.
Even Penrith, the best defensive side in the competition, eventually breaks when facing more than 3-4 sets.
The best they’ve been able to defend this year without leaking a try is this:
A four-minute death zone.
3 from 4 sets
13 consecutive plays.
Facing 80% possession
2-0 restarts.
1-1 error.
That's the breaking point.
You can only minimise the damage of death zones, or strike first. That’s where Penrith separate themselves.
Elite fitness. Systems. Fundamentals. Mobility. Repeat effort.
Elite Game management. Elite Ruck management.
Enough strength and power. But not the most elite in size, speed or explosiveness.
They face the least death zones of all teams.
While fatigue management is King, the ruck is the central bank.
It's the fastest way to create momentum that snowballs. The fastest way to mayhem and chaos in defensive lines that need to walk on egg shells for head-contact, heavy force, and restarts.
Pleasingly, last week, we generated far more out of the ruck. We played more direct and Ryles made subtle changes to the rotations around the middle.
There’s little point playing pretty coast-to-coast football if the defensive line is already set and you don't generate momentum.
Storm will be looking to roll us through the middle and the ruck. Dominate. Let Grant Command. Before they spread it out wide. Grant scoring against us and controlling the game has almost become a tradition.
If it's close, the better kicking game could win it.
Beware the Blitz
The Storm, in form, are Blitz Kings. Last week they essentially won the game in the first 15-minutes.
10 v 2 sets, 80% possession, 90% territory.
24 straight plays
3 restarts, 1 penalty
The Panthers at their best might only let in 2-3 tries.
20-0 after 15 minutes.
24-16 for the next 65 minutes.
Last week we followed the only blueprint that has worked so far, considering how undermanned we are. Simplification.
Eels Basic Stats 2026 | Foxslab
The Golden Trifecta
The 101s. Fatigue management.
1. Fight. Focus. Scramble. Grit.
2. Win the completion battle. 91% vs 72%. The bare minimum is 80%. Good ball handling. Low errors (5-18). Good discipline.
3. Win the kick-chase yardage battle. We kicked for almost 900 metres. The minimum benchmark is around 600m. Importantly, the kicking game didn’t fade away in the second half, like it had against the Warriors and Manly and practically every loss other than our golden point loss to the Tigers.
It's something the Storm's systems have relied on for decades on the back of their elite spine: winning the fight and fundamentals. As do the Panthers who do it better than anyone. It sets the foundation. With all the talk about athleticism and explosiveness, for some it's boring. But in the end, it's about who has the most desire, cohesion and character. Brains. And whenever we've fallen away from all three this year, we've had blowout losses.
Final Word
If we lose, the Storm will overtake us on the ladder, and we could fall to either 15th or 16th. If we win, we will overtake the Dogs to take 13th position.
Form says Storm. Magic Round says them. History says them. The Bookies say them. Suncorp says them.
Can we fight hard, mentally, emotionally and physically, for five-straight weeks? Can we redeem ourselves or will our tormentors?
Charter topping.
Replies
At the same time what do you want him to say? Professionally coaches do not really throw players under the bus, particularly new coaches like Ryles as that is the quickest way to lose the dressing room.
You can try hard and not be good enough.
Surely no one can describe what we just saw as trying hard, effort was there... FFS. Doesn't have to single players out but he could at least say not 1st grade standard, embarrassing etc. Shake them up, be pissed off.
If he did lose the dressing room... what would happen, we play worse? Maybe he should treat them like true Gen Z and say they were awesome, brave, he's proud and they're all getting a medal.
He was bordering on positive and that's just tolerating absolute mediocrity and letting them know tonight was not too bad.
Will you can tell when players try and when they don't. Gold Coast case in point. That effort last night was not Gold Coast level.
Yeah he was more positive then he should have been but not sure what you expect him to say? You don't throw players under the bus in public, that's behind closed doors.
And dropped the ball hard...dodozball style are us :(
Oh, and we're moving in the right direction apparently.
Holy crap. Lucky we're not moving in the wrong direction, Melbourne would have put 600 on us. Guess we'll take that game as a good one with a good result.
Go Parra.
Haha yes thank Fck we are moving in right direction horrible to think it could've been worse haha...must've been a speech prepared yesty.
Tbh I was pretty surprised with his words tonight. Maybe he just rested his eyes a little during the nightmare.
Ryles is useless as a coach. I'd rather have Brad Arthur than this joker and I was too fond of BA
I'll give him to end this year before I jump on the bandwagon of if he is right for us or not.
Whys that. You expect Ryles to win games with a bunch of reserve grade standard players that o'neill has provided him? But wait we just bought another reserve grade Edwards.
So you're giving Ryles until the end of 26 and not even mention mark o'neill who has royally fckd the roster up beyond repair. Unbelievable
Kelly
Volkman
Guymer
Jdb
Pryke
Kelma
Mataele
These players are ron massey cup/ reserve grade at best
Zero elite outside backs
Zero elite forwards
Then people start jumping on Ryles
Fkn unbelievable fans here
The problem is O'neill and Sarantinos if he doesn't fire O'neill
Oh Chief, you are insufferable at times. If it is all MON why did you blame Arthur? You might say he had an alright roster, guess what MON got that team. Crazy isn't it.
MON is not doing a good job but getting rid of him only fixes some of what is happening. We are weak and unfit, that's more than MON. Ben Rogers is head of recruitment, he should go as well. His job is to bring players to the club. So if anything he should be packaged with your abuse with MON. Rogers has the same role as Anderson who you've praised.
I have always said I would give Ryles two years grace period before abusing him. It's not give him this year then he should be sacked, it's give him this year then after that fair game to how people should respond 2027 onwards. Love it how in the list of bad players you didn't put Pezet as that was a Ryles decision, god forbid you mention that.
Question, even though you never answer them as you never have an answer since you are so far in your own ideas to admit you are wrong, why did you abuse BA for so long if MON didn't provide good rosters? Not saying he has provided one this year but in that case you were hard on BA then as he was doing what he could with his 2023 and 2024 squad?
Cant wait to see you dodge answering it as you always do. You demand people to write blogs and answer you about justifying MON, yet you haven't done it when I ask you.
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