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
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.
I suppose Ryles hired the head of physical performance from the spoon winning Newcastle did he.
If we're so weak and unfit as you say, why did O'neill recruit the Newcastle spoon winning trainer??
Also, when did I ever say O'neill was exempt from criticism whilst ba was here, I was highly critical of O'neill and never said he was doing a satisfactory job. Go back and find where I did
Actually the coaching staff selected him!
I don't think our problem is fitness, you can have an outstanding quarter horse, but he will never win a Melb Cup..... so Chiefy my answer to that one is the type of cattle you have and what you can exchange them for.....
I wrote a blog on Speed, Power and Athletism..... comes back to cattle and even an understanding how the game has changed, even this season alone.
We didn't seem that unfit playing the Cowboys last week, so your excuse doesn't lie from one week to the next....only the cattle themselves can control that!
The coach can't coach
Bellamy was more down on Melbourne than Ryles was on us. We suffer from the Pollyanna Principle as a club.
Even a team of Pollyannas could play better than this mob
It's a Jeykl & Hyde of a performance we go high completion very few errors last week to high errors average completion rate this week.For this team to win at the moment sorry I'll rephrase to be competitive right now we have to be the first mentioned.Last week the Cows gave us a leg up with there errors and Melbourne god bless them did the same this week but which Parra team turns up not the high completion low errors and hence in the end we get outclassed and kicked to the curb.
Lets face hard facts here we haven't go enough talent within our squad to compete with the best the games definitely have to go a certain way for us or it's curtains exit stage right.We don't have enough athleticism and game changers within our roster injuries not with standing if anything this is all there to see.
Thing I dislike the most and Bellamy is right this Melbourne team are zero threat to win a premiership it's just as constructed we are a perfect foil for them because we are so soft in the middle of the park SOFT.How many times I saw bodies on the ground how many times I saw in multiple back to back sets where we lose the contact and Melbourne fowards find there fronts creating ruck speed.
Off season needs a new S&C coach and regime a new wrestling coach a better strategy around defense and contact and the kicker more urgent athletes or at least players with some edge to them.Right now I could go through at least 30-40% of this squad and kick them to the curb.
Most positive thing I saw last night was our best player trying his ring out to get some sought of a result but he's got to many passengers around him who offer nothing.I'll echo this now and brought it up a month ago but if this shit continues when does Moses go screw this shit get me out of here.
Fair response Coryn, can't disagree with any of it to be fair. I wonder if Moa is a scapegoat for the season? 2027 is the year where Ryles' honeymoon is officially over. If we are in same spot in 2027, he is talked about as being sacked.
Where was that first contact we saw in trials that everyone here raved about? Can blame R&R as much as you like and MON but Ryles is making these decisions too and his job will be under the microscope very soon. Starting after the bye we get 5 starters back. No excuses from here on out. Injuries are not a get out. If we still conceded 30 a game, which we have for 73% of our games this year, then that's on him.
Does it resort to him doing what BA did in 2018 and start playing kids earlier to show there is something happening here. Early 2020's we were still a dumb team prone to rubbish performances. Is that an engrained issue in the club or Ryles has continued it? Bye week has come at a good time, players returning, ball is in Ryles' court.
We are weak and unfit. Thats on S&C but also Ryles not getting the right people either.
We do not need any scapegoats IMO LB, just players looking in the mirror and comparing their reflection with what the coaching staff need and think of them.
I would love this Parra team playing touch football against an elite Touch team, yes for the aerobics and skils, but also in understanding what's needed to be an athlete, on top what they think of themselves in the skils of the game. Last night showed up that the speed of the game was beyond them.....Storm were no better, but they actually had speed and power.....Parra in the main does not qualify the same way.....JAC, MM, and Joash were the only one's actually capable of the requirement....maybe TDS on a good day. Even a player like Samrani was basically shown up in that sense as well......MM is actually playing to twice the speed of his team mates. He can do this apparently without making anything but the odd error wheras his mates cannot.
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