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!
Yes, yes he did hire him. The fact you asked that so confidently is embarrassing and shows again your agenda is so far gone that you are simply adding in idiotic points to strengthen your ideas. Your agenda is getting in the way of common sense.
So that decision is on your golden child Ryles. You also wrote a blog with a comment that MON has failed to deveop players. Since when is it the job of the GM of football to develop players? Or is it just to pile on to make him look worse.
You had comments and blogs mentioning how BA has stuffed up recruitment and the signings "bushie" has made are awful. Now the recruitment is all on MON, even though he was here for 6 years before BA was sacked.
But you also still have refused to answer my question, very common of you to do so as you know you are in a corner. If MON is the no.1 reason for Ryles to be failing at the moment due to the roster he has provided Ryles, wouldn't that mean BA deserved some grace from you as well?
MON is an issue, he is not doing a good job at the moment. But to say he is "THE" problem is short sighted. There is more than him. Ben Rogers does the same role as Daniel Anderson at St. George Illawarra. It seems he is also not doing a very good job. Ryles also has a say on who we should look at, Pezet prime example. So yeah, MON manages the overall running of the football side, though he is also working with Ryles. Rogers and MON work with Ryles to get what he wants.
You praised Ryles for letting go Gutho, yet it is all MON on who we bring in? Doesn't work that way. You are in the path of all good things with signing and releasing is Ryles doing. All the bad is MON. When again is not the case.
To conclude, i am in agreement that it is time for a new GM and Head of Recruitment, but to say things that he has done wrong when it is either half his fault or none of his fault is wrong. He is the GM, it stops with him but others are also not doing their job properly and deserve to go too.
MON is not doing a good job but getting rid of him only fixes some of what is happening...You acknowledge that MoN is doing a poor job...So let's start there. Fix a problem. If the S&C coach is hitting his KPI's piss him off anyway then sack who he reports to as well.
I think we need to give Ryles to the end of 27, maybe 28. We went all in with a rookie coach so he's gonna need a hot minute to bend reality to his will...IF he is capable of such feats. To buy him this time will require other senior position heads to roll in lieu and that is just fine by me.
Wouldn't you sack Ben Rogers too then? Still same person in charge of who to chase. I think many here think i want MON to stay. I would like him to go, but there is more than just him that needs to be fixed.
Let's start with O'neill then the new football operations manager can do what he feels right with the rest of the recruitment team. Does that sound like a seasonable answer LB. Why do you have to make everything more complicated?
Saying I “make it complicated” is a bit ironic when your argument keeps shifting between different explanations depending on the point you’re trying to make.
I’m not complicating it, I’m just separating roles and how things actually work in an NRL football department. Recruitment, retention, coaching, S&C and player decisions aren’t all controlled by one person.
You want a single cause and a single fix (MON in, problem solved). I’m saying it’s shared responsibility and player-driven timing plays a big role in contracts, especially with November 1 and expansion clubs in the mix.
That’s not complicating it that’s just not oversimplifying it.
So to answer your question, when you still have yet to answer any of mine, funny that, is yeah get rid of MON and the next person can go from there. But Ryles also still needs to be better at his decisions in recruitment and what he wants the squad to look like.
Does my above statement make sense around who the new football manager wants to employ or dismiss, yes or no?
You can't even acknowledge this question. Just say yes or no.
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