Like many on this site, I have been really surprised by this 2014 team. At the start of the year I expected to see improvement but nothing too flash to be honest. They bought reasonably well, had a new coach, new coaching team, new structures etc. How does it all come together, can the mix gel - can a club rebuild a broken spirit , a fractured culture and stem the leaks to the media that destroy the fabric of the club. In a simple word YES.
The team is hard fit. The soft underbelly has gone for the most part. Replaced by a hard nosed attitude where you know you can do it, rather than hope you can do it. Where you can defend to victory rather than attack to victory. Where your defence erodes the confidence of the opposition teams and creates the doubt and unwillingness to do the hard yards to get the result. ARTHUR has a really nice defensive system in place. The tackling target area appears to be slightly lower than in previous years and we are ' chopping down the trees ' rather than rolling in with huge numbers and trying to wrestle to victory. Look at the impressive new techniques of SANDOW, the relentless hitting of PEATS and copy book defence of HOPOATE. These low, driving hits are highly effective if the defensive line is intact. Teams are now trying to pick it apart by stringing multiple short passes together.
Our attack has dominated most teams. We have the 3 highest scorers in the league being our back 3. I see this because we are now playing more direct in tackles 1-3. This allows us to hold our shape and bring into play the decoys and around the back play that HAYNE Is reknown for. The wingers hold their form and the playmakers play direct and the rest is history. Also like the depth that NORMAN sometimes uses so we have less at the line suicide balls and more time in the hands stuff. We are very, very dangerous when we spread the ball and follow it up with the big bopper in the middle. Sandow has been brillant.
Young blokes feed on the positive vibe in the team. The confidence levels are through the roof. You get that with winning. You get that with winning the ruck, winning the battle. You get that with holding teams out for repeat sets on your line. Watch the dynamics of this team. No one is overplaying their hand. No one is bigger than the team. HAYNE has learnt that sometimes less is best. His touches have been best player in the game stuff. By not overplaying his hand, he produces quality plays and more importantly dominant running. His running game is top class. Never downplay that.
Can Parramatta win the comp ? Not likely. Lot will depend on our bench players. The bench is where the game is decided these days IMO. The middle 20s is killing a lot of teams as the momentum swings when they replace key forwards. Having Pauli and Paulo rolling through the ruck and TEREPO we might be able to make a big statement.
This is a very exciting football team to watch. They just don't know how good they could be yet. It is a nice feeling watching a team EXPECTING to win every week rather than HOPING for a miracle to happen to get a win. As BA said - no long term plans, goals etc. Just honesty and wanting to win the most important game - the next game your in. Just keep raising the bar boys.
Replies
Outstanding write up Sir. I couldn't agree more. Well said.
Agree, I am liking what I see at present. Now to hold our form whilst missing Hayne. Will it impact us as badly as previous years?? I think not.
Great effort PT. Always enjoy your detailed posts.
It's like the existing players have bought into the culture that Arthur, Norman, Hopoate and Peats have brought to the club. Good to see Jnr Paulo getting a good run. Happy to have had to sacrifice Santi (who I personally had great expectations for) to get Jnr playing regular minutes.
For me, to pick only one from your list Miatch - which is very hard to do - is the coaching change.
Good blog but we still can't get ahead of ourselves. We beat Cronulla and the Dragons convincingly, however they are no world beaters. If we can notch one against Panthers away and a Cowboys outfit (who are looking very very crisp of late) at home then I'll saddle up that unicorn. Solid effort but more improvement needed.
Good blog Paul, BA and his team have given me reason to start feeling some pride as an eels fan again, the way we are playing has made me realise just how much pride i had lost in the club, but its coming back slowly.
Chris "big bopper" Sandow has a nice ring to it.
Great post and good analysis of what is happening. I am really enjoying what Arthur has brought to the Eels.
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