Eels Blogs

Defence

Ineffective tackles

Holy crap, I thought there were so many ineffective tackles tonight. It was not just our right edge. Manly were able to offload the ball so easily even when we had 3-4 players in the tackle.

Right Edge defense

Jakob Arthur

An 18-year-old kid in his 2^nd game. I pointed out his defensively flaws of not sliding in my last week analysis. I was hoping since it was his first game, and after a week of training that BA would do something to improve this. However, it got exploited even worse today. Schuster ability to go deep into the line at Arthur was super effective given how bad Arthur and his outside men defend. Arthur would always get too attracted and hold onto Schuster instead of sliding when Matto was already there to mark him. As a result, Blake would have to mark the short pass (decoy at times) and the players running out the back of the shape (Turbo). That is too hard for most defenders, and given Blake’s poor defense lately, it is impossible. Arthur still needs to grow into his body which means he produces many missed and ineffective tackles. I don’t want to bag the kid since he is young, and he is not our first choice five-eight. But, next week, surely Rankin plays.

Waqa Blake

OH boy. I have so many questions. I had some hope he would defend well but I am just left disappointed. For some reason I still have some hope and have many suggestions and question.

• Do we give Blake a chance of defending next to D Brown, since it is someone who he can trust?
  • It was clear Blake stood close to Arthur because he had no trust in Arthur given how poor he defended. Not only did Arthur read the play wrong and not slide properly, but Arthur is quite slow to cover in defense. Contrastingly, D Brown reads defense well. Slides well. Is very quick and is always there in cover defense. I would give him one more chance personally.
• Will Blake defend better with a person other than Fergo?
  • Gus says that Blake was a good defender when he was at Penrith. I watched a lot of highlights when Blake was in Penrith and Gus was not lying. I can’t remember Blake making any mistakes in those highlights. So, with D Brown next to him, and a better winger, could Blake actually defend well? For all of us can see, Fergo himself is past his used by date in defense.
• Should we try an edge of D Brown, Niukore and Blake?
  • I think most people here would favors this option. Have two gun defenders of D Brown and Niukore defending next to each other with Blake on the wing. In this scenario, Blake needs to make fewer defensive decisions and has very reliable players inside of him. Blake also has the speed to chase and turn unlike Fergo who unfortunately is getting too old, and his knees are gone. Not only will this help our defense, but Blake speed and aerial ability will be used more. We still have Blake for 2 more years and given his form it would be very hard to get rid of him. This is the decision I support. Next year, we can look for a better center to allow Niukore to move to his preferred spot. The only downside of this option I believe is the meters Fergo provides. However, the benefits of this move easily outweighs this.

Blake Ferguson

I’m sorry but it’s time for Fergo to move on. For a team pushing to win a premiership his limitations outweigh his positives, meaning he is too much of a liability. I recon he will find a club struggling but it’s time he left. He does provide great meters and the occasionally amazing finish, but his brain fades and defense for someone on big money and off-contract all could mean one thing. Goodbye. 

Attack

Gelling Together

BA said in his press conference that our team didn’t gel together in attack and defense. I think the most prime example was on the 5^th tackle when Mahoney tried putting a grubber into Manly’s in goal. Not only did a Manly player pick it up before in went into the in goal, but all eels’ players were 10m behind Mahoney ready for a different play. Our defense was not working together either. At times Matto did slide to help out Arthur, but Arthur gets stuck and doesn’t slide. Blake would either miss a tackle, misread or jam in to mark the short pass. Fergo would sometimes jam in or do something else wrong. That hole right side is chaos.

Even though Turbo has returned for Manly, their defense had been pretty poor. So did eels think scoring tries would be easier?

Moses

A lot of us here are bagging Moses. Does he deserve this? Well, if he wants the big 800-900k paycheck he needs to step up much more in attack. This year, Moses has had some superb moments. His running game and long kicking game have been great majority of the time and are a great indicator of how well he plays in that game. Today he didn’t run the ball so no surprise he was very poor today. Throughout this year, Moses has also been guilty of going sideline to sideline a lot of the time. He struggles to play direct and go deep into the line. BA always says in his press conference that eels is a power team and need to attack through the middle. Did Moses direct his team through the middle today? I think we all know the answer to that. Moses needs to watch Cleary and Luai play. They touch the ball 5-6 times a set in the opposition 20m line. Moses probably touches the ball on average 2 times a set.

Brad Arthur

Reflecting upon how the team have attacked and our right edge has defended, I think questions will start rising again on whether BA can take us to a premiership. Against the warriors, our right edge was exposed, but warriors never took full advantage. With the best player, Turbo on fire, BA should have known this would have happened. BA needs to grow some ball and know that his son needs to be dropped to reserve grade. The fact that Blake and Fergo’s communication and defense is still so horrible, regardless of J Arthur being a bad defender make me question BA. It is so obviously to uneducated NRL fans that Blake and Fergo are incomputable with each other. I still have faith in BA, but if he wants eels to actually be a chance, he knows he needs to make some hard decisions on the right edge. I won’t crucify BA too much on J Arthur selection because it’s his only third choice five-eight and won’t be there in the back end of the season. However, BA at least needs to use Rankin for the game against Souths. I think BA will drop Blake or Fergo come finals time because he would know that a quick failure in the finals would mean no contract for him at the eels.

In press conferences, BA constantly says we are a power team. He highlights how during games we try go around teams to much instead of through them. However, is that his opinion based on retrospect or does the team not follow his plan of playing down the middle? So, it’s either that BA is not coaching his team well or Moses is not directing him team according to the coach’s plan.

Future attack

Since we are a power team, I would like use to have a few more set plays through the middle. Our power game is essentially Mahoney using the crash play with our forwards or Papali’i steam rolling players. We do a simple one out too much inside the opposition 20 meter. I would love to see our halves touch the ball more and be involved in our power game. Some set play can involve moves that isolate defender’s more to allow our power players to steam role the opposition.

When we go sideline to sideline there are many problems with our attack. Moses normally runs sideways instead of direct which allows our opponents to slide. He doesn’t run deep into the line either. At the end of the shape, we have no decoys so there are no difficult defensive decisions required. Defenders are then able to get more players into the tackle. I would rather see us use N Brown much more in our set spreads. He is one player who runs direct and goes deep into the line.

Overall, I think our attack is an easy fix. We need Moses running the ball more and our halves touching the ball more. We need to use our power game properly and only spread the ball wide with shape and decoys at the right time. I am not worried that our attack will not be up to standard come finals time because last year when our attack was going horrible, we scored enough points against Rabbits and Storm to win the game. We just didn’t defend well enough, which is why defense is my major concern.

Next Week Line Up

Predicted Line up Explanation:

Firstly, the obvious changes. I believe RCG and Blake will be suspended for at least one week which means that Niukore returns from suspension in Blake’s center spot. Kaufusi will take RCG starting spot which means Hipgrave will join the bench. I predict, given Arthur’s lack of tendency to drop players, Fergo and Arthur will retain their position.

Personal Line up Explanation:

I do the same choices of Niukore and Hipgrave in for Blake and RCG respectively. I thought of dropping Fergo, but given he defended decently with Niukore inside of him I decided not to. Dunster is not ready for first grade, so I wonder if BA has given Oldfield any thought? 

For the rest of the season, I would rather Blake on the wing with Niukore inside of him. While Fergo provides plenty of meters, he is too old which exposed him a lot in defense. His ability to turn and chase is horrible. Personally, I would like to see Blake tried on the wing. Like most of us here agree, he is more suited to the wing. His best trait it probably his aerial ability with his pace. I rarely ever see eels try take advantage of Blake’s speed. I think having Niukore inside of him will also help his defense a lot. Having Arthur next to him has been very difficult.

I put Roache on the bench instead of Lussick just because I think he could be good for a 15min cameo. Wonder if Hayze Perham comes into calculation for five-eight or a utlity spot?