Some thoughts in no particular logical order.
How many blogging on this game were actually at the game?
I thought we --the Eels--played OK in defence. A three try to one defeat is not a disaster.
Gutherson is very raw. Managers to come up with a try a game. Seems to lack a bit of pace. Got something about him though--confidence or arrogance? He is a Manly lad after all!
Are you all feeling excited now? You were all of a twitter from last November. One game and realism knocks down the front door--as it ought to.
Greenburg`s Gaff. We were promised that with less interchange the monster forwards would tire allowing those wonderful little halves to, at last, reveal their speed and skill and the backs to do their thing.
Well, last night there were four tries scored--not an unusually large number--but get this, they were all scored in the first half! Where were those halves and backs running rampart through those exhausted forwards? It did not happen. A complete flop. Of course, the Johns men etc will say cut the interchange further! Greenburge will say I am focusing on the brand moving forward!! and will do whatever those bored TV commentators suggest. Of course, one swallow never did make a summer. What will the rest of round one bring?
The crowd numbers were not impressive.Perhaps, Thursday night shopping was a negative? I feel the crowd numbers will continue to fall as the season progresses, as they did last year. We are well into Super League Mark Two. That will turn the crowds away as did Mark One.
The players don`t go into a game to play badly so why the toxic attitude to some of them? Invariably. such an attitude comes from those who were so excited and claim to be positive about life! Support your players while you may!
I thought Tim Manner was equal to our forwards in meters gained--a subjective assessment.
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Jury still out on interchange. Maybe we need to watch 4-5 rounds to see?
I wasn't at the game as it is logistically no good to knock off work to rush 3 hours or so there by kick off then travel another 3 hours or so home to get 4 hours sleep before getting back up again to work on Friday. I did watch it on WIN HD tho.
My thoughts are:
Gordon - went OK. Some adjustments to timing his runs into the backline needed.
Gutherson - been to the EG jnr school of defence.
Jennings - not involved enough
Taka - pretty good game.
Semi - dropped too much ball, got pushed out when he shouldn't have, got pushed back in goal when he shouldn't have.
Norman - good until his face plant.
Kelly - Ok in first half but then the pressure of playmaker came to bear. Dopey back to defence dawdles and inane bombs are apparently his forte.
Jnr - good game but needs to close up his defence around the ruck as he has poor lateral movement.
Peats - ordinary in attack. Needs to improve.
Mannah - stop trying to get a metre more and get a faster play the ball.
Ma'u - good, very good but stop throwing passes to nobody.
Scott - tradesman like and got under a few Broncos skins.
Tepai - stop stepping inside EVERY run. Make sure every tackle sticks in the middle.
Edwards - very good. Hopefully keeps that up.
Terepo - same ol' same ol'. Maybe slightly less dropped ball than previous years.
Alvaro - must have got a rev up at half-time. Bit lazy in first half on occasions.
Kaysa - breath of fresh air with his enthusiasm and pace.
Best thing was Roberts' post game comment ..."I've got more speed than Oxford St"
This defeat is not the end of the world. But it shows theres a lot of work to be done. Defence was good. Attack was sub-standard. There didnt appear to be any organising going on. It was just pass the ball to whoever. Foran may help here if he can get fit.
Scott went OK for his first run. Was the pick of the forwards. Still not certain Paulo is FG standard. A big intimidating prop is needed right now.
Over 17000 on a Thursday night is really good IMO, was expecting no more than 15K
Our forwards lacked aggression, beside Manu & Edwards, we didn't get enough punch up the middle. Broncos rolled us, making easy meters. Credit though to the Broncos, they were strong tonight defensively, not many teams would have beat them on that performance.
Parra need works - a lot of new faces gotta get the combinations working.
Thought Taka and Gutho started a little nervous on defence, but don't forget they had Kelly defending that side too, but thought they finished a little stronger. They worked hard all night, just a few lapses which led to tries.
CP :Thats a point I forgot to mention. I thought the Brisbane forwards, at times, were allowed, to go a full ten metres before our forwards got active and defended them. We tackled OK in my opinion, but did not always move up on them sufficiently.
Send Maranta down to the Eels then. But Kahu looks like a month off.
I dont think you can read too much into last nights game.
As tends to happen early in the season there was a lot of dropped ball.
Every part of our backline is new.Halves fullback and both centre/wing combos.This is a work in progress and will take time.Add to that no Foran and the loss of Norman and we were always going to struggle in attack.
Reduced Interchange see my comment about dropped ball
Crowd over 17000 Thursday night I think Parra would be happy with that.I could be wrong but think Max capacity isn't much over 20,000
Only thing I am reading into it, is that Gutherson is a massive liability and why would we chase him but let Ryan Morgan go? Dumb and Dumber!
The fact that Foz was not there seemed to hamper Normy.
He left side barely saw any ball and as where Taka went looking, Jenko just waits unless it is from dummy half.
I only hope now that BA can see that Kelly is not a first grader. Appears to be a top bloke, but wow he was very very ordinary. I would have prefer to have seen Peats to half and Kayser to play at hooker.
Semi was ordinary as he tried to be something he is not and dropped the ball as a consequence.
Parra always looks best when we play 'Parra Footy' that is to throw the ball around a little. We couldnt break the broncs up the middle and we only go creative once the game was all but gone.
Looking at our forwards last night we need strike power like Manu. Whether someone like Tanganoa is ready to go but we need mobility and speed from our forwards. We cannot carry both Mannah and Alvaro as they are too similar.
As for the crowd I was in attendance the atmosphere was great. There was a buzz throughout from what was an ordinary game
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