It's amazing what a night's sleep can do for clarity. Really it is.
Yes, like any and all passionate fans of our great team, I was gutted seeing our team take an amazing lead and use it for toilet paper, but I'd like to say a few things that perhaps a few of us MAY be feeling this morning after "sleeping on it".
Yes, the second half wasn't good enough for a team that wants to compete. No one, not even the most magical of unicorns out there would be able to deny that. Nathan Peats said it during the press conference that the efforts just weren't good enough, not competing for the ball and not defending when Thurston decided to wake up and take control of the game.
For those of us old enough to remember when Peter Sterling used to pull on the Blue and Gold, Sterling had the ability to dominate and control the game in the same way that Thurston did last night (I recall being at a match in 1987 when we were down by the same margin at half time to Canberra . Sterling took the game by the scruff of it's neck and did to Canberra what Thurston did to us last night). Thurston is one of those amazing players that when he decides to, he can rally and dominate like no other in the game. Take Thurston out of last night's game equation, and the result would have been different (again, when Thurston retires, the Cowboys will have issues, the same as we are having "post Hayne").
We used to to have someone like that until this year. Yes, I'll say his name. Hayne.
Our team would rally around and off his ability during a game.
Our coach has had to try and reshape a team . It's not an easy job and it's not a quick fix.
It's like a construction site, where there was a plan and a foreman. The building was going well. The foundations were there, the structure started to take shape and everyone around could see that we were to have an amazing sandstone building, sandstone being the solid foundations as well as the showpiece. Then all of a sudden , the foreman of the site is told he has to remove all the sandstone and start all over again. The building plan doesn't quite work the same so to try and build something that is functional and effective he not only has to find new materials, but he had to come up with a new plan. Worse still, the tenants who want to utilise the building want the same quality and want it built now. BUt to make it work, the foreman has to try out different materials, sometimes, the new materials won't arrive for a while, and we won;t know how they will work until the new materials arrive.
Do you see what I am getting at?
As HARD as what it is, because we as Rugby League fans, especially us demanding Parramatta fans, expect and demand results. We expect the best ..... and to be blunt, we deserve it. For the most part we are a pretty hardy bunch (heck, with all the crap we have had to endure over the years, if we weren't a hard bunch we wouldn't still be flying the Blue and Gold flag now would we??!!), so deserving something good in the way of our team isn't an unreasonable ask.
But ....
We had an awesome building under construction ...... our team ..... was looking good. So much promise for the 2015 season after what we saw in 2014.
Our foreman had a great plan for the future ..... our coach, Brad Arthur and his team
But the showpiece of the building for this year is no longer there. I wont say his name, there have been enough blogs on him. But we all know how much our team rallied around and relied on his abilities.
The foreman has had to radically change the building ..... BA and his team have had to come up with a plan and shape a team that did rely heavily upon the genius of one man. The "new materials" may not always work well to start off with, so we get others in. Will they work as well, maybe, maybe not. But we have to try and see.
Patience is hard. It's especially hard at times when you bleed blue and gold. But we need to find some extra reserves of patience.
Will we make the top 8 this year?
To be frank, I don't know and I am not so sure about that.
Will we be a better team next year with players that we already know are coming to the club. Players such as Beau Scott (who is a rep player, a CURRENT rep player still playing good footy) and Kieran Foran (who is an INTERNATIONAL level player).? Hell yes!!!
Tough medicine ? We all KNEW that this year without that bloke who went to the NFL would be a tough one. But look at what we have seen with players having a great year within a team that is not performing well. Taka. He's adding that starch and mongrel to our backline that we have missed. Semi, is getting over his injury and is starting to show that form we love so well. Norman is starting to show why Darren Lockyer said that if anyone is worthy of his number 6 Broncos jumper it is Corey Norman. Peats - we all know how awesome he is ... and think of how much better guys like John Folau will be next year after getting that top grade experience.
The pill to swallow for watching some of the matches when plans don't work tastes pretty bitter at the moment, but like all medicine, it may taste horrid as you take it, but you know you'll get better in the end form it.
Call me a unicorn, but I firmly believe that we will emerge a stronger outfit in the years to come learning and reshaping from this year.
We FINALLY have a united "front office". We have structures in place with the coaching and development staff that were missing in past years. We have a coach that players respect and WANT to be under. We just need to stay strong and take the bitter pill right now because we will emerge stronger.
Replies
Spot on.Well said. We were down 0-22 against Canberra and won 30-22. Think it was Bob Linder's best and only great game for us. Nathan Peats was right in what he said then DK. Thanks mate. I guess I get frustrated with us fans when we lose and they call for BA's head. I know we all get upset, kick the cat, swear, curse, blood boils, etc but this is where we need to stay solid and believe in what is being done. I know most do. We did not get to 30-6 last night thought being rubbish; our forwards dominated, and our backs used the ball well. It was devastating to lose like that. But it is a new week, and a new challenge and I hope we can mix it with Melbourne as besides playing in Auckland and Nth Qld it is the toughest trip to make. I know they are without their spine, but they have a very strong 17 team.
you'll get no argument from me about preferring to have won!
and yeah, I'm still hurting from last night too.
When I got home last night from the Stadium I watched (from the Foxtel IQ) until that AMAZING try in the second half and then I deleted the game from the IQ hard drive !
Both are definitely representative, they aren't separate entities. In the first 56 minutes the team stuck to a game plan, it appeared to be 3 hit-ups up the middle and then spread the ball wide to see if we can get around them. It worked a couple of times this week, and last week. On the 5th tackle we would aim for the corners and try to pin the Cowboys inside of their own half and then defend from a set defensive line where we could control the speed of the ruck. It obviously worked, the Cowboys forwards were walking back to the scrum and that's where we scored our points.
In the 24 minutes we went away from the game plan was when the Cowboys scored their points. We weren't focused on sticking to the game plan, instead we played ad-lib footy. Was definitely a poor effort from the halves who should have realised what was working and stuck with it, we probably would have won the game if we did so.
After being at the presser last night, make Peats captain. His response is what I wanted to hear.
"We can talk all we want but we obviously didn’t do what we said. Four tries off kicks it’s pretty pathetic if you ask me. It’s just not good enough and yeh, it’s disappointing."
Tim took a pretty hard hit, if Tim is unable to play against the $torm, I would LOVE to see Peats as captain for the game.
I was doing some light reading on the weekend, when Pricey was captain in the late 70's he had the heart and mongrel, but could at times be a little too hot headed (it was Pricey's own words). When Steve Edge came along and was made captain at first Pricey (and a few of the Parra Army) were upset, but as Pricey went on later to say, and was proven correct, that Edge was the right person for the job, the right temperament at the time when his style of leadership was needed.
Perhaps this is what needs to happen now.
Mannah is a good player, Great leg power in tackles, makes great meters, leads by actions.
But perhaps right now, that's not what Parramatta needs on field.
To my eyes, we need a player who, apart from being an 80 minute player, is a no nonsense player, someone who will tell it as it is and is not afraid to rip into his team mates on field if they are not putting in.
That guy I believe is Nathan Peats.
Time will tell, as will patience.
Could you imagine Tim saying that super, BA choosing and sticking with Tim as a captain is a huge blight on BAs coaching ability.
You could spin a chocolate wheel and find somebody that offers more than Tim to the captaincy every time.
Give Peats a go.
over his head in 2008 as Captain of NZ in a year Australia had a fairly decent line up including leaders such as Lockyer, Cam Smith, Steve Price, Thurston, Gallen, Slater , Israel Folau..., I could go on.
But yeah, I'm sure he is no leader of Men.
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