Eels Blogs

As we look forward this week to Spoon Bowl II, against the Tigers, and some reprieve from playing top 8 football teams. I find myself casting my eye over our team. What has to change for us to win this game. Players, Attitudes, Coaching or the Game plan. Its an interesting debate and I'm sure the answer is a mixture of all of the above.

The Tigers have recruited well during the off season, however still managed to lose to a team "Newcastle" that completed their sets at 64% and made less metres in attack. In short the Tigers were terrible when compared to the likes of top 6 teams.  Their ability to tackle went out the door missing 51 tackles and adding 22 ineffective tackles to boot. Their problems have been glossed over due to only losing by 2 points. Newcastle were terrible as well but that's for another day.

With this in mind it would appear, and it stands to reason Our Eels and The Tigers are on par with each other defensively, in short Terrible and not up to NRL standards. So how do we win. How do we stay alive and creep into a top 8 spot by the end of the year. How do we stay in the hunt, to give our new coach our new structures time to develop and perhaps sneak into a finals berth. Of course defense is usually the answer, but to that end I'd argue - We have shown time and time again over the last decade, that we are not a team that wants to do the 1%ers. We can talk it up and say What if! but the reality is, we have too many players, not prepared to put in the effort and commitment to achieve that level of defense. It appears beyond some of the players, and that's okay because they are not up to being at a competitive first grade Standard. Those boys will not last. We can all name most of them, and they should find themselves back playing park footy. HHHMMMM Kelma and Volkman.

To me this game may very well be about poor defense from both teams and who can outscore the other in attack. This could be a  dry high scoring affair, by both sides.

So moving forward how do we win with out Moses. Dylan Brown comes to mind, but hey let's face it, he is not a halfback or an organiser. It's not his go, the quicker we all move on from being hoodwinked by the Orr-Full brothers Management and except Dylan is a secondary playmaker that plays 5/8 , the better we will all be and the quicker we can all settle down about him. So what have we got, where are our directions and where are our points going to come from. Volkman has been ordinary after an effort trial game against a trial Knights outfit a couple of weeks ago. Since then he has been found out - some of his mis demeaners include kicking on the 4th tackle to no one repeatadly, kicking out on the full, missing tackles and out of position. Unable to create space or holes in opposition defense. The young bloke is not first grade ready. So we must move on, the odds are our points are not going to come from him.

Looking over the injured list and the out of favour list. This week we could have Dunster return, replace Tago or Russell mmmmmm, he hardly sets the imagination alight, the last time we saw him play footy, i think I had hair on the top of my head. Ryan Matterson, is a possiblity, but who knows what skin care products he may use this week, that may put him out again. At his best or anywhere near his best he can improve the team. Cartwright will be in the mix, but can Ryles find his passing licence and destroy it, and will Cartwright go his own way mid match during the sloppy play and throw the ball away anyways, this would be deep on Ryles mind. We have Shaun Lane earmarked for a return from injury this week, I never thought i'd say this, but I feel like breaking into a hillsong lyric   hallelujah. I believe Lane is a huge improvement to our team this week. Will he stand up, will he be selected I don't know, but his predecessor didn't far well this week with more missed tackles then most. This takes me to the man that I think must play and must produce. I'm not sure if he can or not. I, like a lot of fans here might not know much about him, I'm talking about Dean Hawkins.

Dean Who, yep the man that has been hand picked by Ryles to back up our own Messiah Mitch Moses. Hawkins has been earmarked to return from a Calf strain injury this week. A cheeky little halfback from South Sydney.  My way of thinking is that he will be parachuted straight into the thick of action. He will be the man that needs to step up, organise our team and lead the attacking direction  provide another attacking point and give Dylan some space from being double teamed. It's probably a very good time for all of us to get to know the little bloke and begin some chatter about him. If he is able to turn it on, it's simple we may very well win the attacking game and score more points then the Tigers.

DEAN HAWKINS:

25 Years old, 180cm tall and 85kgs

Debuted for Souths in 2021and has played 14 first grade games with 1 try.

In 2023 he Captained the South Sydney NSW cup side to a premiership.

In 2022 and 2023 he was named halfback of the year NSW Cup.

In 2023 he was named player of the year Brad Fittler Medal NSW Cup

He has played 85 NSW Cup games scoring 13 tries. A noted goal Kicker with a tackle efficency of around 83%

He suffered a quad injury last year that kept him sidelined for  good part of the year.

He was signed by Jason Ryles.

 Can Dean Hawkins play his role this week, will he even be selected by Ryles. My understanding is that if he is fit then he must be selected as Volkman was only issued an exemption by the NRL to play last week due to our halfback injuries and  not being in our top 30. It's a tall ask, but there you have it. I for one hope that if he is selected and does play that he has a club debut like no other. The alternative really is a loss in Spoon Bowl II this Sunday.