Positive Comments:
No injuries.
All other comments:
- After the first minute of the game I immediately knew that no matter how good we try to play that we would not win the game. The corruption was pretty clear. But wow we played awful.
- The sin bin was obviously a horrible decison by the ref
- The captain challenge was another horrible decison by the ref
- The number of 6 agains on 4th and 5th tackle just because Grant asked the ref for it was BS.
- Iongi getting a high tackle and than a crusher but not getting a penalty for it. Than being sent for the HIA was BS too.
- We lost control of the ruck because we would get pinged for a 6 again the moment we held on for a second. What were the eels meant to do. Two different games were beign reffed. Storm are the one team you CANNOT give loads of possession and a quick ruck too. We have zero match fitness since round 1, so that spine, our errors and refs but it impossible to defend under fatigue. We played 60min with 12 men too.
- Now enough complaining about the ref.
- Kelly and Penisni still cant defend 1 on 1 tackles consistently.
- Pezet is overrated. He is not a 6 and looked good at Storm in theri system. He is slow and a poor defender.
- Da Silva is a reserve grader. 1 year into a 4 year contract and I may have already given up on him. His service is putrid. He cannot control a ruck even though he didnt miss a tackle. His decison making is poor.
- Smith had the worst game of his career. Errors, missed tackle, etc. Really hope this was a one off
- Our bench rotation was completely fucked up because of the Iongi HIA. Our bench was a fullback (Papalii), hooker (TDS) and 2 small forward in Doorey and Walker. They had no chance in competing with Storms elite spine and big forward pack once they got a roll on (plus refs help).
No one is saying we played a great game or were not poor with our handing. We hurt oursleves for sure. But apply all the context. Refs fucking over from the start. The bench we had to use cause of the HIA BS. The countless 6 agains. Try to control the ruck and get pinged. Versing the best spine in the comp with all of that is impossible even if we completed well the refs wouldnt let us win I am certain of it.
Replies
lol at everyone that defends Kautoga & penisini clueless bunch of biased fans, we will get nowhere with the players we got, the club has too get the players Ryles wants over the line.
not one player stood up to the occasion, get Doorey out his woeful and I've always said his woeful.
We have no Backrowers, no centres , we only have 1 proper winger in the club (Fox). Simonson doesn't cut it his a plodder.
lol to everyone that thought I was putting it on the players at the club , I'm speaking facts.
Lol Parraboy, here i am to shake your hand in agreeance my friend.
Wasn't aimed at you my bro, just everyone in general in my life lol.
I couldn't believe what I was watching, no effort or heart, I know a lot of shit went against us but a solid group looks past that and keeps going, we put our heads down. Our pack is down the pecking order with a fair few team in my opinion that's why we need to go and get Barnett over the line for 2 years, taencun brown on the bench with Tuivaiti & Moretti with Walker rounding out the bench. TDS put him in cup as a back up 9 but then again I do like the 2 hooker rotation what's the solution? we want to win NOW not in 5-6 years time. Need to put JDB in at prop with Hopgood back at 13, has too happen, get JDB out of that lock position. Kautoga has glimpses bro but his piss poor in effort areas, couldn't even play the goal properly on there line on 2nd tackle. Penisini had too score that try to get us back into the game man , he got stood up by Leo a no name reserve grader. Kick pressure was non existent, boys were playing with there eyes closed. Should've kept the momentum going after that first try, we didn't go down there with that ambush mentality I'm afraid the boys go ahead of themselves.
we go again next week we can say it's only rd 1 but man to let 50+ points get put on us in the first rd again is what makes the loss hurt 100x more.
Agree with all here, EA.
Not excusing the Eels for a lot, but as you said, the Storm are a different beast.
We can't underestimate how hard momentum is to claw back against a team like Melbourne, when they're allowed 2/3 more seconds in the ruck on every play, and are gifted set after set to attack and fatigue a team who basically started with 12 men for 10 mins - in round 1 where match fitness is low.
It absolutely changed the outcome of that game - & you could see it in how both teams reacted - the Eels were jumping off players & giving the Storm so much time & speed to play the ball, which impacted our line speed & first contact.
Not making excuses for a 52-4 thumping and how poor the Eels were in the 2nd half, but also not going to turn a blind eye to the officiating that 100% changed the game in the first half.
Ryles has work to do for sure, and the Eels need to demand answers on many of these decisions.
No one will give these guys a chance against Brisbane, so a good opportunity to prove many wrong and show that 2026 isn’t going to be 2025 all over again.
I reckon Ryles will put his hand up and say he didn't help the boys with the Interchange management today. Made us look much worse than we are. We will still make the 8.
DE BELIN stinks, he doesn't need to play and won't be extended on his club option.
DA SILVA needs to play 80 minutes in NSW Cup week in week out.
JOASH needs to be our back up fullback and nothing else.
PEZET gets another couple games before moving to the bench as back up halfback. I was a big fan of the signing and it didn't work tonight, can't waste many more matches on it.
KELLY should play Reserve grade and I expect him to be once JAC returns.
SIMONSSON best position is Centre, he is too hot headed to play wing.
We desperately need an edge who can come in and do a job for 80 minutes reliably. Williams and Junior are our clear cut best starting props by a country mile, and Sam and T need to play first grade.
Walker needs to play the traditional 14 role as a utility and rolling Lock. No messing about with TDS and Papalii. I hope we are well along the road to resigning Walker.
BARNETT is an absolute must sign to help bring Sam and T through. We should absolutely be sending HOPGOOD to the WARRIORS for him. I think HOPGOOD is an edge, just an overweight undercooked edge. He was signed and a young hard bodied Lock/Edge and moved permanently into the middle and put a lot of tread on his tires. Had up and down seasons and now looks bog average. Sell now whilst we still can.
IONGI is our best player and MITCH is going to be his typical temperamental self. TWIDDLE needs to be on our bench and covering all the backline positions.
IONGI
JAC
RUSSELL
PENISNI
BAILEY
PEZET
MITCHELL
PAULO
SMITH
WILLIAMS
?
KAUTOGA
DOOREY
WALKER
BIG SAM
TEEZA
HOPGOOD (BARNETT)
TWIDDLE
SAMRANI
I am telling you now, do not be surprised to see Pezet as a 14 to start for Brisbane in 2027. Talk is they wanted either Reynolds or Hunt to stay one more year to ease Pezet into the club, Also, now they have Haas money i wonder if they go for a bigger fish? But yeah Lorenzo adds that bit of difference and hope he gets some game time. Twiddle also played well apparently.
I agree with your call for going with one Hooker with a Utility that can fill for 10-15 if needed. Smith wasn't good tonight but that could be and more likely will be a once off.
I am not ready to give up on Hopgood but man time is running out. We have some talent in the middle in lower grades with Tuivaiti, Talagi, Brown, Koina, Polley. But they are all minimum 2-3 years off before making a consistent impact. I think we could see Tuivaiti and Brown be full-time 17 players but Koina and Talagi need more time.
Though Barnett is older, if Paulo and de Belin go in 27' then yeah no brainer.
I would love a bench of
Walker
Tuivaiti
Brown
Guymer
Hopgood isn't too old, he is too shit at footy. Barnett is 10x the player Hopgood is. Cut bait now, T and Sammy are ready. Moretti, Doorey, and Guymer are first graders.
Hopgood trade for Barnett. Lomax trade for Tago. Hopgood JDB and Kelly cannot play first grade anymore.
Worst possible start to the season. I didn't think the first half was that bad and at 18-4 with some very dodgy calls thought if ryles gets into them at half time we could turn it around, thought it was much better than last year when it was 46-0 at half time!
My goodness that second half made up for it, that is the worst half of footy I have seen in a long time, not even in 2018 when we got the spoon did we play that bad. No respect for the footy, no respect for defence I actually don't know what the hell that was. No point talking about any player cause they were all bad but our leaders needed to get them all in and say no bullshit just complete a set and work on our d, we did the opposite every single occasion.
I really don't know how we recover, we have a killer start to the year and can see us being anchored at the bottom of the table for the first month. Everyone needs to have a good hard look at themselves and watch that game very closely
We got flogged last year in the very same game by 50 points. What did we learn? What did we change? Nothing! Got flogged again by 50. Ryles has a long lomg eay to go. If you dont learn from your mistakes you never improve. Negative 50 is like 3 losses. Useless cunts.
Another positive comment, for now, is that it seems we wont miss much from Pezet going to Brisbane.
Oh and one more, De Belin has a CO for we can cut our losses for 2027. That is a positive.
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