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
Agree on all EA. Storms forwards simple outmuscled us specially by Stefano, who was an Eels junior, but that's another story.
Countless 6 agains drained the guys tank and thus scrambling for defence and committing errors chasing the scoreboard.
Pezet is so much hyped and is useless in defence with Kelly.
if Storms can recruit the quality of forwards and backs that they played tonight, wondering why we can't ? But again, that's another story.
Just hoping that this is just 'birth pains'🤞😊
Forget the birth pains, we are into adolesence and its too late for the "clearasol"
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.
No I know that I'm just saying I agree.
Agree all you like LB, its inexcusable but then again Parraboy is so biased that he has no credability.
he shows his hand early "just everyone in general in his life".....he obviously is doing it tough so he may have my empathy, but not respect!
Poor old Penisini. he could shit golden bricks and Paraboy would still be unhappy.
The back line was essentially shattered by the poor defence of Pezet and Kelly and the continued bad positional defence of Baily..... the fact that they went through us like water with no cover at all brought us back to 2024 defensive quandries. Moses ran around with a bag of tissues trying to clean up the mess and in the process the children needed "nappies" not tissues.
Shit it worries me if he puts that same team on the field next week against the Broncs, lets hope he is not stubborn like BA when he gets it wrong!
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.
Agree NOS. Its a hard balance between questioning the teams performance and also the refs performance. But no doubt the refs performance contributed big time to the eels performance. Even Simmo sin bin. Rewatch it. Stefano forearm was smashing his head and neck into the ground. Simmo was only trying to stop that. Fucking dirty cheats.
I'll say this with regards to the officiating when you lose 52-4 you don't complain about officiating you just don't and I'm glad to see JR in the presser said nothing about the mentioned.You just can't complain about it when you get drilled like we did.
Shane Flanagan on the other hand last week now in a result like that then you give the officials both barrels because in all essence that cost them the game.But we for the most part were responsible for our own demise the officiating just magnified it.
Onwards and upwards though next weeks another week I'm xpecting a Jeykl & Hyde turnaround because I agree with JR in the presser this performance isn't who we are.
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