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
Great summary EA!
one thing I'd like to know is there anywhere a match count of six agains is shown in stats. Coz honestly felt like they could have set a record last night.
Leadership lacked severely when we needed it, it was nowhere when we desperately needed direction. Seriously looked like a team thst had never even met each other. As Ryles admitted in presser (to his credit), he will need to review his coaching preparation, which clearly was not right.
We were always going to lose that game after the Lomax BS. No one prepares a team for Round 1 like Bellamy, physically and mentally. We did seem a bit underdone and the repeated 6 agains just drained the tanks.
It's a bad result and some players hopefully just had their one bad game of the season. I didn't expect this result, but also didn't really expect to win. We have a spine that still has training wheels on, new combinations, up against the Storm at home in Round 1. Onwards to next week, we can only improve from here.
I'll also add that Ryles is still a rookie coach. We all learn by making mistakes. He is human. It's repeating them that usually gets my back up (like BA used to do all the time).
It's only based on one game but if Pezet continues to play like that, surely "the future is now" Jason Ryles will punt him? Defensively Pezet was dreadful and in attack he passed too early before he line, barely any straightening of the attack, permitting defenders to slide right. His combo with Kautoga & Kelly was shocking.
Both hookers were poor. Smith got bumped off and permitted line breaks multiple times and was consistently not square at marker. Both Smith and TDS gave poor service from dummy half.
Penisini simply misses one-on-one tackles he needs to make. Consistently. And he has feet for hands. Simmonson lost his temper a few times.
The forwards collectively pushed passes and lost the initial contact battle. Every single one of them, though Walker was the pick of the bunch. Williams continued to have too many moments where he lets a forward run by him.
I was at the ground and even Storm fans laughed at some absurd ref decisions, but the Eels have successfully AGAIN torched any possible confidence by being the worse team of round one.
Daz that's classic: "I was at the ground and even Storm fans laughed at some absurd ref decisions."
We kicked for 66m in the first half. When Manly upset the Storm 18-16 last year they kicked for over 850m.
17 - 3 sets completed between the 46th to 72nd minute. Hardly surprising the score went from 18-4 to 46-4 by the 66th. No ball. 17-8 Errors. One-eyed ref.
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