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 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!
How about our 9s, grant played faster and quicker. By the time Smith or Dasilva got the ball the storms defence was already in our players face hence why we couldn't ball play. We need speed in the play the ball and play shapes. We kept going wide and short, but when we went wide wide out through the back we had space. Why were we playing too short and not going set for set on inside/outside kind of balls. It'd make harry grant tierd, yet we failed to capatilise that. If moses couldn't do that last night we are screwed for the rest of the season. Ryley Smith too many wide passes where he should get prop running on and angle for a quick play, this is where moses needs to be around the ruck and not Hopgood/Debelin or walker to ball play as first recive its so easy to read. I truly don't understand the IQ of the players sometimes, if grant is killing us. We get him in Attack by playing shape and we played fuck all shape. Hence why their middles and their spine murder us. Simple footy man, and parra for some reason in their 40 years can't play simple.
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.
True what you saying Coryn, nevertheless the club needs to organise a sit down with relevant nrl officials.That adjudicating last night was putrid!
We fans don't deserve that shit either!
Absolutely EA, and the drop of heads was inexcusable. That's the 2024 Eels.
But I feel a lot are underestimating the impact both physically & mentally of having the ruck gifted to a team as good as the Storm.
It's a freight train, and the snowball effect is huge.
Even if we excuse the 6-agains, how do we excuse the sin bin? The fact Kelly can apparently defy physics with the direction he passes the ball? The HIA for a player 'not hit in the head'?
Im not one to jump on referees, rarely do, however the first half last night was corruption, and we knew it was likely coming. If we accept that as fans we are accepting that we deserve to be treated different to the top sides.
Im not excusing anything else of course, and we obviously should be very disappointed with what the Eels dished up.
I still believe this team makes the 8 and when we play the Storm in Sydney, I think we'll have our answer on how big a difference the ruck makes against a team like Storm.
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.
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