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
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!
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.
Rubbish. Have a look at the lopsideed scores the whole round. Manly had 11 mins straight of possession before Canberra got the ball. The NRL has called for this type of officiating and many teams were not ready for it. If you put teams under load, fatigue builds and panic ensues to wrestle momentum back causing more errors. Hopefully the NRL returns to normal this week, and the subjective 6 again rule is blunted. Not saying we played well, Im saying the NRL is f*cking around with the rules too much.
Daniel Mortimer,
Restarts are worse than penalities as there is no break in the clock, and no time to reset the defensive line, creating a vicious cycle of momentum and fatigue.
Actually, for most of the Storm v Eels game errors were equal.
Errors blew out in a 30-minute period: 22'-36' (4-0), then 55'-71' (5-0) when fatigue started to have an effect, especially in the second half when the score ballooned out from 18-4 at half-time to 46-4 by the 66'.
For 65 minutes of the game, restarts were 0-8, penalites 2-3 to the Storm. During that time, we also got 2 sins bins against us, lost our fullback to a head-high crusher HIA (for no penalty), and lost a captain's challenge that was plainly wrong.
We got all our restarts and the bulk of penalties at the back end of the first half and second half, when fatigue was at its highest. And also after the Storm had racked up their leads (18-4, 46-4).
Interestingly, Storm started making errors once the ref gave us restarts and penalties at the back of the first and second half.
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.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 13 Next