Before tonight's round 17 clash against the Knights at Newcastle, I set my clock to around the 60-65th minute mark and made a note.
That's the time the Eels usually fade at the back end when Moses plays. It's worse without him. You have to set it to around the 50th when he doesn't play.
But when Moses scored a blazing try on the 60th, to get the Eels to the lead 20-16, there was hope this time it would different.
Alas, less than five minutes later the fade began. Right on schedule. Like Clockwork.
Two runaway tries to Bradmen Best (72' and 78') off two errors on our right edge made sure the normal programme resumed.
We have not won the back end of any game this year.
Tonight, we lost the last 15 minutes 18-6, three tries to one.
That's three straight games we've lost the back end, last 15 minutes or so, by a 12 point margin.
It's almost as if the Eels have a Ben Sanderson self-sabotaging switch etched into their psyche in a whacked-out version of Clockwork Orange.
In the post-game press conference, Trent Barrett pointed out the bunker was overly involved and the Eels were on the wrong side of a few decisions.
"We couldn't really get any luck at all with some of our calls. The bunker was involved in a lot of things tonight. We couldn't really get one."
"We're running out of players, and we have a lot of injuries at the moment, and we've got players playing out of position."
"The way they turned out, we saved so many tries, is a credit to their effort."
The last-placed Eels have the worst defence in the competition and are yet to win a game outside of Commbank. The Eels have only won 1 from their last 12 games outside Commbank (8%) and only 1 from their last 9 games (11%).
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It is so pathetic it seems that it can't be true ...yet is!
Only a complete overhaul of the squad can rectify the situation.
Poor conditioning and lack of mental strength to keep fighting. All comes down to being too comfortable and not pushed enough with BA
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Those 3 tries came from drop balls. Our cwntre and wings have caused all of them.
Long range tries happening because we have zero speed to do anything about it. Talagi is the slowest outside back in the comp.
Talagi had to turn and chase he's not expected to make that tackle on the drop ball
A lack of skill coupled with fatigue and hey presto - you have the last placed, bottom dwelling, spoon hunting Eels.
Damn pretenders taking their salaries under false pretence, some of them should be charged with impersonating an NRL player.
Mentally fragile since 1987.
Was at the game tonight and we had already lost the game by the time we got to our second set following the last Moses try.
Down by 2 with maybe 1-2 sets left in the game and half of our forwards didn't even make an effort to get back onside from the Knights kick. It honestly looked like they had conversed defeat as soon as we didn't score back to back after the last try.
Not sure if it was able to be seen in TV but looked like Lane, possibly RCG and others.
How do we expect to win in the dying minutes if there is no effort from half the team. Never been so disappointed as a Parra fan as I was today.
Even said to my brother that we weren't going to win without another try as we always need a 14 point buffer going into the last 20 mins to have any chance once we concede the obligatory two tries!
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