Just in case you needed to feel some of that good old fashioned Eels disappointment on a by week, have a read of this article:
Brilliantly written as always from the RL Eye Test, but far out does it strike at the heart. Here's a flavour of the article just to whet the appetite:
Agile middles with good lateral mobility are worth a premium, and the Eels don’t really have any of them. They have an excellent forward pack for the late 2010s, but an abysmal one for the mid 2020s.
Ah man it sucks to be an Eels fan.
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It's a interesting topic how we or the game is being played this one.As I always thought leading and being first in how you play was the ideal scenario.Being a follower and trying to keep up and copy you were pretty much gone also.
I like the boxing analogy styles make fights if you are the same same as above your chasing it regardless.
I like the fact we play a older skool style but as we've seen there's limitations to it.
This comes again to how we and others are built which again effects how you play.
I see this in Union also there's alot of copy cat coaching and same same style not much innovation comes out of it just a precession of the above.
The teams with the best back 5 power game currently are Penrith, Roosters, Sharks. In all 3 of those sides the forwards barely touch the ball on their side of halfway. It's a great plan if used correctly. It's safe by maintaining ball control, it shares the workload and it's highly effective.
BA wants to play this same style but we simply do not have the roster to do so. Yet we persist thus blowing out our middles. It's no mystery why we collapse in the 2nd half and give up more line breaks than literally any other side. Manly are a great example on how to tweak their attack to suit their player roster. (Manly also have defensive issues and don't have the roster to contend this year either)
Winning definitely fixes everything. It's the cure-all for any professional sports team. However my view of this side and this club is not making the 8 this year, it's making strategic steps to get us to winning a premiership. We're getting further and further away from that goal. Change is defintiely needed!!
This is the team that BA built and its come back to bite him in the ass.
He wanted a forward heavy roster as that's the only game plan he knows.
If we want to win a premiership, we need to lighten our forward heavy roster, strengthen our non existent backline and hire a coach who actually has the tactical nous to utilise the entire squad and not just the forwards.
Last season? Mate we've learnt nothing from the last 30 years!
Good clubs evolve their team lists, avoiding the "window" from closing. Our club have a habit of building up teams to eventually compete for a premiership and then keep the faith in that team for years afterwards hoping they can do it again. We do not evolve. Our recruitment and retention has been horrible for the past 30 years.
By doing this, we take our eye off the future and we are unable to transition our youth to first graders AT OUR CLUB. We are seeing it right now. Many players from our SG ball winning side will leave us for other clubs because we are hanging on to players that should have never re-signed with us. Like Sivo, Lane, Matterson. Hell, even RCG and Paulo! Our current team is outdated. It's a good 2010's team. Not a good 2020's team.
The Coach, Mark O'Neil and senior management need to be held accountable.
Our middles aren't the real problem, it's our edge forwards.
Lane peaked in 2022 and has never had good lattrell movement, he is more suited to the middle than an edge and either needs to move there or be moved on, probably both.
Matterson is another that doesn't have great lattrell movement for an edge forward and plays his best footy closer to the middle.
Cartwright is our best edge forward when he is in the type of form he was last season and this season before his injury, he is really our only true edge forward.
Tuilagi has been good in patches but also looks more like a middle than an edge forward. This us a noticeable trend under BA, he likes edge forwards that can play middle and are usually more suited to the middle than an edge.
We need a couple of more genuine edge forwards, the type that can play centre if need be during a game not the type BA prefers that can play middle.
Fix our edges and the talk about our middles disappears.
Niukore was perfect for that backrow/centre spot.
I think our hooker is also a major concern in defence. We need a leader in defence that sets the line speed, makes his tackles and cleans up all the scraps in defence. Someone like a Mitch Kenny or Robson.
Nuikore is the type of edge forwards we need, I wonder if we could get home back.
They tried to sign Briton Nikora when Nuikore left.
We need players who plays primarily for the love of game, who has passion for it and wanted to win - not just because of the fat salaries they are receiving. Look at Sivo and Lane, there was a massive change in the way they play,mtheir hit-ups and tackles.
Change in Sivo was noticeable after he got a knee injury during a Manly game. After that, he is a different player. Me thinks that he realised that he gets a very serious injury, his ability to earn NRL money is gone. Being the breadwinner of his family, who can blame him
With Lane, noticeable change this year - maybe because his heart is no longer being a player and avoiding getting a brain injury. Remember he just completed his Phsychology studies. He maybe wants more to be professional psychologist and not an NRL player. Safe from brain injuries.
Us as fans, can see these changes, what about the coaches and the board. It is upon them to questions these players who are not performing to what is expected of them.
Eels should hire players that are passionate in winning, not only with the fat salaries.
Don't worry. According to NRL site, we have a guy in Flegg on a Development contract who is getting upgraded to NRL next year.
Sam Tuivaiti ...
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