Eels Blogs

This is the story of two teams as seen from the perspective of a supporter - who like many other Eels supporters - was once virile and healthy with a full head of hair.

Unfortunately this intrepid supporter is now often found swallowing copious quantities of heart pills sloshed down with cases of wine, spirits and beer.

The once luxurious head of hair is now mostly thin wisps of grey and his knuckles are bumps. lumps and scarred from bashing walls and TV sets into dust.

Well, in view of all the gnashing of teeth and wrist slashing over last night's game lets look at the REAL cause for our dilemma.

It has surprised me the Eels have not had any salary cap problems for some years now seeing we seem to be able to field two entirely different teams in the same match.

Last night was no exception to this anomaly as two entirely different teams wore the BnG against our intrepid enemies the Dawgs.

First half team were not interested, very slow and didn't seem to care for most of the time they participated in a struggle they weren't all that interested in winning.

They were starved for the ball and copped their customary excess of imagined penalties and obviously preferred to remain in our own half where we felt secure and could wander around aimlessly to allow the Dawgs out to a handy lead.

Somehow during one of the interchange periods we managed to get our 2nd team onto the park for 3 minutes which resulted in some scintillating footy and a try.

This team was immediately replaced with our starting team and we went back to our own half and remained there.

Then 2 minutes before half time we swapped to our 2nd team and Semi was put over in the corner from some very enterprising play and "The Magic" of Hayne.

Now perhaps our salary cap problem is not as bad as it could be because we do in fact retain some players in both teams.

Names and game input come from players like, Hayne, Sandow, Gower and a sprinkling of others who also seem to play in both teams.

THEN

The 2nd half team takes to the field.

Dawgs cannot get out of their own half in attack, no matter what they try - this team are tenacious in their defence and pressure the Dawgs relentlessly with speed off the line and excellent tackles. 

Ben Smith follows through on a kick chase and nails his man just metres outside the Dawgs goal line - he then makes the next TWO tackles in a row to pin them inside the 15 metre mark, and again the Dawgs struggled to make 35 metres in their set of 6.

This scenario is repeated set after set and the Dawgs are struggling to gain momentum.

However our 2nd half team are also lacking in attack but after sustained attacking attempts finally cross over for a 6 pointer.

GAME ON. Nearly 30 minutes to go and our 2nd half team are hitting their straps.

HOWEVER

Once again we have one of those interchanges whereby almost the entire 2nd half team are replaced by our 1st half team and we begin to crumble once again.

There is constant swapping between our 1st and 2nd half teams until around 10 minutes to go when it appears that the majority of our 2nd half team are back on the paddock.

In the end it is the 1st half team that have spent most of the time on the paddock and the game is ultimately lost.

Now to be fair to the 1st half team, they were flogged mercilessly by the Dawgs "secret" player who found all sorts of creative ways to stifle our efforts.

Professional fouls go unnoticed as do our players being stripped of the ball which is called a 'knock on" against us.

This team does have a propensity to drop their heads and acquiesce to the secret player's tactics and just go through the motions.

Our 2nd half team however do seem to have a bit more dedication and commitment and do not always allow the secret player to have his way and they remain competitive.

They play on regardless and keep trying, with an albeit limited attacking ability, producing rare glimpses of brilliance.

BA must accept full responsibility ofr the confusion of the fans in continueing to field TWO teams.

He must accept that either ONE team or the other is the one he will stick with.

He does have choices - he can have a Steve Kearney type team - he can have a Ricky Stuart type team - (both these coaches will be long remembered for their contributions to the Eels).........

OR

He can have his OWN team which seems to be the choice of the majority of the much maligned and long suffering Eels supporters.

How we have escaped investigation with having TWO teams is beyond me - but TWO teams we have and it is past time we settled on the team we really want playing for us and do away with the other all together.