Trauma snowballing syndrome and the urge to blow things up isn’t just something buried in human DNA. It's now rebranded as “high standards". Forty Years can do that. Sometimes, all it takes is a few minutes.
But let’s park the emotion for a minute. What actually happened yesterday?
The good news? We fought. Fought hard. That’s two weeks back-to-back. Despite being undermanned, we’ve already used 28 players - the most in the comp - and have the worst injury toll in the game.
The bad news? We didn't stick to what works.
Foxlab shows we made 15-9 errors. That’s the game.
If you’re handing over that much ball, you’re not winning too many.
Fair dinkum. You could have a $17 million roster and a recruitment team featuring Jesus, Mary, Mohammed and Buddha. You’re still getting beat.
Even the Panthers lost 32-16 to the Dogs with 15-8 errors two weeks ago. The Storm made 13-9 errors and lost 48-6 to Souths this week.
Given the injury crisis and rebuilding roster and the fact we’ve been losing the yardage battle every week (see table above) and possession except for once (Broncos game), the adjustment isn't complicated. It's obvious. We have to kick longer, at least over 600 metres, chase hard, hold the ball, make no more errors than the opponents, and complete above 80%.
When we do that, we compete or win.
When we don’t, we lose, usually badly.
Yes, it's boring. It’s not revolutionary. It's not sexy. It just works.
In the first half, despite errors, we kept largely to that blueprint. The kicking game and chase was doing its job - close to 500 metres - was keeping things within possibility of an upset. We were still in the fight at 7-6. Hanging in by our finger nails.
But in the second half, we fell away from that. Kick metres dropped to around 240m. Errors kept piling up at critical moments in the wrong places. We invited Manly to "please enjoy almost unlimited possession and field position." Game over.
Emotions will point to the highlight reel.
Saab and Hopoate, right and left wingers, combining to slice through the middle.
Garrick making a break on our left edge.
Sean Russell missing a tackle and getting steamrolled.
Oka bashing Walker out of the game and running over blokes like he’s late for a Sunday roast.
But cold-hard stats tell a deeper story.
The game didn’t slip away gradually.
Thirteen Minutes of Choas
It snapped. Between the 50th and 63rd.
The score went from 7-6 to 27-6.
4 tries in 13-minutes.
Lights out.
But that thirteen minutes of chaos didn’t happen in isolation.
It sat in within a mammoth 20-minute momentum swing. Almost one long fatigue-feast of a death zone.
Between the 46th and 66th.
Possession was almost 80% against us.
13 /15 vs 2 / 4 sets
87% v 50% completions
It all kicked off with a single error.
Then the avalanche.
5 errors
2 restarts
1 penalty
1 sin bin
4 tries
22–0
We didn't lose the game over 80 minutes.
For 67 minutes, we led 18-11.
Uncomfortable Truths
When momentum shifts nowadays, it doesn’t just shift, it accelerates. One error becomes two. Two becomes a set restart. Then a penalty. Then fatigue. Then someone’s in the bin. Then you’re watching wingers carve up the middle with your head spinning.
Naturally, the You're Fired Posts were inevitable. Sack R&R. Sack the Team. Sack Ryles. Sack the board. Sack the Club. Rebuild the club by Tuesday morning. Get Shane Richardson in, he'll bring us Galvin. Get Matt Cameron. He'll bring Ice and Talagi back along with Alamoti and Jenkins. Job Done. Who said running a $200m organization was hard and needed 5-year plans?
Right now, until we get troops back and new signings like Su'a, this team doesn’t have the punch or luxury of intricate playing loose or expressive footy for long periods. Or to look hot. We’ve got to stick to a simple blueprint, and it’s about as exciting as a trip to the dentist. Hard yakka.
We know exactly what works. We just don’t always stick to it. And when we don’t, we get thirteen minutes like that or worse.
Replies
Gus was literally fired from the Panthers. So yes, he was deemed not successful. Didn't mean he did nothing right, didn't mean he didn't play a big part in the success that followed. It did mean that he was deemed surplus requirements and he was moved on. The Panthers leadership did what needed to be done and success followed swiftly afterwards.
Now apply the same logic to MON Daz.
Gus was sacked from the Panthers before he reached 8 years in the gig. Less time than MON has had. And Gus was already a legend of the game...yet even his "we trust you'll come good" ran out faster than MONs. So even if MON had the profile, experience and track record of Gus Gould (lol, as if), he still should be sacked according to the Gus comparison.
The reality is MON did a few years at the Tigers when they were at their worst, got the sack for misconduct, and came to the Eels where he has remained for 8 inglorious years. That is his resume. This is the guy who is GM of our Football department.
Hardly Gus Gould. And yet he's outlasted Gus at the Panthers. It's sad that it has come to cherrypicking to try to get people to see the bleeding obvious, but at the same time let's not ignore the bleeding obvious. MON was an experiment in desperation at the time he was hired, and one that we seem to be clinging on to for some absurd reason almost a decade later despite a very average return on investment and a pretty poor current state performance of his department overall.
There's no way to polish this turd into a diamond. We've been trying for nigh on a decade and all we have are hands that smell like crap and a turd that is still very much a turd, just a decade older.
There are another 13 teams without a premeriship winning roster. Does that mean those CEO 's are also bad operators?
The Dragons just sacked their GM of Football. The Tigers brought Shane Richardson in to revitalise their roster. They're currently in 3rd place. It's an important role and which greatly effects the performance of the NRL side.
It's a great question Fiddy. Just because someone doesn't have the best results doesn't mean they have the worst. There is a whole range in between. Are our results acceptable under the current administration? It depends how far back you go.
What if Mutts, bare with me, we tried to and he said no he wants to see what Perth offers? Crazy to think that could have been a possibility.
You cannot force players to sign. A lot of players have been signing shorter deals in order to hear interest from Perth and PNG.
Russell leaving is what it is. What it does show is a consistency around our R&R. Who is Russell's replacement btw?
But what consistency? He tested the market, as a lot of players are doing, he got a 4 year deal for $2.6mil over those years. He couldn't turn that down. Now Russell is a steady player but similar to Opacic you can find a Russell type easier than you can find a Farnworth or Crichton on the market. Doesn't mean all work out but if looking there are more of those types than the stars.
Whoever we are after or see as the replacement wont be realised til the off-season. We normally do not, as a club, announce signings during the year. If we do they come out of nowhere with very little to no media talk around it. But his replacement has nothing to do with the fact he was given an offer it would have been crazy for the R&R to match and him wanting to see what Perth had to offer is not the fault of R&R either.
I reckon Russell might have been still concussed from that Tigers match. He is off his game as compared to his previous performance before the concussion. Unfortunately, he was again hit hard on the head by Olakuato that was missed by the field referees. Olakuato was belatedly on report for that high tackle.
Muttman, some did suggest paying overs for Russell. And you endorsed their messages. FFS
You think because he had one bad game yesterday it somehow vindicates the decision to let him leave. Until he got knocked out he was our best centre this season. It's a bold strategy to let our best players leave year after year. FFS.
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