It has been clear to see that the Eels haven't played there best football over the past month. Hopefully this is due to the coaching staff allowing the players to taper off mid season before getting them up to peak at finals time. It's near impossible for a team to hold top form and condition for many weeks. Ideally, you want to start the season strongly and get enough wins on the board so a mid season taper off period is an option. The Eels have done that. The problem is, is this mid season slump in form by design or is it something else?
The greatest exponent of perfect timing was Bart Cummings with his Melbourne Cup record. With 12 cup wins Bart was the master. The perfect example was Barts 2008 winner, Viewed. On the 1st of November ( only 3 days before the cup ) Viewed ran 11th of 11 starters, beaten by 7 lengths. Come the Tuesday and at 40/1, Bart had his horse primed for the day perfectly and he got the money. This is the race I hate the most as I was on the second horse, Bauer, for plenty at 26/1. I still strugle to separate Viewed and Bauer in the photo from the race and apparently, Bauer ran the quicker time as the race time is judged by something in the saddle.
Anyway, do you think the Eels slump at the moment is by design or something else?
Viewed is the on the inside and Bauer is on the outside. That's as close as it get's.
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Here is the full 2008 cup.
It's definitely not by design Slip but it's a very real thing that the coaching staff are very aware of.
The secret as a supporter is to hold your nerve and ride it out without shitting yourself. They will come out the other side all the better for the lull.
*lol
*lull
*lil
I feel its by design. Look at the training pics over the last month. The boys are laughing and having fun, not too serious about training. Then look at the pics from this week. The boys are full of focus in thier training. I think we will see the boys turn up this week.
My thoughts on the panthers are, they have been playing very good football for a young team. However, can they maintaing that intensity for the whole season? They have not had any real injuries like most other teams either. And as we all know, when you sit atop of the table for a while everyone starts talking about how good you are and the players start to believe it. I feel they will start to crumble before finals.
Im happy where we sit, then take the competition lead back when we beat them 2 weeks out from finals
This is along the lines of how I see it Goose. They loosen the grip a bit thru the middle period of the comp, just drop the intensity a bit. I don't think they say "lets drop our performance level" but I reckon they throttle back a bit and the flatter performances follow. Saves a bit of fuel for when things need to be cranked up again in the coming weeks.
Like you I reckon we are travelling pretty well at the moment - one out one back :)
"One Out, One Back". The title of Snake's sex tape.
Agreed Kram, we came out of a heavy 4-6 game streak with some pretty tough games, then up against some "softer" opposition. That was when the intensity dropped a little, especially with some injuries creeping in. The good thing is that the team did enough to get the wins, which is all they really have to do at this stage. With the boost the team gets with some fresh players coming back from injury, it makes sense to step up the intensity and work on some other facets of the game, like putting a blowtorch to the opposition for 80min, just to prove to themsleves that they can do that. This will boost confidence that they can pile on points as needed. If the players have that mentality on Sunday we should see a very good game from the Eels.
lol looking at Penrith..Clearly is doing awesome job. Reminds me of EELS in 2001....