Replies

  • How did we not win a comp with this team?

  • I hope campbell doesnt see this

  • I think we needed a couple of years with this team; for me 98 could have been the one; and i guess we could say 1999-2001. You have to take your chances and i go back to 05 when we got dusted by the Cows and Wests were champs.

    • I think the 1999 team was the best we had during the time we had the Bulldog defectors (1996-2000). We should have won the comp that year

  • We've actually had 5 really good sides since the early  1980's. The first peaked in 86 the second 1997/98 the third 2001 the fourth 2007 (with the end of 2009 being  a brief renaissance) and the last is peaking now hopefully. People talk about the eels being crap for 3 decades but that's not true at all and we should have won  at least  2 comps in the years  between 1997 to 2009. We lost to the storm a lot in finals in that period and we are still losing to them! Winning  a comp is about timing as much as anything. I was watching the 2003 panthers win where they came out of nowhere to win it and then faded again. The Roosters side they beat wasn't amazing. It was a good side but not great. We seemed to come up against some really good opposition in the big ones. In hindsight the 2001 knights and 2009 Melbourne sides were 2 of the best ever assembled. I'm Melbournes case illegally. Early on we also choked a lot under Smith, can't deny that. 

     

    • Yep, between 2006 and 2009 we played eight finals matches for five wins and three losses. All three losses were to the Storm, who were found to be rorting the cap with a team full of internationals during that period.

    • We should have won it in 2005 and the team that did fits that category of nothing special. Dont get me wrong the tigers were good but not a salary cap suspicious team of rep superstars, and look what happened to them in the years that followed. That loss to the cowboys was probably more disappointing (and ridiculous) than the one everyone remembers 1998 vs bulldogs.

    • This reply was deleted.
      • Mick that 2000 final i agree - we just needed some more composure for my taking, and the game was reasonably tight, and as you said the Broncs had an origin type team. One thing B Smith did was compete against the Broncs and the following yr we knocked them out of the final. He was unlucky in my view B Smith not to win a big final.

        That roosters game was amazing and i reckon our dummy half Dennis Moran had a good game; we made some errors but we pumped Easts in the end, and the same for Pennies. Our pack so young with Cayless, Hindmarsh x 2, Ryan, Vella and Dymock as leader. And a younf backline from memory with Pj Marsh and Wagon and Stu Kelly.

         

        • This reply was deleted.
          • Yes same here mate; he always got the best out of some of the guys who had second chances so to speak and his role with juniors was superb. I also think 2005 was v frustrating and things went off from there. He was at the club for a long time - and did well. For me the 1998 semi against Norths was superb when we muscled up in that 5-10 min period and smashed them; that was start of a superb several yrs in the finals.He is a smart man...and i think was with the Warriors? unless he has been moved on.

             

This reply was deleted.

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