How incredible was our win over Manly tonight? Not only did we beat, but we smashed them - there was no competition. We seemed to have an endless rotation of aggressive forwards, busting up the middle and making way for the backs. I don't think there's a single weak link in the chain, except for maybe Paulo - he did one terrible pass to Radradra which went out and he also ran sideways a few times. His time on the bench may be coming to an end with Wicks in sight. In fact, we're almost like the Panthers of last year - a solid team with few stars.
I'm sure there will be a million blogs reviewing the game, so now to my point. Who else has been keeping an eye on the betting odds? We were never favorites to beat Manly. A week ago sportsbet had us at $2.30 - then a few days ago at around $1.95, then today both teams were even before the game at $1.90 or so. All the bookies think we're losers. The odds were even more extreme before we beat Penrith in the trial.
Most betting agencies place us at around 10th for this season (at least before beating Manly), even the odds of making the top 8 the same deal...
But the thing is, I followed the Eels quite closely last season and particularly over the off season - probably following the team more than I should admit to. The training that BA put the boys through, the USA trip and the all the videos and photo galleries... I'm in no doubt the Eels will make the top eight this year, with their solid team, few rep players and depth to cover injuries.
I find it strange that betting agencies just seem to go off the past, to set their odds. Parra were a bad team, who signed a few random people such as Wicks, Taka and Champion - and lost the best player in the world. They don't seem to take into account the new coach (with an awesome track record - check out his history before 1st grade), giving his team a proper full pre-season and further developing players, then giving the team a whole new playing structure.
Now, I don't want to encourage betting (as the house always wins), but I reckon you can't go wrong with the Eels this season.
Just a few days ago the odds for Eels beating the the Dogs next Friday were at $3.50... seriously WTF! betting on that game is now suspended lol! Looks like they need to recalculate and see where they went wrong haha...
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Totally agree with u - only two weeks ago I chucked 15 on the eels at 34 to win the comp - this is a sound bet imo - all I need is inglis to get injured and that bet looks very good
Definitely! Eels to make top 8, I think is a sure thing. And when it comes to the GF - who is really better than us? We just need a few other teams to lose their stars through Origin injuries (such as Inglis). I believe our forwards can match it with any team, certainly with the Dogs. That's why I couldn't believe the odds of $3.50 for us to win!
It's always a risk with betting, but damn it's tempting with the Eels this year! We can stick it to the doubters AND the bookies haha
Another 'safe bet' would be ANY game at Parramatta stadium this year
Haha... and that's the thing with betting on games. You get over confident in a team and then lose everything
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Although ecstatic with the result, Manly made us look better last night, especially in the first half.
Consistency is what I'm looking forward to the most.
Did Manly make us look better or did we make Manly look bad? We had a lot of dropped ball in those early stages, and we defended about 4 sets on our try-line before we conceded a try
Agree BnG, our defence out wide was very poor in the first half, if it was the manly of a few years ago they would have scored 4 tries in that half.
But taking away nothing from us, i thought we were great, the best attitude and aggression ive seen us play with in a long time, even Timmy was clearly fired up in his run ups, its mainly the huge influence choc has had on this team.
GP,
I'm happy with the win.
But we do have some weaknesses which will be exposed at times during the year.
All comes down to how hungry the team is.
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