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Eels in the media

Joshuatheeel

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Staff member
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19,581
Whatever Johns. The Roosters centres only got six carries each the other night. It's not so easy to get them early ball when your forwards aren't dominating.

knights tried last week, and commentary was suggesting they stuffed up the final pass without noting they didn’t do the work in the middle to go wide along with our defence putting pressure on their spine to make poor/rushed decisions
 

Gronk

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Staff member
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73,538
'Mentally weak' Eels no chance for NRL title until they toughen up, Phil Gould says
https%3A%2F%2Fimageresizer.static9.net.au%2F-k3QJHMfpJvFIBsY9unEeyeBFk8%3D%2F75x75%2Fsmart%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2Fe13ea063-2e67-448b-9d47-fdb3ceb958f5
By Tim Elbra
18 hours ago

High-flying Parramatta are no chance of becoming NRL premiers until they solve chronic problems with their mental toughness, Phil Gould says.

The legendary coach gave a searing appraisal of the Eels after their poor 22-18 loss to Manly, in which they gave an error-riddled performance despite entering the match atop the NRL ladder.

Gould said that Des Hasler's Manly side had exposed "weaknesses" in the Eels, including a long-term problem with managing hype.

Parramatta haven't won a premiership in 34 years and any success is always met with fervent excitement from the long-suffering army of blue and gold supporters.

https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F02b607e6-1eb8-4fc8-a2d1-1f0e7c0f4056

Manly's Marty Taupau scores a try against Parramatta after just two minutes on Saturday night. (Getty)
"I always have concern for the Eels because they're a team that can get blown away by the hype a little bit," Gould said on The Sunday Footy Show.


"They've sort of been cruising along, played a lot of their games here in Sydney at Bankwest [Stadium], now they're on the road a little bit. I thought they were pretty average against the Knights last week up in Newcastle and they certainly got to Manly with their heads off last night.

"From the opening whistle, you could see that Manly were there with a belief that they could beat this side. They'd spotted weaknesses in the Parramatta team and they just felt if they could make it hard enough, tough enough, fast enough, that Parramatta wouldn't come together.

"And they didn't come together. That's Parramatta's Achilles heel.

Gould said that Parramatta needed to focus on controlling their attitude, above all else. They conceded four soft tries to Manly in the first half, with Sea Eagles prop Marty Taupau scoring the opener after just two minutes.

"Most of this game, you're not ever going to get everything your way," Gould said.

"They're going to be times when the opposition is playing really well. You've got to be able to deal with that, you've got to [handle] oppositions coming after you.

"As [Eels coach] Brad Arthur said after the game, 'We want to be a top side, teams are going to come after us'. Well, you've got to be able to fend that away. You've got to be able to fend that off and still come over the top of them and get the victory.

"And Parramatta just can't do that. Their last 20 minutes in a couple of big games this year, they've been found wanting, and if you can take them to the hour mark and you're still in the contest, you're a really good chance of beating them because they just don't finish the game off strongly enough.

"That's a mental weakness, it's a fragility and it's something that's got to be fixed. Getting away and blowing away the bad sides and just beating them by big scores does not make you a great football team."

Manly inflicted only the second loss for Parramatta this season, following a respectable 24-10 defeat against reigning back-to-back premiers the Roosters in round six.

The first half fade-out against the Sea Eagles was uncharacteristic of an Eels defence that leads the NRL, with just 118 points conceded through 10 games; 11.8 per match.

Parramatta (+110) trail only the Roosters (+152) on points differential. They next face Wests Tigers on Thursday night at Bankwest Stadium, after Michael Maguire's side thrashed Brisbane 48-0 last Friday.

https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/parram...a-eagles/bfac2d1a-7337-44be-b7a4-1cef3ff9b2b2
 

Gronk

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73,538
No key playmaker would be most teams downfall. Mitchell Moses was not mentioned once.

How would Melbourne go without Cam.
Manly without DCE ?

Plus we played Manly with a 2 man bench. 1 man bench once we lost Nathan Brown*.

Gower and Steffano played 10 mins each with minimal contribution.
 

hineyrulz

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148,280
I’d hate to say it but he’s right. We did have plenty out but we turned up with a piss poor attitude. The Eels side of the last few years would of lost by 30 at least they showed plenty of resolve to fight back.
 

Soren Lorenson

First Grade
Messages
6,807
Look, I see where he is coming from, but a couple of statements there just don't make logical sense. Eg we don't finish games strongly. Tell that to the Panthers and Newcastle and Manly. And willfully ignoring Panthers favourable draw damages his credibility in my eyes. I hope BA puts a photo of him on the dressing room wall. Merkin.
 

hineyrulz

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148,280
Look, I see where he is coming from, but a couple of statements there just don't make logical sense. Eg we don't finish games strongly. Tell that to the Panthers and Newcastle and Manly. And willfully ignoring Panthers favourable draw damages his credibility in my eyes. I hope BA puts a photo of him on the dressing room wall. Merkin.
At least it won't have to be laminated like at Hindy’s house.
 

Joshuatheeel

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19,581
I don’t mind Gus, but gee there is plenty wrong with that article ........

Easy draw...panthers haven’t left Sydney or crossed the bridge
Poor last 20 mins, didn’t we finish strongly in tight matches against panthers, Knights, raiders (Didn’t we not finish the stronger side in extra times). Even this week we came home strong.

talking of the panthers didn’t they choke twice against top 4 contenders in the second half against us and the knights.

dont we have a pretty good second half defensive record ?

Is he drunk or what:

"Most of this game, you're not ever going to get everything your way," Gould said.

"They're going to be times when the opposition is playing really well. You've got to be able to deal with that, you've got to[handle] oppositions coming after you.

ah ok losing Moses, still beat Raiders, down by 10 still beat Panthers, lose Paulo and Drown HIA still beat Knights.
 

Twizzle

Administrator
Staff member
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150,734
what a load of shit

some guy with no medical training thinks he is able to psychologically analyse all 17 of the Eels players without even speaking to them ?

yeah, sounds about right, all hail mighty Gus, anything to sell a few clicks
 

84 Baby

Referee
Messages
28,032
I feel the Captain Obviousness shows he’s actually afraid of us. And I feel we are well aware of our shortcomings and I’m more confident than ever we are working to fix them rather then being troubled by them
 

T.S Quint

Coach
Messages
13,729
I actually think Gould is trying to get onto the Eels’ heads, making them think they are mentally weak. Making them second guess themselves.
He’s afraid of the Eels.

In any case it’s probably a good thing if we are starting to get written off. Being the underdog is a better place to be.
 

Tooooks

Bench
Messages
3,115
His comment about our last 20 minutes in a couple of big games is right. Roosters blew us away in the last 20 minutes. We let Raiders in despite leading by 12 with 5 on the clock.

The defensive attitude in the first half the other night was abysmal. I think there is a mental fragility there, but I also think with a full squad the side will keep improving and keep getting tougher.
 

84 Baby

Referee
Messages
28,032
I’d hate to say it but he’s right. We did have plenty out but we turned up with a piss poor attitude. The Eels side of the last few years would of lost by 30 at least they showed plenty of resolve to fight back.
Yep. It may have been too late but we got off the bus before full time. There were games even last year where not only didn’t we get off the bus, but by halftime the bus was already heading back to Parra
 

hineyrulz

Post Whore
Messages
148,280
His comment about our last 20 minutes in a couple of big games is right. Roosters blew us away in the last 20 minutes. We let Raiders in despite leading by 12 with 5 on the clock.

The defensive attitude in the first half the other night was abysmal. I think there is a mental fragility there, but I also think with a full squad the side will keep improving and keep getting tougher.
I still think we are 12 months away from being the genuine article. Performance’s like Saturday night just proves it. But hopefully Gus’s dribble will spur them on to prove the merkin wrong.
 

84 Baby

Referee
Messages
28,032
His comment about our last 20 minutes in a couple of big games is right. Roosters blew us away in the last 20 minutes. We let Raiders in despite leading by 12 with 5 on the clock.

The defensive attitude in the first half the other night was abysmal. I think there is a mental fragility there, but I also think with a full squad the side will keep improving and keep getting tougher.
You can either analyse every second of every game and say whether they were acceptable or not, or you can look at effort over the course of a game and season. I reckon we’re doing the latter, controlling our effort over 80 minutes rather than going 110% from kickoff, recognising when to accelerate and more importantly how to slow down. In that, I think there’s only been 3 times when we haven’t been in control of our effort:
1. Rorters game where we let off the effort too much.
2. Canbra game where we closed up shop too early.
3. This week where we didn’t get off the bus.
Every other bad moment in games has either been individual lapse in concentration or a big effort by the opposition. If Gus or anyone wants to think this is indicative of some irreversible problem, that’s fine, I’m sure the players aren’t going to listen to him anyway
 

84 Baby

Referee
Messages
28,032
I still think we are 12 months away from being the genuine article. Performance’s like Saturday night just proves it. But hopefully Gus’s dribble will spur them on to prove the merkin wrong.
We don’t want to be 12 months away. We either want 3 months away or 15 months away. Being perfect now is useless if it means you aren’t perfect at end of season
 
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