Eels Attack Analysis

[Poupou Escobar]

It was 38 to 10 with 10 to go against Souths.

And in the finals we led them by 10 at halftime. The whole 80 minutes counts. You can't pick and choose which ten minute sections to leave out.

 

[Chipmunk]

And in the finals we led them by 10 at halftime. The whole 80 minutes counts. You can't pick and choose which ten minute sections to leave out.

When the score is 38 to 10 with 10 to go, the last 10 minutes isn't too important, as the result of who will win the match has already been decided. Had the result of the match by halftime in the Finals already been decided?

 

[Chipmunk]

Went to get my scripts at the chemist this morning, the pharmacist who I haven’t spoken to for 6 months at least , made a point of coming down with them. Can’t remember if I even spoke to him about footy before. He started by saying” we can’t just bash our way from our goal line to their try line”, then said how frustrating it was watching the Eels play.

That says how even people outside the obsessed like we can be , judge how we are playing. Hopefully it has become that obvious that minor changes need to be made to take us to the level required to take on the top 3 or 4 sides.

I presume you were wearing some kind of Par(r)aphernalia?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Wouldn't a better analogy be a Ferrari with shit handling and steering? Our team has a solid engine but sometimes in attack we end up spinning it into a ditch.

A better analogy would be a dump truck.

 

[IFR33K]

I think that's more a problem of the spine than the outside backs themselves. Give a player room and he'll look a lot better than if he's just making hit ups.

I’ve already mentioned Drowns game is limited. But maybe the coaching staff is happy with him. Not often do we look to attack out wide early. Our game plan is very basic. F^*k I’d love Brian smith back to help our attack.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

He was a tactical genius, but I think if he was at our club many of our most influential players would want to be elsewhere.

 

[IFR33K]

He was a tactical genius, but I think if he was at our club many of our most influential players would want to be elsewhere.

It’s almost a tragedy he never won a Comp. He always seemed to get average players to play above their capabilities.

 

[King-Gutho94]

Btw this is no excuse as our attack has always been the same but our first choice spine havent played together for 80 mins since round 8.

Round 9 - Mahoney knocked out after 30 mins
Round 10-12 - Dyl Brown suspended
Round 13 - Mahoney injured midway through 2nd half.
Round 14-17 - No Mahoney
Round 18-19 - no Moses

I do believe though we need to change the way we ruck it out. This one out rubbish is just physically draining and not sustainable.

Inside the 20m zone is just as frustrating there never seems any decent shape or players in motion. Look at penrith there are always players moving even if they dont have the ball. We stand back or stand still waiting for stuff to happen and then flat footed when players get the ball. Jnr paulo the other night near the try line ran over sam williams turned around to offload and no one was there so he had to take the tackle.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

When the score is 38 to 10 with 10 to go, the last 10 minutes isn't too important, as the result of who will win the match has already been decided. Had the result of the match by halftime in the Finals already been decided?

My point is that we can score against Souths when it matters as well as when it doesn't. Our problem against them is our defence. What this means is that (given our current roster) we need to try control the ball so they are less able to hurt us. Their kicking game makes that difficult though.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Look at penrith there are always players moving even if they dont have the ball.

To be fair, our pack is a lot bigger than theirs. We are experiencing the downside of building a roster for the power game. Our 2017 (and 2018) pack was much lighter and more hard working.

 

[Happy MEel]

Do you realise how stupid you sound. When we lost to Souths, they were below us on the table.

Lol. Ok, so the way you worded your statement could be taken as the current ladder or the ladder at the time. However, even if we take your approach for the Souths game the stats then come out as 1-1 for teams above us and 12-4 for teams below us. The “stupid” ball is firmly back in your court.

 

[Happy MEel]

No more stupid than any of the other logical fallacies and inaccuracies thrown up after a loss. You are correct that we go better against worse sides (because duh) but it might seem that it's the other way around (without the stats to guide us) because we make our memories emotionally, and expectation is a big part of that.

Hang on, the merkin said this:

We seem better at loosing to teams below us than above.

That’s all I was really responding to here. We go better against shitter teams, agreed. The stats back us up. This merkin thinks otherwise.

 

[eels_fan]

I found it very strange that in the post-match interview when asked where we went wrong, Gutho said we trying to go wide and around them too often.

at the ground, i think that’s the exact opposite. I lost count of how many times our wingers and centres were unmarked as Canberra double and triple teamed our forwards in the middle. We had zero shape when coming out of our half when opportunities were there, especially on our left side in attack. Some early spreads would have reaped dividends, or at least some easy metres. It was actually a strength of ours in the Titans game, but we completely put it away against Canberra. It’s all good chasing collisions, but when their are gaps or spaces to be exploited someone needs to be heads up enough to notice them and take their chances

 

[crocodile]

Lol. Ok, so the way you worded your statement could be taken as the current ladder or the ladder at the time. However, even if we take your approach for the Souths game the stats then come out as 1-1 for teams above us and 12-4 for teams below us. The “stupid” ball is firmly back in your court.

You can split hairs all day if you want. I didn't mention anything about the ones we've won. Simple fact is that we've lost more games to those below us than to those above.

 

[Gary Gutful]

whatever u want. I’m sure u get the jist of my jibe

No I dont. It’s normally pretty loose. Looser than a goose.

 

[Gary Gutful]

Went to get my scripts at the chemist this morning, the pharmacist who I haven’t spoken to for 6 months at least , made a point of coming down with them. Can’t remember if I even spoke to him about footy before. He started by saying” we can’t just bash our way from our goal line to their try line”, then said how frustrating it was watching the Eels play.

That says how even people outside the obsessed like we can be , judge how we are playing. Hopefully it has become that obvious that minor changes need to be made to take us to the level required to take on the top 3 or 4 sides.

Good to see Brett Kenny finally found a job as tablet dispenser.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Hang on, the merkin said this:

That’s all I was really responding to here. We go better against shitter teams, agreed. The stats back us up. This merkin thinks otherwise.

Well he said "seem better", not "are better". Just like how so many merkins think we can't score tries. If you look at the stats we definitely can, but like every team we score more against weaker defences and less against better defences.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I found it very strange that in the post-match interview when asked where we went wrong, Gutho said we trying to go wide and around them too often.

at the ground, i think that’s the exact opposite. I lost count of how many times our wingers and centres were unmarked as Canberra double and triple teamed our forwards in the middle. We had zero shape when coming out of our half when opportunities were there, especially on our left side in attack. Some early spreads would have reaped dividends, or at least some easy metres. It was actually a strength of ours in the Titans game, but we completely put it away against Canberra. It’s all good chasing collisions, but when their are gaps or spaces to be exploited someone needs to be heads up enough to notice them and take their chances

I'd say Gutherson was referring to being unable to convert possession to points inside the attacking 20. Inability to get out of our half is also a thing, but was that really a problem in this game?

 

[Happy MEel]

Well he said "seem better", not "are better". Just like how so many merkins think we can't score tries. If you look at the stats we definitely can, but like every team we score more against weaker defences and less against better defences.

But we “aren’t better”. That’s all I’ve said. I’m not sure why we’re having this discussion.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

No, and if we were there would be fewer teams below us on the ladder to lose to. Imagine what Alanis Morissette would say about that!