Eels V. Storm, Game Thread

[parra-matters]

the only positive i can see would be if we annouced the signing of duffie and cronk this week.

 

[Joely01]

Please can't this game just end..

 

[oldmancraigy]

Duffie Cronk AND widdop??

 

[hineyrulz]

And Widdop can kick goals too.

 

[Glenn]

Hayne is not 100%

Been struggling since the cheap shot Quinn put on him.

 

[Runaround Man]

How important are a quality 1, 7 and 9?

The storm have Australian players in all these positions

 

[Eels Dude]

It took Bellamy a few yrs before the Storm were competitive. It helps when you ahve the best spine in the comp by a mile. look at our spine???? 0 creativity bar Hayne.

The lowest position Melbourne have finished on the ladder (excluding last year) with Bellamy as coach is 6th.

 

[Forty20]

Great run by Loko.

 

[El Diablo]

It is said you learn more from a loss than a win.

We are learning plenty today.

Next week we will be better

no we won't

this is a very ordinary side that should be spoon faves

 

[Kornstar]

Which nuffies?

Let's not forget that this is the finest collection of youngsters that money could buy (literally).

They didn't just cheat to get Slater/Smith/Inglis/Cronk locked away.
They cheated to get Blair etc as well.

Then they cheated to get guys like Duffie/Widdop to the club in the first place.

And the 'penalty' for the cheating was to change the records, but pretty well let them keep the fruit of the cheating...


hypothetical example (using made up numbers!):
Smith gets paid $500k per season - the cheating salary was $500k + $300k in club organised endorsements/cap rorts
Instead of being forced to count him as $800k against this years cap (and so be forced to lose a lot of mid level talent AND young talent) the Storm are allowed to ditch the $300k amount and just count him as $500k.

Cheats prosper... hate the Storm!

Brian Norrie, Todd Lowrie, Hinchliffe, Quinn, Turner, new players like Duffie, Neilson, Widdop etc.

Regardless off cheating, his structure works well with any player!!

We look as s*it as last year even though we have better "structures" in place this year!!!

 

[Chipmunk]

In the past few weeks our right side defence has been pretty poor. This week we have Mortimer, Loko and Burt on the left side and as you do, you isolate them and run plenty of plays at them and show them up for the poor defenders they are...Not sure Id be putting these 3 together..

On a positive note, Loko actually looks pretty impressive in attack. I would be perservering with him.....

Im lost with what the teams structure was with Mitchell off the field and Robson into dummy half....Did we move to a one-half structure...surely not....C'mon, what is going on.....

 

[fish eel]

Brian Norrie, Todd Lowrie, Hinchliffe, Quinn, Turner, new players like Duffie, Neilson, Widdop etc.

Regardless off cheating, his structure works well with any player!!

We look as s*it as last year even though we have better "structures" in place this year!!!

We also lost plenty of players last year and arguably replaced them with players of a lesser standard or didnt replace them at all.

 

[mrpwnd]

Brian Norrie, Todd Lowrie, Hinchliffe, Quinn, Turner, new players like Duffie, Neilson, Widdop etc.

Regardless off cheating, his structure works well with any player!!

We look as s*it as last year even though we have better "structures" in place this year!!!

You don't like Kearney, do you?

 

[Kornstar]

no we won't

this is a very ordinary side that should be spoon faves

With what is looking like a very overrated coach too.....

Only Bennett could save this club, we should be aiming for him with a last ditch 3 million dollar offer!

 

[Kornstar]

We also lost plenty of players last year and arguably replaced them with players of a lesser standard or didnt replace them at all.

So did Melbourne and they look BETTER this year!

 

[Agent Mulder]

Did Robson even play today?

 

[boxhead]

You don't like Kearney, do you?

Before the Four Nations ended he was harping on about how much Kearney sucked.

Look I won't comment on all the bad, really all you can say is that we were completely outclassed by a team that probably would have put 30+ against any other side bar the Dragons, but one thing I noticed;

Jacob Loko must stay. He was easily our most threatening player and for his first-grade debut I think he can be proud of himself. People were asking how he would handle it, and for an 18 year old kid, he did very well. Some great one-on-one tackles, some busting runs. Keep him there and let him develop.

Another thing; Jarryd has to start running it with more pace and injecting himself more. His final run towards the end there that resulted in a mistake was an example of how dangerous and threatening he looks when he runs it at pace and with determination. He needs to do more of that, and I would suggest play a lot more involved like he did last year, at least that way we will look more threatening.

 

[ElectricEelMan]

I hope Kearney sticks with Loko. If so, he will be our most dangerous outside back (if he isn't already).

I like the look of the play-making skills of Barba in the U-20's ... though he isn't nearly ready yet for first grade just yet, he would be our third most dangerous attacking weapon if brought in and would take a lot of the load off Hayne. But I don't think he is quite ready ... lets hope he makes HEAPS of progress over the next few months.

 

[fish eel]

So did Melbourne and they look BETTER this year!

Yeah, they've got 3 clear world class players in three critical position - 1,7,9. We've got Hayne and then blokes that would struggle to make FG at any other club in those positions.

Then they've got blokes like Widdup, Blair etc who have it all over their opposite number in our side.

Perhaps they look much better because, they actually do have a much better side on paper?

 

[Kornstar]

You don't like Kearney, do you?

Nothing against him, more how overrated it appears that he was.....our board presented him as the second coming, not looking good for them and their promises at the moment.

Good luck to him but I haven't seen much change in attitude from last year to this year!