Eels V. Storm, Game Thread

[parra-matters]

I can't believe 3P let the club get into this state on thier watch.

 

[The Omen]

outplayed and outclassed

there is no play making out there for us .. just one ups and the odd ball goes wide only we end up running sideways and not gaining any ground

Hayne is not 100% and that's not from the knocks he took today but from the start of the season , he doesn't look interested at all

Slater 1 Hayne 0 after today.
Helps though when you have guys running decoys which creating gaps,the play is going forward and you are backing up the runner (Slater does this so well)

 

[Bigfella]

Why don't you go into a private room with your Daniel Anderson poster and leave the rest of us alone?

 

[cureme]

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.

Yep, Loko looked good with limited opportunities. And I agree on Barba, looked sharp in the u/20's today (which you couldn't say about any of the current FG squad). Maybe still a bit on the small side for FG yet.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

This is shows what a tough job Kearney has. Trying to transform the way the side plays while at the same time rebuilding the squad.

When you look at the players that we lost from last year, Cayless, Mateo, Tahu, Keating, Grothe, Inu, whilst opinion on here is divided about some of those guys, it's without a doubt IMO that the guys that came into the club arent a patch on those blokes.

Should we go back to a more ad lib style? With who, is what I'd ask. We plaed our best ad lib footy when Cayless was passing before the line and Mateo was running amok. REally doubt ad lib footy suits the blokes we have.

Finally some common sense. Gee we were just beaten by the 2nd best side in the comp. I think most of us accept it is unlikely we will win the com this year. Also most agree we have the worst squad in the last 5 years. Gee give Kearney some time. If we played ab lib football this afternoon the score would have been at least 60 nil. I know most would disgree but there were some positives from this afternoon:

- on the very few occasions we had the opportunity to attack the oppositions line we looked dangerous
- while the side had a few poor ref decisions the side remained discplined without blowing up
- The commitment was there, all players tried very hard
- our wing / centre defence was a lot better then the last few weeks
- Loco showed same nice touches
- Aktins looked good
- On our attack, we didn't just hit it up on every tackle in our halve. We spreaded the ball a few times
- we used our third string hooker which doesn't help

The side is being build from the bottom up, improvements will come slowly but surely

 

[Kornstar]

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.

Get it right, I said he was overrated back then, nothing has changed in my mind.

Have absolutely nothing against him, I wish him well.

 

[Parraren]

Loko had a real go today.

Sure he made some errors, but the effort and determination were there. You could see he was giving 100% in everything and thats exactly what you want from a young kid on debut.

Well done.

 

[Snoochies]

Would he make any difference for the better?

Nah, I just thought I'd just throw something out there randomly.

But be nice to have some direction out there, the hot potato for the last 3 seasons hasn't really done too much.

 

[hineyrulz]

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!!!

Nuffies????

 

[Joshuatheeel]

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!!!

FMD gee you want the side to go from sh*t to the top in a off-season and 4 games. Of course the Storm's structure works they have been doing it for 5 to 6 years. I ask you this question would the storm played as good as they did today if Smith was no in there side ? no they would not.

Kearney comes to the eels has no say in recruitment and is expected to have a finely tuned structure !!! ha ha ha

Now have a look at the key players that have responsibility for our structure;

- Hayne enough said. He is as good as Slater
- Half back, Robson with about 40 NRL games under his belt who has as much skill as a front row against Cronk a AUST / QLD rep
- Hooker our third string hooker with about 5 games against Smith one of the best player in the world

Gee it will take time. Bellamy has been with the Storm since 2003, it took 3 years before he even had a side which looked like winning the comp and you want Kearney to do it in 5 games and a off-season after we lost a lot of quality players in the off-season. Come on have a look at the bigger picture

 

[Kornstar]

Nuffies????

They may be talented but they are rookies and made our established first graders look like rookies!!

Bellamy has a structure that works and sticks on ANY player regardless of skill or ability!

 

[boxhead]

Well, one thing we have to realize is that we were well beaten by a team that are masters of dominating the ruck. The way we play when we have won this year is through fast play the balls from the forwards and slowing the opposition down in the play the ball; the Storm did this to us, as they are the masters at it, and it allowed Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk the time and space to tear us apart.

We weren't bad today, we just never threatened them and they were dominant in every facet of the game. Should we change our attacking and defensive structures up? We will have to wait and see, we also have to start looking at the other play-makers at our club; if it weren't for their horrible form at the moment I would say we should bring them up.

Our halves - well, they didn't look threatening whatsoever aside from a few good long/short passes and a few good long/short kicks. An example of this was Robson setting up first a nice short kick for a line drop-out then the short kick for the Lasalo no-try. Mortimer, in the first half, kicked long and found space.
But aside from that.....

Jarryd needs to step up big-time. He needs to get more involved and he needs to be more energetic. Whether he is injured or being told to play this way, I don't know, but we certainly need him to be at his best for us to score points.

 

[hineyrulz]

They may be talented but they are rookies and made our established first graders look like rookies!!

Bellamy has a structure that works and sticks on ANY player regardless of skill or ability!

Atkins,Loko,Horo,Rogers,Mitchell,Lasalo,Morts and even Mannah's a pup, the side we turned out today was as green as grass. They have 3 of the best players in the world and Blair who is one of the better forwards running around. throw in their talented juniors and on paper they are still one of the better teams in the comp.

 

[boxhead]

FMD gee you want the side to go from sh*t to the top in a off-season and 4 games. Of course the Storm's structure works they have been doing it for 5 to 6 years. I ask you this question would the storm played as good as they did today if Smith was no in there side ? no they would not.

Kearney comes to the eels has no say in recruitment and is expected to have a finely tuned structure !!! ha ha ha

Now have a look at the key players that have responsibility for our structure;

- Hayne enough said. He is as good as Slater
- Half back, Robson with about 40 NRL games under his belt who has as much skill as a front row against Cronk a AUST / QLD rep
- Hooker our third string hooker with about 5 games against Smith one of the best player in the world

Gee it will take time. Bellamy has been with the Storm since 2003, it took 3 years before he even had a side which looked like winning the comp and you want Kearney to do it in 5 games and a off-season after we lost a lot of quality players in the off-season. Come on have a look at the bigger picture

Hard to disagree with this post.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Atkins,Loko,Horo,Rogers,Mitchell,Lasalo,Morts and even Mannah's a pup, the side we turned out today was as green as grass. They have 3 of the best players in the world and Blair who is one of the better forwards running around. throw in their talented juniors and on paper they are still one of the better teams in the comp.

Ha ha ha, those players combined ( you could add Allgood and Robson as well to combined total) would have less NRL games to their name then Cronk who would be consider the lessor of the storm 3. Mate totally agree with you

 

[Kornstar]

FMD gee you want the side to go from sh*t to the top in a off-season and 4 games. Of course the Storm's structure works they have been doing it for 5 to 6 years. I ask you this question would the storm played as good as they did today if Smith was no in there side ? no they would not.

Kearney comes to the eels has no say in recruitment and is expected to have a finely tuned structure !!! ha ha ha

Now have a look at the key players that have responsibility for our structure;

- Hayne enough said. He is as good as Slater
- Half back, Robson with about 40 NRL games under his belt who has as much skill as a front row against Cronk a AUST / QLD rep
- Hooker our third string hooker with about 5 games against Smith one of the best player in the world

Gee it will take time. Bellamy has been with the Storm since 2003, it took 3 years before he even had a side which looked like winning the comp and you want Kearney to do it in 5 games and a off-season after we lost a lot of quality players in the off-season. Come on have a look at the bigger picture

Melbourne never looked like us under Bellamy! We are apparently happy with missing the 8 under Kearney, Melbourne made the 8 in his first year, they looked competitive, we have 2 of 5 games so far.

If you are happy so far then good for you, I expected better with all the talk and promises I heard in the off-season, I am however getting what I expected!

 

[fish eel]

Melbourne never looked like us under Bellamy! We are apparently happy with missing the 8 under Kearney, Melbourne made the 8 in his first year, they looked competitive, we have 2 of 5 games so far.

If you are happy so far then good for you, I expected better with all the talk and promises I heard in the off-season, I am however getting what I expected!

Personally, I'm not happy but I understand Kearney has inherited a very ordinary squad with no depth, so am I happy to be patient and not expect miracles after 5 f**king games

 

[Maroubra Eel]

Well Keaney had the chance to pick up some more players but didn't want them, so I'm pretty sure he has a few tricks up his sleeve for 2012.

I'm just riding this year out and looking forward to next year.

 

[jono]

Well Keaney had the chance to pick up some more players but didn't want them, so I'm pretty sure he has a few tricks up his sleeve for 2012.

I'm just riding this year out and looking forward to next year.

Mate , I've been riding the wave for 25 years!

 

[Kornstar]

Personally, I'm not happy but I understand Kearney has inherited a very ordinary squad with no depth, so am I happy to be patient and not expect miracles after 5 f**king games

I expected more with all the hype and talk, not to beat the likes of Melbourne but play better than the garbage we saw today!