I hope that they have listened....

[NorthShoreEel]

http://parramatta-advertiser.wherei...d-tackle-again-kearney-tells-parramatta-eels/
Tackle, tackle and tackle again, Kearney tells Parramatta Eels

Justin Horo tries to grab hold of Melbourne fullback Billy Slater. PICTURE: GETTY


STEPHEN Kearney may not have unleashed, but the Eels coach has implored his troops to shore up its defence ahead of Friday’s clash with the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium.
Second rower Justin Horo told media on Tuesday that while Kearney hadn’t yelled after Melbourne’s 38-0 trouncing of Parramatta, he had delivered a clear message at training this week.
``He’s not loud, but he gets his point across,’’ Horo said.
``And I think that’s all you need. We had a little talk about (the match) then and watched a bit of video.
``There are definitely some improvements we need to make and we’re going to look to try and do that this week.
``That’s the good thing about it being on Friday night, we get to turn it round straight away.’‘
Those improvements must come in defence after Melbourne piled seven tries on Parramatta.
Horo said Kearney wanted more effort in tackles throughout the set of six.
``It’s about playing every tackle,’’ Horo said of the team meeting.
``We were going alright on about three or four tackles of the five, then we were dropping off for a tackle.
``That is when we let them in.’‘
The Eels had to show more commitment to teammates in defence, he said.
``Every team’s got to have that in the NRL. That (knowledge) that every player is going to step up for you every time.
``Everyone needs to have that commitment to each other.’‘
Hooker Casey McGuire looked likely to return on Friday night after he took part in training this week.
Parramatta face a strong Bulldogs side who were beaten 25-6 by premiers St George-Illawarra, but not disgraced.
The Eels have fallen to 14th on the competition ladder after their loss.
The side has the worst attacking record in the NRL with 70 points from five rounds, and the second worst defence with 128 points.

Unless something miraculous happens, I really cant see us avoiding a tussle for the spoon with a few other teams (maybe Titans) this year.

 

[TheParraboy]

I reckon we will absolutely give it to the Bulldogs this friday night for the first 10-15mins....

 

[Parraren]

From memory last year we had the worst attack but our defense was in the top 5 for most of the season.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

From memory last year we had the worst attack but our defense was in the top 5 for most of the season.

We're obviously a much better balanced side this year.

 

[Ike E Bear]

Assuming it's not Mateo we're missing defensively, is Cayless' retirement and the injury of Poore what's hurting our defence?

I thought defence was the one area we weren't too shabby at - we just couldn't score points.

Now it kind of looks like we've got problems in both departments.

 

[Parraren]

We're obviously a much better balanced side this year.

lol.

I think we'd all prefer the balance to be at the other end of the spectrum thanks.

 

[Eels Dude]

From memory last year we had the worst attack but our defense was in the top 5 for most of the season.

We actually finished the season with the 5th best defence last year, and only conceded 5 less points than the Warriors who had the 3rd best defence in the comp. Take out that team that 1.1m over the cap last year and we were one converted try away from being the 2nd best defensive side in the NRL last year.

 

[yy_cheng]

Tries are being scored on the fringes where we've had the chop and changes.

 

[Bigfella]

The area we are lightest on for talent is three quarters. That exposes our fringe defense massively.

I also think our backrow of lassalo and horo are overrated defensively.

If we could get poore back so shack can play back row it would provide a lot more starch and drop horo back to the bench. Even smith starting may help. He sure offers little penetration off the bench so maybe 70-80 mins or nothing for him?

 

[KaboobieGarfunkelShazam]

Well, its only Round 5 - but I think given what we've shown so far, it would take a brave man to wager that we are not going to finish the season yet again with a negative for and against differential.

I am trying to look on the bright side: at least the Raiders won the battle for Orford's signature.

 

[True EEL]

The area we are lightest on for talent is three quarters. That exposes our fringe defense massively.

I also think our backrow of lassalo and horo are overrated defensively.

If we could get poore back so shack can play back row it would provide a lot more starch and drop horo back to the bench. Even smith starting may help. He sure offers little penetration off the bench so maybe 70-80 mins or nothing for him?

i agree......surely its the last start for Horo and Lasalo this week unless they improve dramatically - which i hope they can??
but Shack should be starting in the backrow this week.....and possibly still Smith's last chance?

 

[ParraSteve]

Id like to see a stat as to how many tries have been scored up the middle in our defence, most of our tries conceeded have been out wide, if we can tighten that up, that will put us in good stead.

 

[Eelementary]

Assuming it's not Mateo we're missing defensively, is Cayless' retirement and the injury of Poore what's hurting our defence?

I thought defence was the one area we weren't too shabby at - we just couldn't score points.

Now it kind of looks like we've got problems in both departments.

Cayless was often criticised for his hit-ups, but he was a great defender.

 

[eels81236]

Fix the defence and it will be nil all. With our extra fitness, kick a fg in the last minute of extra time each week and we are sweet.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Cayless was often criticised for his hit-ups, but he was a great defender.

He was, and he played big minutes too.

But as for his attack, he did indeed play one season too long.

 

[True EEL]

Cayless is being missed....Hindy might make 50+ tackles and pull off try-savers....
but in terms of on-field inspiration making ground and showing direction with the ball, we are really missing Cayless just saying yes give me the ball again and i'll to my best to show u all the way and punch it forward at the 62 min, down 10, players fading fast....

 

[The Engineers Room]

Fix the defence and it will be nil all. With our extra fitness, kick a fg in the last minute of extra time each week and we are sweet.

Defence can only win you games if you run the opposition around in attack to tire them when they get the ball. Some opposition players could have naps out on the field with some of our attack.

 

[84 Baby]

Cayless is being missed....Hindy might make 50+ tackles and pull off try-savers....
but in terms of on-field inspiration making ground and showing direction with the ball, we are really missing Cayless just saying yes give me the ball again and i'll to my best to show u all the way and punch it forward at the 62 min, down 10, players fading fast....

I'm glad I'm not the only one to see Caylo like that. He struggled to bend the line but he was never afraid to take the ball up when others weren't and give direction. So far this season it's like we have 4 Caylo's on the field at any time (unless Fui's on). I'm still adamant we have no other players (mainly forwards) in motion around the ruck except the ball carrier. We need better decoy running, props and 2nd rowers running simultaneously and the dummy half hitting the correct one, and please, please, please SK more runners following the ball carrier (especially Morts, couple of line breaks off offloads would do his confidence wonders). Offloads may be a little risky but you don't need to do one every tackle, in fact I think Mateo's issues last year were everyone knew he would offload when if he faked an offload opportunity and ran hard he could of had heaps of tackle breaks. Also a pre-planned offload should be, at this level, almost second nature, and a non-planned offload should be expected to be caught.

 

[BigErn]

It's obvious the lack of offloads is killing us.
They were a big part of our attack in previous years.
It's going to take a long time for us to shake that (I'm still not convinced we should, but in SK we trust)
Expect some big losses this season until we can adapt to the new style.

I was a little bit peeved that when we were down at halftime against the storm, we didn't come out in the second half and try some stuff. Admittedly the game was lost, but I think that was a good oppurtunity to let our hair out a bit. It was heartbreaking watching us 'stick to the plan'. We were getting murdered and it was really damaging to our players confidence.

This is what changes are all about. You've got to expect a rough period.
But in all honestly, I can't see me supporting a team that plays like St George or Melbourne. As good as they are, I hate their brand so much. It's almost not worth the premiership.

 

[Eels Dude]

We should definately be offloading the ball more. So far this year in our 5 games we've made 0,8,12,4,5 offloads. Not saying we should be offloading all the time nor playing full on adlib again, but as 84Baby said offloading and second phase play can still be a part of our game, it just needs to be controlled and have the support players around. We seem to struggle to score points in our current style of play so we need more variety. Having someone like Hindy, Horo, or Fui offloading the ball in a strong run with Hayne, Burt or Morts sniffing around to take advantage of that could be a great weapon to use every now and then.